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Act I (Loman Home, Past):
This segment of the act takes place in the kitchen years before. Willy reminds Biff not to make promises to a girl, because girls will always believe what you tell them and Biff is too young to be talking seriously to girls. Happy polishes the new car. Willy tells the boys that he found a hammock in Albany that he will hang between the elm trees in the yard. Young Biff carries a football and wears a sweater with a large \"S\" on it, while Happy wears an old sweatshirt. Willy surprises the boys with a new punching bag, and as Happy exercises he brags about how he\'s losing weight. Biff shows Willy a football he took from the locker room, but Willy admonishes him to return it. Biff tells Willy that he missed him when he was away on business. Willy says that someday he\'ll have his own business like Uncle Charley. Willy says that he\'ll be bigger than Charley, because Charley is liked, but not well liked. Willy says that he went to Providence and met the Mayor, and also went to Waterbury and Boston. Willy promises to take his boys on business and show them all of the towns in New England, there he knows the finest people. As Happy and Biff toss the football around, Bernard enters, wearing a brown sweater and corduroy pants. Bernard is worried because Biff has Regents next week and has to study for them. Bernard heard that Mr. Birnbaum will fail Biff in Math if he doesn\'t study, and reminds Biff that just because Willy has been accepted to UVA the high school doesn\'t have to graduate him. Willy tells Bernard not to be a pest, and Bernard leaves. Biff says that Bernard is liked, but not well liked. Willy says that Bernard can get the best marks in school, but when he gets out in the business world people like Biff and Happy will be five times ahead of him. He thanks goodness that his sons are built like Adonises, for the man who makes an appearance in the world gets ahead. Linda enters, and after the boys leave she and Willy discuss the troubles that Willy has been having in his business. Willy worries that others laugh at him, but Linda reassures him, for he\'s making seventy to a hundred dollars a week. Willy also worries that people respect Uncle Charley, who is a man of few words. Linda tells him that few men are as idolized by their children as Willy is.
Analysis:
Arthur Miller employs a disjointed time structure in Death of a Salesman in which the play shifts settings from within the act. The present day of the aged Willy Loman and his grown sons gives way to the time when Biff and Happy were teenagers. The purpose of these scenes is explanatory: teenage Biff and Happy explain the behavior of the characters in their early thirties. The tone of these scenes is idyllic; the tension that is apparent between Biff and Willy is nonexistent, while both characters demonstrate a confidence and contentment that has disappeared decades later.
The segment demonstrates the inherent causes of the Loman sons\' immaturity. Willy has instilled in his sons a belief that appearances are more important than actual achievement or talent, contrasting his athletic and handsome sons with the hardworking yet uncharismatic Bernard. Willy values intangible characteristics such as personality over any actual barometer of achievement, which he dismisses as unimportant in the business world. The contrast that Willy makes is between men who are È?liked\' and È?well-liked,\' believing that to be È?well-liked,\' as defined by charisma and physical appearance, is the major criterion for success.
Thus his sons, particularly Biff, eschew their studies for athletic achievement. Happy continually brags that he is losing weight, while Biff, ready to go to college on an athletic scholarship, shows enough disregard for his studies to fail math. This segment also foreshadows Biff\'s later troubles; he steals from the locker room as a teenager in this segment just as he admits that he stole from Bill Oliver as an adult in the previous segment. Although Willy does not speak directly to Happy about how he should treat girls, Miller also indicates that it is from his father that Happy gained his disrespect for women, whom Willy believes should not be taken seriously.
