NOTES: FOR DEATH OF A SALESMAN
1) Like Walter Lee in Raisin Willie Loman wants to be successful, rich and well-liked -- a full participant in the "American Dream"? How is the theme of the pursuit of the American dream similar in both plays?
2) How is the theme of the American dream different in Salesman?
3) Many of the characters in Salesman offer interesting similarities and differences in terms of their relationship to Willie. Compare and contrast Biff and Hap -- Willie's two sons.
4) Compare and contrast Linda and Ben -- the one who keeps Willie at home vs. the one who would lure him away.
5) Compare and contrast Bernard and Biff -- good son/bad son.
6) Compare and contrast Howard and Charlie -- two successful businessmen
7) Compare and contrast Linda and the Woman -- faithful wife/fun-loving mistess. (You might want to mention Hap's women here too -- the fiances of his bosses.)
8) Describe Willie's admirable qualities as a human being.
9) Describe Willie's deficiences as a human being.
10) In what ways is Willie self-deluded? How do his fantasies contrast with the realities of his actual existence?
11) Give several good reasons for Willie's failure to achieve success and forge an identity for himself.
12) Charlie succeeds and Willie doesn't? How is this possible when Charlie is the most unimaginative character in the play who admits he doesn't care about anything and has no formula for success?
13) Assess Willie as father and husband.
14) Why is "sports" the perfect metaphor for this play?
15) Provide a feminist reading of the play --- from Linda's perspective.
16) Salesman contains many memorable scenes of poignant dramatic IRONY. * Comment on the ironies in the hotel room in Boston with The Woman.
17) Comment on the ironies in the victory banquet (restaurant scene).
18) Comment on the ironies in the final confrontation of the family ("I am not a dime a dozen" scene).
19) Miller widens the scope of the play by providing information about the Loman family history? Ben is present in a flashback scene and we learn about Willie and Ben's father as he made flutes and travelled America in a wagon, etc. What is Miller suggesting about traditional American values in the past? How do these values clash with the America Willie inhabits?
20) Provide several good reasons for Willie's decision to commit suicide at the end?
21) In what ways can Willie be considered a tragic figure? Does his life evoke pity? Disgust? Admiration? In your own words, how did you respond to the end of the play?
22) But the end is not the end. Miller provides us with a Epiloge - The Requiem scene at the graveyard. Comment on how each family member and Charley respond to Willie's death. Is what each says consistent with his/her character throughout the play?
23) Show how the play both criticizes and validates these traditional American values: rugged individualism, self-reliance, private enterprise, the dignity of hard work.
24) What does the play suggest about our American obsession with money and power?
25) Interpret Willie's most famous line: "liked, but not well liked."
26) Respond to the play's powerful symbols: the nylon stockings, Howard's tape-recorder, trees and seeds, the jungle, the family car.
27) Willie has three powerful male mentors: his father, Ben, Dave Singleman. How does each affect Willie's life?
28) Add your thoughts to the following: The play is really about how the average guy can achieve a measure of self-respect and self-knowledge in a competative cut throat system. How does one not sell out? How does one keep his dreams in a world where business is business?
29) While the play covers the whole of Willie's life, the play takes place in one day -- the last day of Willie's life. Analyze Miller's complex time-bending, by charting all the time sequences. The outer "realistic" frame for the play will be Willie's last day. He arrives home in the late evening after an unsuccessful trip to New England where his car ran off the road (perhaps intentionally) and the play ends with his suicide the following evening. So the play observes the classical concept of the UNITIES. **But in between that frame, time bends. Chart the time sequences. Try to date each sequence. What configuration finally evolves?
30) If Willie should not have been a salesman, what should he have done with his life? Consider the pros and cons of your choice for Willie.
* IRONY is present in drama when the outcome of an event or a situation is the opposite of what is expected. For example, in Streetcar, Stanley is the one who at first is seen as a straight-shooter, one who can't be fooled or be self-deceived. But at the end of the play he is the one covering up the lie about the rape which everyone knows is true.
** In the Poetics Aristotle noted that the ideal tragic play should observe the unity of action (one strong main plot), the unity of time (all the action should occur in one day - 24 hours) and the unity of place (the action should be in one place).