Emily Gong

AP English Notes: Death of a Salesman

Characters
Willy Loman – the father and the salesman
Linda- the salesman’s wife
Biff- the salesman’s oldest son and the pride of his life
Happy- the neglected second son of the salesman
Bernard- Charley’s clever son; at present, a lawyer
The Woman- Willy’s mistress
Charley- Willy’s next door neighbor and long-time associate
Uncle Ben – Willy’s older brother
Howard Wagner- Willy’s ex-boss
Jenny Stanley- Charley’s secretary
Miss Forsythe- a prostitute Happy invites spontaneously to
dinner
Letta- Ms. Forsythe’s friend, [possibly] another prostitute

The Play
• A sense of failure and foreboding tragedy is instilled in the
setting as Willy Loman, the Salesman, enters exhausted --- “An
air of the dream dings to the place, a dream rising out of reality”
• Linda, Willy’s wife, awakes and puts on a robe- she seems like
she has resigned herself to Willy’s behavior and lowered
expectations, but is still affectionate and perceived as a caring
wife and mother---“She has developed an iron repression of her
exceptions to Willy’s behavior”
• Know that Willy has suddenly appeared home at night,
introducing a possible problem/ conflict
• Willy explains his weariness and fear: he begins daydreaming
and his thoughts wander while he is dreaming; he almost drives
off the road (foreshadowing? His numerous suicide attempts?)
• Linda, as the good, kind wife, continues to comfort Willy and
offers him words of candy
• Willy is extremely frustrated and diatribes Howard Jr, his old
boss’s son, for his lack of consideration
• He then scorns Biff, his oldest son, for his sluggishness with life
and incapability to live the productive and “resourceful” life that
Willy reveres
• Willy’s first question to his son is about money--- emphasizing
the importance of money and the role it plays in dictating Willy’s
every thought and action
• Enormous disapproval of Biff’s job as a farmer--->the value of
men based on wages and salaries
• Willy constantly remembers the “glorious” days of the past ---Biff
being a confident, charismatic, and self-assured young lad
• Willy also scolds development and change he is extremely
unwilling to acknowledge the changes
o Biff’s status and ability in society--- he is no longer the idol
of the crowd
o Cars and apartment house near his home---the sign of
innovative technology and rapid change---something that
Willy is unable to recognize and accept
o “You make mountains out of molehills”---Linda, pg. 6
• Happy & Biff, in the bedroom Happy recall their childhood with
a gleeful eye, and comments on Biff’s changing perspective of
life
• Biff is aware of his limited will and commitment to the American
Dream---he tries in vain to integrate himself into the monotonous
lifestyle of the successful men, but has found it too robotic and
impersonal to care
o “Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another.
And it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that
subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your
whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or
selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of for the sake of a
two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be
outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get
ahead of the next fella. And still--- that’s how you build a
future.”---Biff’s opinion on the American rat race
o has not completely given up the hope of a prosperous
future; he has consistently tried to motivate himself but
always ends in failure ---“Texas is cool now and it’s spring.
And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get
the feeling, my God, I’m not gettin’ anywhere! What the
hell am I doing playing around with horses, twenty-eight
dollars a week!...I’ve always made a point of not wasting
my life, and every time I come back here I know that All
I’ve done is to waste my life.”
o Everything is scaled by the value of money; Biff, though
rebellious, cannot revolt against the ideal American
Dream---he knows that he cannot conform, but he hardly
tries to deny his disappointment
o “No, I’m mixed up very bad. Maybe I oughta get married.
Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that’s my
trouble. I’m like a boy. I’m not married, I’m not in business
I’m just--- I’m like a boy.” ---proof of Biff’s uncertainty and
frustration, seeing himself as a youth who hasn’t quite
grown up and gone “practical”
• Happy is probably very much like the younger Biff: confident,
self-renounced, and blunt
o He does not have a full understanding of how the world
beats; he also measures success as a matter of physical
strength and battle (“I mean I can outbox, outrun, and
outlift anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from
those common, petty sons-of-bitches till I can’t stand it
anymore.”)
o Unlike Biff, he blames others for his problems: “See, Biff,
everybody around me is so false that I’m constantly
lowering my ideals”
o He dotes on the possible life that he may lead: “but when
he [merchandise manager] walks into the store the waves
part in front of him. That’s fifty-two thousand dollars a year
coming through the revolving door, and I got more in my
pinky finger than he’s got in his head.”, “I want to walk into
the store the way he walks in.”
o He is vivaciously promiscuous and believe that by sexually
dominating girls in other romantic relationships that he has
proven himself superior; he purposefully makes love with