Miller defines several major themes of Death of a Salesman in this flashback. Most importantly, he develops the theme of success and the various characters\' definitions of it. Miller presents Charley and his son Bernard as unqualified exemplars of success; Bernard is an exemplary student, while Charley owns his own business. However, Willy cannot accept the success of these two characters, believing that it is his personality that will make Willy a greater success than Charley and his sons more successful than Bernard. Yet there is an unmistakable degree of delusion in Willy\'s boasting; he fails to realize the limits of charm and charisma when it masks superficiality. Even Willy\'s claims of his own success at this point seem invalid; he brags about meeting important and powerful men, yet can only mention barely meeting the mayor of Providence. Furthermore, he worries that others do not respect him as they do Charley and that he is not making enough money. Even in the prime of his life, Willy Loman is to a great degree an inauthentic man whose dreams exceed his limited grasp, a revelation that prepares for his final failures when he is no longer a young and vital man.
Act I (Hotel Room, Past):
Willy crosses over from one part of the stage to another, where a woman is standing, putting on her scarf. Willy says that he gets so lonely, and gets the feeling that he\'ll never make a living for her or a business for the boys. The woman claims that she picked Willy, for he has a sense of humor. Willy tells her that he\'ll be back in about two weeks and that he\'ll see her the next time he\'s in Boston.
Analysis:
Miller readily switches from location to location during Death of a Salesman, as the flashback to Willy at home switches to a flashback of Willy in a hotel room in Boston. This serves as an ironic counterpoint to Linda\'s comment that Willy is idolized by his children; that he is having an affair shows that Willy is not a man worthy of such fervent admiration. He displays the same callous disregard for women that Happy demonstrates as an adult, yet where Happy disregards women with whom he has insubstantial relationships, Willy cheats on the devoted Linda. This also demonstrates that Willy is not a man respected by others; the woman with whom he has an affair selected Willy for his sense of humor rather than for any substantial qualities. She thus shows a reciprocal disdain for Willy that he displays for her.
Act I (Loman Home, Past):
Willy is back in the kitchen with Linda, who reassures him that he is a handsome man. Linda mends her stocking, but Willy tells her that he will not have her mending stockings. Willy returns to the porch, where he tells Bernard to give Biff the answers to the Regents exam. Bernard says that he normally gives Biff the answers, but Regents is a State exam and he could be arrested. Willy calls for Biff, and Linda says that Biff is too rough with the girls, while Bernard says that Biff is driving the car without a license and will flunk Math. Willy also hears the woman\'s voice (from the hotel) room, and screams for it to shut up. Willy explodes at Linda, saying that there\'s nothing the matter with Biff. He asks her if she wants Biff to be a worm like Bernard. Linda, almost in tears, exits into the living room.
Analysis:
This segment of the chapter, also a flashback, returns to the Loman house that is the setting for most of the play. Miller thus contrasts life on the road for Willy in which he behaves like a callous womanizer with his behavior as a husband at home. A great deal of Willy\'s dedication to Linda stems from his own sense of pride; he dislikes that she mends stockings not because it is a menial task, but because it shows that he cannot provide her with the financial resources to buy new stockings whenever she needs them. Miller also further establishes the contrast between Biff and Bernard; Bernard is more concerned with Biff\'s studies than either Biff or Willy, while Biff is reckless and abusive.
Willy Loman deals with each of these problems through denial. He tells Linda that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Biff, particularly in comparison to Bernard. However, Willy feels the strain of his indiscretions, as shown by when he hears the voice of the woman with whom he has had an affair. The strain that Willy feels during his later years is thus to a great extent self-inflicted, the product of longstanding guilt over his actions.
