The Death of a Salesman

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The Death of a Salesman

Question 1

Willy Loman, a salesman, Linda’s husband and Biff’s and Happy’s father portrays different characters for each role. He has a poor performance as a salesman. He is no longer paid a salary but only works on commission and his employer, Mr. Howard finally fires him since he feels that he is of no use to the company. Although he blames his failure on the way people perceive him, he has other problems that are making him fail in his performance. According to him, he does not make any sales as people do not like him. However, he seemed to have once been a skilled sales person as he says, “I am the New England man. I am vital in New England” (Act I). This is currently not so. As a husband, he plays a double role. He acts as though he is open to his wife and telling her how he feels about his job and his life. However, he is unfaithful to Linda as he has affairs with women he meets on his sales trips, offering them Linda’s stockings as gifts. As a father, he is protective of his children. He tries to hide the reality from them and only wants the best for them. However, this hinders Willy from realizing the true passion of his children. Both end up being unhappy as they take up businesses in order to please their father.

Question 2

Bernard and is a foil for Biff as he contrasts Biff in a number of ways. As one deeply focuses on the play, one can realize that Bernard is the son Willy would have wanted Biff to be. In high school, Bernard was more focused on his education and was the serious one while Biff was more into sports fun loving and needed a little pushing in order to do his school work. This is seen when Bernard enters Biff’s house in order to remind him to study his math so that he would not fail. Later on, as Willy goes to Charlie’s office in order to tell Charlie about his job, he meets Bernard who he asks “What-what’s the secret?…How-how did you?…Why didn’t he (Biff) ever catch on?” (Act II). This shows that Willy wishes he son turned out to work for a corporate, just like the way Bernard turned out to be.

Question 3

Towards the end of the play, the audience learns that Biff’s life took a different turn when he discovered his father infidelity. It is logical for the life of this teenage boy to take this change after discovering that his father was not as reproachable as he thought he was. He could have had a change of character by feeling that there is nothing real in this world if people’s true characters are not what is publicly seen. Biff thought his father was the best; however, he could handle the fact that his father had his own weaknesses. Unfortunately, he did not learn to accept this part of his life even after he grew up. This made him think that there is nothing to work hard for or to believe in, making him get “lost” in life as is evident in the play.

Question 4

Towards the end of the play, Biff states out loud “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong” (Act II). This statement was for his father. Billy had come to a self realization that he based his life on someone who was also not sure about life. Biff realized that he had gotten “lost” in life because he had discovered a mistake done by someone (his father) who lived in illusion. Biff decides to go away, and as a result, he calls his father in the house as he is out planting. Although they break out into an argument, Biff realizes both siblings only do things in order to please their father but not because they want to. He wishes to go away without ever returning back to his parents. On the other hand, Willy dies not realizing that the best thing to for his children was to apologize for his past behavior and then let them be what they wanted to be. Willy still felt that he was obligated to make his sons life better and especially that of his son Biff. He commits suicide so that Biff could acquire the insurance money to start a business.

Question 5

Apart from the salesman dying at the end of the play, the title of the play is symbolic. First, Willy chose to become a salesman because of another dead salesman whose funeral was attended by a lot of people. Willy also seems to base his life on illusions and people who are dead such as his brother Ben. It is as if his life no longer there, he just lives through dreams. The play has a lot of flashbacks portraying a past life that Willy wished for. This past is symbolic of death as people are referred to have passed away when they die.

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