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The Death of a Salesman

The Death of a Salesman. Act II: Dream, Self-Deception and Capitalist Reality. Starting Questions (1) (Act 1 & 2) —for your journals. Personal Dreams and Failures I. Willy What is his dream and why does he fail to accomplish it?

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The Death of a Salesman

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  1. The Death of a Salesman Act II: Dream, Self-Deception and Capitalist Reality

  2. Starting Questions (1) (Act 1 & 2) —for your journals • Personal Dreams and Failures I. Willy • What is his dream and why does he fail to accomplish it? • What roles do the Woman & Linda, Ben & Dave Singleman, as well as Biff play in his pursuit of dream? • Is he a complete failure, going insane, or does he gain any self-knowledge, self-confirmation and retain his sense of dignity? • Why does Willy refuse to work for Charley? II. Happy and Biff • What are their dreams? Do they fail? • Why does Biff steal, and Happy womanize? • How do they respond to their father differently?

  3. Starting Questions B.American Dream: III. Supportive Characters • How do Charley and Bernard, Howard and his father, Ben, BILL Oliver serve as a foil to Willy and Biff? IV.Jobs: • What does “being a salesman” mean? How is it different from being a shipping clerk or a lawyer? V.Stage Directions and Symbols • How do flashbacks happen in this Act&Act 1? • Besides cars, flute and rubber tube, what symbolic meanings do the recorder and the fountain pen have? • How does the play show sympathy for the characters?

  4. More Creative Questions: (1) “The Road Not Taken” (2)Salesman’s Sample Case (3) A News Story (4) Happy, Biff or Linda, taking the hot seat

  5. More Creative Questions: (1) “The Road Not Taken” -- Persuade Willy or Biff to make a different choice at one of the character’s various turning points, while showing how you understand him in his original choice.

  6. Willy

  7. Biff

  8. More Creative Questions: (2) Sample Cases What would you carry in your case if you were a salesman in 1940’s ortoday? How would you sell them, supporting the myth or revealing their contradictions? Image source

  9. More Creative Questions: (3) Headline News After the death of Willy, you, a journalist, interview his boss, customers and family and write a news story about why he died.

  10. More Creative Questions: (4) Hot Seat You take the role of either Linda (Jean), Biff (Zoe) or Happy (Rita), stay in the character and get quizzed by your classmates.

  11. Outline • Quiz (1); Plot Summary & Passage Reading • Quiz (2); Reality vs. Dreams 1) Failure of the Lowmans’ Dreams 1) their (Self-) Deceptiveness; 2) reality checks: Act 1; Act 2: Willy pushed to face reality by a) those around him; b) Flashbacks 3) Biff and Reality 4) Willy’s Last Action • Quiz (3); Minor Characters and their Reality: Stanley and the woman • Quiz (4); Symbols in the Play

  12. Act I: Plot Summary plans plans

  13. Act II: Plot Summary plans

  14. Act II: Plot Summary • (1700-) Willy and Linda: plans and dreams vs. money; Linda’s phone conversation; • (1702) Howard’s office: capitalist reality (+ machine) vs. Willly’s values & memories ( Ben 1707) • (1708) Biff’s last game (Willy vs. Charley) • (1710)Willy vs. Bernard (about the past); (1712) Willy vs. Charley • (1714) restaurant [Frank’s Chop house] Happy vs. Forsythe; Biff vs. Happy first about his visit and (1718-) then Willy comes in • (1719-)  Young Bernard about B’s failing math//present failure; Willy into the bathroom and to his past. • (1723-) The boys walk off with the girls//Willy alone facing the past; (1726) Stanley comes in • (1727 -) Linda vs. the boys Biff vs. Willy; • (1728, 1733 -) Willy’s last action ( Ben)

  15. Act II– Pattern • Reality checks: two office visits (by the father) vs. one (by the son)  • Two arguments about job (with Howard and Charley) • Two arguments about reality (vs. dream) in the restaurant scene & at home • Willy (to Ben and Bernard): What is the answer (the secret)? • Two propositions: Act I & II from Ben (to Alaska), Act II to Ben (about 20,000 dollar insurance money) • Two father-son relationships • Two brothers’ differences: Biff’s self-realization vs. Happy’s maintenance of the dream • Willy’s final action (self-deception or realization of his dream?)