Act I (Loman Home, Present Day):
Willy, back in the present day tells Happy that he nearly hit a kid in Yonkers. Willy wonders why he didn\'t go to Alaska with his brother Ben, for the man was a genius, success incarnate. Ben ended up with diamond mines: he walked into a jungle and came out rich at twenty-one. Happy tells Willy that he is going to retire him. Charley enters, a large laconic man. In all that he says there is pity and trepidation. Happy tells Willy to go to bed, but Charley signals to Happy to go. Charley wears a robe over pajamas and claims that he has heartburn and can\'t sleep. Willy tells Charley that he needs to take vitamins to build up his bones, but Charley says there\'s no bones in a heartburn. As Willy and Charley play cards, Charley offers Willy a job, which insults him. Willy asks Charley why Biff is going back to Texas, but Charley tells him to let Biff go. Willy talks about the ceiling he put up in the living room, but refuses to give any details. When Charley wonders how he could put up a ceiling, Willy shouts at him that a man who can\'t handle tools is not a man, and calls Charley disgusting. Uncle Ben enters, a stolid man in his sixties with a mustache and an authoritative air. Willy tells Ben that he is getting awfully tired, but since Charley cannot see Ben, Willy tells him that for a second Charley reminded him of his brother Ben, who died several weeks ago in Africa. Ben asks Willy if their mother is living with him, but Willy said that she died a long time ago. Charley, who cannot see Ben, wonders what Willy is talking about. Finally Charley becomes unnerved and leaves.
Analysis:
If Charley and Bernard are the symbols of tangible material success in Death of a Salesman, Willy\'s older brother Ben symbolizes the broadest reaches of success, intangible and practically imaginary. Whether Ben is a Horatio Alger figure, a character whose history is to be taken literally is disputable; some aspects of his biography are so romanticized and absurdly grandiose that it is likely that the information that Miller gives concerning Ben is filtered through Willy Loman\'s imagination. When Ben appears in the play, it is only as a representation of Willy\'s imagination given literal stage representation. For Willy, Ben represents fantastic success gained through intangible luck rather than through the doldrums of steady dedication and hard work; Ben has gained what Willy always wanted but never could achieve.
The encounter between Charley and Willy shows that Willy feels some jealousy toward his friend for his success. Willy offers advice to Charley at every opportunity in an attempt to assert some dominance over Charley. He interprets a È?man\' as a person who can handle tools well, thus returning to a physical definition of manhood in comparison to monetary or status-based definitions that would assert Charley\'s superiority. This is an ironic statement, for Willy defines manhood by creation, while in his work he creates nothing, but rather serves as a conduit for others\' products.
Likewise, Charley seems to realize Willy\'s envy, and behaves tentatively toward his friend. Although he does injure Willy\'s pride by offering him a job, Charley does so tentatively, for he has great pity for Willy that he knows that he must mask. Charley does, however, gives the most sound advice to Willy, advising him to let Biff do what he pleases and leave for Texas.
Act I (Loman Home, Past):
While Willy talks with Ben, Linda (as a younger woman) enters. Willy asks Ben where Dad is, but Ben says that he didn\'t find his father in Alaska, for he never made it there. Ben claims he had a very faulty view of geography and ended up in Africa instead of Alaska. Willy was only three years, eleven months old when Ben left. Young Biff and Happy enter, and Willy introduces them to Uncle Ben, a È?great man.\' Ben boasts that their father was a very great man, a great inventor who could make more in a week than another man could make in a lifetime. Willy shows Biff to Ben, and says that he\'s bringing up Biff to be like dad. Biff and Ben start to spar; Ben trips Biff, then tells him never to fight fair with a stranger, for he\'ll never get out of the jungle that way. Ben leaves, wishing Willy good luck on whatever he does. Willy claims that he can hunt snakes and rabbits in Brooklyn. Young Happy brags about how he lost weight. Charley returns, wearing knickers, and reprimands Willy for letting his kids steal lumber from the nearby building that is being refurbished. Willy says that he reprimanded them, but says that he has a \"couple of fearless characters\" with his boys. Charley tells him that the jails are full of fearless characters, but Ben says that so is the stock exchange. Bernard enters and says that the watchman\'s chasing Biff, but Willy says that he\'s not stealing anything. Willy says that he will stop by on his way back to Africa, but Willy begs him to stay and talk. Willy worries that he\'s not teaching his sons the right kind of knowledge. Ben says that when he walked into the jungle he was seventeen, and when he walked out he was twenty-one and fantastically rich.
