Arthur Miller (1915- )
Death of a Salesman
Study Questions
In what context does the expression "death of a salesman" (81) occur in the play? Who is "Dave Singleman"? What is the significance of his name? What is Willy's attitude toward him? What does he find admirable in him? What is the attraction which surrounds the figure of Singleman and his saleman profession? Is Willy's motivation for going into salesmanship related to a way of dying rather than a way of living? What is the meaning of Singleman dying while riding a train? Are these issues related to those in Max Weber? Is Willy driven by a transcendental and irrational goal similar to that of Weber's workers in a capitalist economy?
What is the significance of Willy's suicide attempts? Why and how is he trying to kill himself? What does he expect will result from his death? Will that happen?
How is selling contrasted with other kinds of work? What does Willy sell? What would Willy rather do? What does Biff want to do? How does Willy feel about it?
What in particular seem to be Willy's most pressing needs? Are those needs only material and financial or also psychological and affective? What does Willy want? How is his last name expressive of his lacks and needs? What is the origin of his needs and desires? How does the figure of Willy's father function in the determination of his character and his desires? Are there any ironies in the "streak of self-reliance" (81) in Willy's father? How does Willy expect to have his desires satisfied by the sales profession? Is he correct in his expectation of material and psychological reward in his line of work? What does he misunderstand concerning the sales profession and the business world in general? What about his perception that there used to be "respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it" (81)? Is he right about that or is he idealizing the past? Are his perceptions related perhaps to the transition between traditional and modern capitalism pointed out by Weber?
How is Willy treated by the company he works for? What are his expectations? How is his boss, Howard Wagner, characterized? Is Howard's name significant? Who named him? How does he feel about Willy? What is the significance of the scene where Howard is playing with a recorder while Willy is trying to talk to him? What do we learn about Howard's family life through the voices heard from the recorder? What was Willy trying to get from Howard? What does he actually get?
Willy Loman was preoccupied with being well liked. How is being liked related to having friends? How many friends did Willy have? Generally speaking, how does "business" mix with loyalty and friendship? Recall Howard’s observation "’Cause you gotta admit, business is business" (80) and consider Willy’s speech on p. 81 about the loss of personality, respect, comradeship, and gratitude in the world of sales.
What is the difference between having a nice personality and being a good person? (What is a "personality" anyway?) Relatedly, what is the difference between having a nice lifestyle and living well? Do you see anything in common between the notions of "personality" and "lifestyle"? If so, please describe it.
What is the significance of the figure of Willy's brother Ben? What role does Ben play in the story? Is Ben dead or alive? How is he manifested in the action of the play? What were his business activities? Where was he active? What is the meaning of the imagery of the jungle, Africa, Alaska, gold, and diamond mines? Why does Ben say that he "never kept books" (47)? What is his attitude toward the other members of the family? What story does he offer about himself? (Is this similar to the case of Bounderby?). What story does Ben tell about his and Willy's father? How is this story related to that of Dave Singleman and other figures such as J. P. Morgan and B. F. Goodrich? What is the meaning of the mock fight between Ben and Biff? What does it reveal? What is the lesson Ben intends to teach Biff?
What is the meaning of the flute music heard at various points throughout the play? What/who is this music associated with? Why is it significant that Willy's father was supposedly a flute maker and salesman?
What is the significance of the name of the restaurant, "Frank's Chop House," where Willy, Biff, and Happy meet? Is it important that Willy's old boss (Howard's father) was also named Frank? What promises did Frank make to Willy? Is all of this somehow related to Charley's description of the famous American financier J. P. Morgan as looking like a "butcher" (97)? What businesses and companies is the name of J. P. Morgan associated with in American economic history? What is the overall significance of the meat, chopping, and butchering imagery and its relations to business and businessmen?
Is Willy Loman a tragic figure or is he pathetic? Charley repeatedly tells Willy to "grow up." What is he getting at, and is he right to think that Willy never did "grow up"? Is Linda a loving wife or a self-deceiving "enabler" of family pathologies? Is she aware of Willy’s infidelity? Why does Miller conceive of Happy as an even more desperate character than Biff? Is his name ironic?
Who are Miss Forsythe and Miss Letta? How does Happy meet them? What is the meaning of his conversations with them? Why does he say Miss Forsythe is a "cover girl"? What does he quickly uncover about her? How does he do it? What is the meaning of Happy's relationship with these and other women? Is this similar to Willy's relationship to Miss Francis? Why does Willy give her stockings? Why are the scenes at the restaurant (with Miss Letta and Miss Forsythe) and the hotel (with Miss Francis) juxtaposed? Why is Willy left behind at the restaurant? Why does Willy have a sudden urge to plant seeds after that incident?
What happens to Biff during his visit to Bill Oliver? Why did he steal the gold fountain pen? What discovery does he make as he runs downstairs in the office building?
The Lomans were not only habitually dishonest; they were dishonest with themselves about their dishonesty. How do you suppose they got into such a habit? How is selling related to honesty? Are there relations between these situations and, for example, the case of young Tom Gradgrind? What leads characters like Tom and Biff to become thieves? Why does Willy habitually lie about his business deals and other matters? What happens eventually to his understanding of his own lies? How is this related to Willy's increasing loss of touch with reality throughout the action of the play?
How is Willy's infidelity to his wife related to the other issues in the play? Was that infidelity to blame for Biff’s aimlessness?
What is the nature of the relations between business and sports? What is Willy's attitude toward sports? What is the significance of the Ebbets Field game and subsequent events? What about the conversation which Willy has with Charley before the game? What does Charley think of sports? Is it significant that Charley succeeds and Willy fails in business? What is Charley's explanation of his own success? How about Charley's son, Bernard? What role does he play? What is his profession? Is he successful? Why? How is his story significant or revealing in reference to the concerns of the play?
What happened in Boston after the Ebbets Field game? Why did Biff give up his ambitions after those events?
What is the significance and role of the farm and farming imagery? How does it relate to business and urban life? What does Willy miss about the old days? What has changed?
What do you make of the many references to how the Loman house has been closed in by other buildings and, generally, to the contrasts between life out in the open and city life that come up frequently in the play?
How do "planned obsolescence," insurance, and "buying on time" (credit) figure into the play? What are Willy's attitudes toward the products (cars, refrigerator, home, etc.) that he buys and uses?
How is the figure of Ben related to Willy's consideration of suicide and of a life insurance payoff after his death? Is the conversation between Ben and Willy on that issue something that actually took place? How are Willy's various dreams, memories, and illusions brought together in this scenes? Why does Ben refer to a boat that is about to depart? What is Miller alluding to? What are the implications?
What commentary on modern commerce do you think that Arthur Miller means to make with his play? What is the "business world" like? (Consider what Biff and Happy have to say on pp. 22-25). Ultimately, what forces entrapWilly and drive him to self-destruction? Where are those forces to be located? How can they be identified?
What is the meaning of Happy's comments at Willy's funeral? How about Linda's final words, "We're free ... We're free ..." Why is the flute music the last sound to be heard?
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