Charlotte who is engaged to marry with son of the vice
president of the store
o He feels that in this way he can grasp some of the glory of
the lionized sort of life
• Biff propose that he will ask Bill Oliver for ranch money; Biff is
serious of moving to the West
• Biff also mentions his uneasiness about a possible grudge
between Bill Oliver and him over a stolen carton of basketballs
what kind of man was Biff before?
• Willy again begins his random ranting---Biff shows contempt for
his father as he’s worried about his mother, while Happy is
clearly thinking only of himself “it’s embarrassing”
• First memory:
o Young Biff: still in high school, extremely popular, a ladies
man, plays football, and content about stealing
 Willy encourages the manner by excusing Biff’s
mistake as evidence of his initiative
 Adores his father; a great constant to the older Biff;
he does everything to bring pride in his father
 He commits a touchdown even to Willy
 He is in command of his fans and teammates; they
help him wash the furnace room and hang up
clothes---shows the level of idolatry and the source of
all of Biff’s recklessness and Willy’s arrogance
o Young Happy: a forgotten, typical brother that always
besides Biff but on the sidelines of the spotlight; respects
his father
o Willy: jovial, high-spirited, but conceited and critical of
other people
 Speaks of Uncle Charley as not “well-liked”
 Gloat about his travels and the important figures he
meets, an air of exaggerated self-significance:
“America is full of beautiful towns and fine,
upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they
now me up and down New England. The finest
people…I can park my car in any street in New
England, and the cops protect it like their own.”
 Shakes off Bernard’s warning about Biff not
graduating; believes that Biff will pull off because
he’s “well-liked”
 Is consumed by the importance of appearances; he
thanks God that his two boys are built like
“Adonieses”
 His philosophy: “Because the man who makes an
appearance in the business world, the man who
creates person interest, is the man who gets ahead.
Be liked and you will never want.”
 Willy brags about his accomplishments to his wife,
but when she starts counting, the darker truth comes
out
 He didn’t earn enough money to pay his debts; he is
not as glorified as he portrays himself to be---he
believes that people are laughing at him as he enters
the room
 Examples:
• Chevrolet, the salesman business, the prestige
 He perceives his lacking of charm and respect is due
to his clothes, his appearance, his manners---he
doesn’t believe he is “built” or “fit” for success
 Thinks that if he changes attire and stays fit, he’ll be
better perceived---doesn’t realize that he is the main
obstacle to his dreams
o Bernard: a studious, earnest, and anxious boy who is
Biff’s math tutor
 Warns Biff about the math teacher’s [Mr. Brinbaum]
warning about raising his math grade; if not, Biff will
not graduate
  First hint showing that Biff is not valued as much as
Willy seems to think
o Linda: a conventional loving wife who adorns her life with
materialistic merchandises
 Meticulously calculates Willy’s earnings---a feeling
that she is materialistic
 Mentions a refrigerator that is of questionable
quality, yet they bought it because it had the largest
advertisements
 She strikes down the dream with her payment list;
we learn Willy’s true opinion on the Chevrolet “That
goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the
manufacture of that car!”
 Tries to comfort Willy about his faults and denies
that he isn’t capable of what he says; indefinitely
wishing from Willy more
• Second Memory:
o The Woman: the woman that Willy has an affair with; she
is properly dressed, and evocative
o Willy: playful, shameless; he gives her stockings as a
present
• Third Memory:
o Willy: angered by Biff’s ignorance and his life; he is furious
at Linda mending and cleaning the house by herself [like a
servant]hints of his impoverishment that he always tries
to ignore
 He refuses to accept fault in Biff, his pride and joy
o Linda: frightened and scared; asks Willy to control Biff
o Bernard: is sent again, warning Willy of Biff’s failure; seen
as a threat to Biff’s future and Willy’s dream
o Willy casts them all away---the signs of his dream eroding
• Fourth Memory:
o Willy: fearful, panicky; he cries about his driving problems
(first signs); he almost hit a boy in Yonkers
 He directly insults Charley of being disgusting since
he does not do menial house labor
o Happy: speaks in the manner of “matter of fact”
o Charley: laconic, silent man; next door neighbor of Willy
 He comes and plays card with Willy
 Tries to reach Willy with a conversation; ends up with
Willy dismissing it as “insulting”
 Tries to help him by offering him a job since Willy is
having a difficult time with his own; Willy rejects it,
 deeming it shameful and hurtful for him to beg for a
job from a person he believes is inferior
• Interrupted Fifth Memory:
o Willy: talks to both the imagined Ben and Charley
o Ben: Willy’s older brother, hit a jackpot in Alaska, has died
in Africa; speaks of his transformation in the African jungle,
in a young man, out a hero; brute strength---influences
Willy like a father figure, Willy asks him for advice on the
upbringing of his children
o Charley: is stunned and confused by Willy’s constant
switching off; leaves
o Completely obvious that Willy is out of his mind; he has
failed himself