Death of a Salesman
S OME S IGNIFICANT L INES
To help prepare for Paper 2, note the speaker, context, and significance for each of the following lines as you read or watch.
“Significance” may address
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how it develops a character (Think objective, obstacle, and tactics),
how it develops a dynamic between characters (Compare their objectives, obstacles, and tactics),
how it advances the tragic plot,
how it develops a motif (which often becomes a symbol), and/or
how it develops a universal theme.
(19)
“Remarkable. Ts. Remember those days? The way Biff used to simonize that car? The dealer refused to believe
there was eighty thousand miles on it.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(22)
“This farm I work on, it’s spring there now, see? And they’ve got about fifteen new colts. There’s nothing more
inspiring or—beautiful than the sight of a mare and a new colt.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(25)
“I don’t know what gets into me, maybe I have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and
ruined her, and furthermore I can’t get rid of her. And he’s the third executive I’ve done that to. Isn’t that a crummy
characteristic? And to top it all, I go to their weddings!”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(27)
“Just wanna be careful with those girls, Biff, that’s all. Don’t make any promises. No promises of any kind. Because
a girl, y’know, they always believe what you tell ‘em, and you’re very young, Biff, you’re too young to be talking
seriously to girls.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(32)
“Listen, Biff, I heard Mr. Birnbaum say that if you don’t start studyin’ math he’s gonna flunk you, and you won’t
graduate. I heard him!”
(33) Speaker:
(34) Context:
(35) Significance:
(37)
“Willy, darling, you’re the handsomest man in the world—“
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(39)
“You just kill me, Willy. You kill me. And thanks for the stockings. I love a lot of stockings.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(39)
“Good night. And keep your pores open!”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(41)
“What’s they mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out,
the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world’s an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(44)
“You take it too hard. To hell with it. When a deposit bottle is broken you don’t get your nickel back.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(44)
“A man who can’t handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(49)
“Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(55)
“Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(55)
“You’re such a boy! You think you can go away for a year and . . . You’ve got to get it into your head now that one
day you’ll knock on this door and there’ll be strange people here—“
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(56)
“I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not
the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention
must be paid.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(62)
“Don’t interrupt. What’s wonderful about it? There’s fifty men in the City of New York who’d stake him.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(66)
“You’re gonna live with me, kid, and any babe you want just say the word.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(68)
“I’m gonna get married, Mom. I just wanted to tell you.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(73)
“Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard! I
just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They
time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they’re used up.
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(78)
“I tell you, Willy, I’m gonna take my camera, and my bandsaw, and all my hobbies, and out they go. This is the most
fascinating relaxation I ever found.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(87)
“There’s a new continent on your doorstep, William. You could walk out rich. Rich!”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(90)
“Jenny, Jenny, good to see you. How’re ya? Workin’? Or still honest?”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(90)
“I can’t deal with him any more, and your father gets all upset every time he comes. I’ve got a lot of typing to do, and
your father’s waiting to sign it. Will you see him?”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(94)
“I’ve often thought of how strange it was that I knew he’d given up his life. What happened in Boston, Willy?”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(96)
“My salvation is that I never took an interest in anything. There’s some money—fifty dollars.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(97)
“Willy, when’re you gonna realize that them things don’t mean anything? You named him Howard, but you can’t sell
that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and
you don’t know that.”
(99)
“Ah, it’s a dog’s life. I only wish during the war they’d a took me in the Army. I coulda been dead by now.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(100)
“Look at that mouth. Oh, God. And the binoculars. . . Wait on her.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(113)
“I gotta get up very early tomorrow. I got jury duty. I’m so excited! Were you fellows ever on a jury?”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(116)
“Gee, you are self-centered! Why so sad? You are the saddest, self-centeredest soul I ever did see-saw.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(119)
“I just hope there’s nobody in the hall. That’s all I hope.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(129)
“People ask where I am and what I’m doing, you don’t know, and you don’t care. That way it’ll be off your mind and
you can start brightening up again. All right?”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(132)
“I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who
landed in the ash can like the rest of them!””
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(138)
“You know something, Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(138)
“Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock
bottom to life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there
in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
(139-138) “I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the
only dream you can have—to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for
him.”
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
A Few General Questions:
1.
When was Death of a Salesman first produced?
2.
What is the name of the set and lighting designer for the original Broadway production?
3.
In what ways are Shakespeare’s production simple design and the complex production design of Death of a Salesman
similar?
4.
How many lighting cues does the play have? How do these lighting cues contribute to the audience’s experience of the
story?
5.
How many extra-diegetic sound cues does the play have? (What is the name of the composer? Although nominated for an
Oscar 15 times, he never received an Oscar, but he is one of only two composers ever to receive the Academy’s Lifetime
Achievement Award.)
6.
How do the extra-diegetic sound cues reinforce the audience’s perception of Willy, Ben, their father, or the Woman?
7.
How do the extra-diegetic sound cues effect the audience’s perception of Willy’s first flashback to the boys’ teenage years
or in the morning scene opening Act 2? (Same cue for both scenes.)
8.
What effect is created by the extra-diegetic sound cue that marks the transition to the Frank’s Chop House scene work and
the dialogue in the beginning of that scene?
9.
Aristotle’s unity of place is not followed: how many locations are in the play? In which areas of the stage are these
locations staged? What are the tonal qualities of these areas?
10. What are some memorable blocking directions, ones that reinforce character dynamics, for example between Willy and
Linda, Biff and Bernard, Happy and Willy, or Willy and Howard? What dynamics do they reinforce?