  16. Readings • Act 1 Willy, Biff, Happy and Linda about their plan: pp. 1696-1699 (1: 50:35) • Act 2 Biff to Willy about his visit to Bill Oliver (Happy, Young Bernard, Linda, Operator and The Woman): pp. 1718-1723 (2: 27: 35) • Act 2 Willy and Biff at Boston (Stanley) pp. 1724-1726 • Act 2 Willy and Biff’s final confrontation (Linda & Happy) pp. 1729-32 • Act 2 Willy, Ben, Linda: Willy’s plan pp.1728, 1733 -

  17. Flashbacks: A Way to Reality and Dreams “Like a young god. Hercules. . . And the sun, the sun all around him.” (end of Act 1)

  18. The Lowman Family’s Dreams: Why do they fail? • Reasons for the failure: 1) wrong dream • Capitalist-industrialist environment: a) An industrial society: wandering salesman no longer desirable • Sources of Dream: Willy’s father as a flute-maker on the road; Ben—an adventurer; Dave Singleman 1705, 1707) b) present: lack of respect or pension system – Willy fired c) aggressiveness: “stealing” (Stanley: “‘Cause what’s the difference? Somebody steals? It’s in the family.”)

  19. The Lowman Family’s Dreams: Why do they fail? • Reasons for the failure: wrong dream 2) Character: their lack of money, solid training and self-awareness  their self-deception • No efforts -- The Lowman family vs. Charley’s family [More about Charley later]

  20. The Lowman Family’s (Self-)Deception • Willy–dreams of his own and his son’s success;  unable to face his own failure, Biff’s problem, the past conflict. • Linda: in support of her husband’s dream;  blind to her husband’s weaknesses and failures. • Happy: deceptive -- lies to attract women (West Point, Champaign 1715, 16; about his father 1723) and to comfort his father (ask Biff to do so, too 1712);  Aggressive in womanizing as a means of competition  e.g. “I’m gonna retire you for life” (Act 1); “I’m gonna get married” (1699); “I’m gonna win it for him” (Requiem). • Biff:forced to support his father’s dream about his being a salesman;  faces reality -- always a shipping clerk; habitual theft (steals things out of his failures)

  21. Flashbacks in Act I: Memories & Dreams vs. Reality • The family in the present A. worries vs. good memories • Flashbacks  Biff in high school Willy’s weaknesses and Linda ( the woman; Bernard) • Card playing  Willy and Ben(Willy: “I was right!”)  Bernard and Charley warnings about Biff’s failure and stealing B. Worries vs. dignity: Linda defending Willy in front of Biff and Happy C. the three’s plans– another dream

  22. Flashbacks in Act II vs. Reality Checks:Willy Pushed to Face Reality Memories would serve as an escape, if Willy could dwell on the good part. But for Willy, facing reality is inevitable, because he • Is fired by Howard,  “You never averaged …”“No time for false pride, Willy” p. 1706) • sees Bernard, Biff never trains himself; what happened at Boston • has to borrow money from Charley,  (1713-14) importance of what one can sell and money • Seeks comfort from Biff in vain (tell me what happened), • Is left alone by his sons to search for Answers and Solutions.

  23. Willy and “Reality”: Howard & Charley • Talk to Howard: • – very short and matter-of-fact (no personal feeling for him or the past) • Willy interrupted by the recording machine (1703) • (After being fired) another reality check in Charley’s office: • Willy, when are you going to grow up?” • Charley as a businessman: • My salvation is that I never took any interest in anything • Love shooting casino; “Who Red Granger?” • Also aggressive and proud  “Knock a homer, Biff, knock a homer!”  “Knock’em dead, Bernard!”

