Death of a Salesman Questions and Answers Miller

Death of a Salesman Questions and Answers

Miller has employed different techniques that serve reflecting willy’s inner conflicts and contribute in showing his breakdown. How? 1 -Flashback: Act 1 • willy’s family is portrayed to be happier in the past ( p. 21, 22, 23, 24. . , such happy moods contrast to that of the family in the present. • Flashback scenes give an evidence to willy’s misconceptions about the American Dream from very long before and this justifies the deteriorating state he has reached at the end. • • “ Charley is liked, but he is not well-liked” • “ Bernard is not well liked, is he” • • “The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. ”

• Willy resorts to escape his present by living in the past. Acceptance of reality is very difficult for Willy Loman and this causes him to have flashbacks whenever he is conscious of reality. Act 2: When Howard fired him, his thoughts went back to the day when young Biff has a football game. (page 69). When willy was conversing with Biff about what he had done with Oliver, his mind went back again when his son Biff flunked Math. -Biff, ” Flunked what? What are you talking about? ” -willy, ” don’t blame everything on me! I didn’t flunk Math-you did!” Recalling the discovery of his cheating to Linda: Willy: I am lonely, I am terribly lonely Biff: don’t touch me, you are a liar……you fake…you phony little fake”

• 2 -Hallucinations alongside the current action of the play in the present: • Willy breaks from his present and shifts to talk with imaginary people; his brother Ben. • “Ben! I’ve waiting for you so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it? ” • “ listen to this. This is your uncle, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben!” • Willy asks Ben for advice when Howard refused to give him a job in New. York • “ Oh, Ben, how did you do it? What is the answer? ” • “Ben, nothing is working out. I don’t know what to do” • After the play reaches its climatic point, Willy has a last conversation with the imaginary Ben.

What are the different concepts of the American shown throughout the play and how this shapes the characters future? ? • The characters have different versions of understanding the notion of the American Dream and this eventually determines everything. 1 -Willy thinks that success= well-liked, attractive • For example he says: • “…. who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be well-liked and you will never want” • Charley is not liked, he is liked, but he is not well-liked” • This wrong perception results in : • The failure of his sons…. Biff ends up realizing that he is nothing. Biff says, “ why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? ” “what am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for the minute I say I know who I am !”

• The family bonds are broken down by Willy’s deterioration Biff says, ” we never told the truth for ten minutes in this house” • Willy dwells on the past always and feels alienated and helpless so he committed suicide in order to support his family. “…. and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive”

2 - Charley and his son Bernard They believe that “success is determined by hard work” They are hard-working realists. Willy says about charley, ” He’s a man of few words, and they respect him… I joke too much” Charley once said to Willy, ” The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. " Bernard tells willy, ” But sometimes, Willy, it’s better for a man just to walk away.

3 - Willy’s manager, Howard • Even though he is a successful man, his attitude towards willy reflects a mere materialistic soul. • He shows no interest to listen to Willy. • He is an embodiment of the capitalistic system that slips people out of their humanity. • Howard, ” I cannot take blood from a stone” • He doesn’t pay attention to Willy and gets busy playing with the recorder feeling unsympathetic to willy.

• Do willy and his sons end up realizing their misconception about what would make them successful? ? • Approaching the end of the play, Biff has a full awareness of his situation and his father’s wrong dreams. “pop, I’m a dime a dozen and so you are” “he had the wrong dreams. All, are wrong’ “he never knew who he was”

• Till the end of the play, Willy was not accepting the fact that he has the wrong dreams and was always defending his beliefs. “I am the new England man. I’m vital in New England” “I’m not a dime a dozen! I’m Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman” Even when he tries to find a proper solution for his crisis, he makes up the wrong one by deciding to commit suicide. This means that he remains blind till the end.