  24. Reality in the past (Act 1: Financial problems; Willy’s difficulties at work.) Act 2: 3. Salesman’s work and football player – no substance (money or knowledge) To Bernard: what’s the secret • “Oh, Ben, how did you do it? What is the answer? Did you wind up the Alaska deal already?” (1707) • Ben vs. Willy – What Willy builds with the firm (name and connections) has no substance (1707) • Biff’s last game – Charley: not important

  25. Flashbacks in Act II: Willy Pushed to Face Reality 3. (1730-)  the pen & Biff’s attempts to tell Willy that he is not a salesman, is not hired by Oliver, takes a pen, has no appointment, and is no good. -- Willy cannot stops the past (the woman’s, operator’s and pager’s voices) from emerging in his mind. -- “Open the door.” He goes to the bathroom to face his past.

  26. Biff and Reality • The rubber tube: • takes it away (1702), not letting Linda keep her false optimism; • wants to tell the truth, but gets pushed to tell lies (1718-19), because • Happy urges him to; • Willy is fired, and wants some good news for his wife; • His lies: warmly received by BO, having an appointment the next day • cannot face him first, and then later confronts his father on the issues of the rubber tube, his theft and his incompetence and insignificance . (1730-) • Rids Willy of his guilt “no spite”

  27. Biff’s realistic statements:about his father and himself Act 1 – about his work and his real interest • "To suffer fifty weeks a year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. " Act 2 – about himself and his family • "Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you.” • "We never told the truth in the house for ten minutes." Requiem – about Willy • "He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong."

  28. Biff – Act 2: Facing Himself I saw the things [the sky] that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am. (1732)

  29. Willy & “Reality”: Ben in Act II: (1728-) Willy’s last action ( Ben) A combination of realistic concern and dream. • Dream: planting seeds • Realistic concern: 20,000 in his pocket • Dream: -- big funeral -- The jungle is dark but full of diamonds. -- The boat • Realism: his fear 1733

  30. Reality as Revealed by the Minor Characters: • The woman (Ms. Francis)– Willy’s being self-centered, her being a football • Willy mentioned Massachusetts law–suggesting that she is a prostitute? • Ms. Forsythe: “I don’t sell” “a cover girl” (prostitute, too) • Linda: housewife (caring but trivial) • Stanley: life’s tough for him, but he is kind to Willy (returning W the money he gives him). To Happy, he talks about how people cannot stand a quiet place because they are tired of staying home alone. [1714]

  31. Symbols re. Willy’s Dream (1): Materialism • Willy’s house vs. apartment buildings, etc. [e.g. the first stage direction] • Properties and Possessions: • Football and the sneakers with U. of V on them. • the house and the mortgage, Things {Fridge, car, vacuum cleaner ] that are broken/falling apart • Linda's stockings • power and status: Tennis vs. football, wire recorder and fountain pen

  32. Symbols re. Willy’s Dream (2): Ideal for Freedom and Nature Nature and The West– Seeds/plants/trees; light of green leaves Working with tools/one's hands [e.g. Willy's argument with Charley towards the end of Act I: :A man who can't handle tools is not a man." "hammer a nail"] Roads -- [being on the road] Cars/boats/trains: [e.g. Willy's Red Chevvy; Willy compared to "a little boat looking for a harbor" by Linda; Ben's taking the train.]

  33. Symbols –in stage direction • flute [Willy's father]– beginning of act 1, when Ben appears, • Willy’s theme – flute? • Other kinds of music—to evoke Willy’s emotions; e.g. • gay music of the Boys [happy moment] • Gay music at the beginning of Act 2 • jarring trumpet note [urban reality; Bernard’s information of B’s failing math) • Ben's theme (idyllic 田園 music) • the end of act II –a single cello string; dead march

  34. b.socrativeSpace Race Groups

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