Analysis:
Once again Miller shifts the setting of the play to previous years in a seemingly imaginary scene that contrasts Willy\'s failed aspirations with the supposedly great accomplishments of his brother Ben. Willy deals almost entirely in superlatives. Ben is a legendary man who, out of pure luck, ended up the owner of a diamond mine. Ben, who exists as an extension of Willy\'s imagination, speaks of their father in similar superlatives, as a È?great man\' and an inventor. These boasts are exaggerations meant to emphasize Willy\'s feelings of inadequacy in comparison to his brother and father. Willy even pathetically attempts to justify life in Brooklyn as a life comparable to that outdoors. This familial history provides a neat complement to Willy\'s relationship with Biff; just as Biff feels himself a failure in his father\'s eyes, Willy perceives himself to be inadequate in comparison to his father and brother.
The second appearance of Young Biff and Young Happy reinforces the values that Willy has instilled in his sons. Happy once again brags about losing weight, showing his focus on physical appearance and athleticism, while Biff steals from the nearby construction site. For Willy, stealing is merely an extension of his economic mindset; he makes no distinction between the fearless character in jail and the fearless character in the stock exchange. This demonstrates the insufficiencies of Willy\'s views on success: he attributes success to luck or immorality and cannot see the virtues of hard work and discipline as shown by Charley and Bernard. Willy can conceive of success as a mantra by Ben or the result of fearless daring, but he cannot conceive that hard work and dedication are critical. This also relates to a theme of the play, the interaction between the public life of work and private life. Willy\'s business values inform his instructions to his sons, while their instruction by Willy inform their behavior in the business world.
Act I (Loman Home, Present Day):
Ben leaves, but Willy still speaks to him as Linda enters. Willy wonders what happened to the diamond watch fob that Ben gave to him when he came from Africa. Linda reminds him that he pawned it for Biff\'s radio correspondence course. Biff and Happy come downstairs in their pajamas, and asks Linda how long Willy has been talking to himself. Linda says that this has been going on for years. Linda says that she would have told Biff, if he had an address where he could be reached. She also says that Willy is at his worst when Biff comes home, and asks Biff why they are so hateful to one another. Biff claims that he is trying to change. Linda tells Biff that a man is not a bird to come and go with the springtime. Biff tells his mother to dye her hair again, because he doesn\'t want her looking old. Linda says that someday Biff will leave for a year, come back and find that they\'re gone. Biff says that she\'s not even sixty, but Linda asks if he thinks about Willy. She says that if Biff has no feelings for his father, he has no feeling for her either. Linda says that Willy is the dearest man in the world to her, and she won\'t have anyone making him feel unwanted. Willy reenters, but Linda tells Biff not to go near him. Biff tells her to stop making excuses for Willy, for he never had an ounce of respect for her. Happy tells Biff not to call their father crazy. Biff says that Willy has no character, and Charley would never do this, to which Linda replies \"then make Charley your father.\" She tells him that Willy never made a lot of money, and he\'s not the finest character, but he is a human being and \"attention must be paid.\" Linda says that his company took Willy\'s salary away and calls her sons ungrateful. Linda recounts the indignities that Willy has suffered, such as having to borrow money from Charley, and calls Happy a philanderer. Biff wants to stay with his parents and promises not to fight, but she says that he can\'t stay and fight with Willy all the time. Biff says that Willy threw him out before because his father is a fake who doesn\'t like anybody who knows. Linda says that Willy is dying and that he\'s been trying to kill himself. When Willy had his car accident in February, a woman saw how he deliberately smashed into the bridge railing to drive his car into the river, but it was only the shallowness of the water that saved him. Willy has also tried to use the gas line to kill himself. Biff apologizes to Linda and promises to stay and apply himself. Happy tells Biff that he never tries to please people in business, for he does things such as whistling in the elevator. Willy enters and tells Biff that he never grew up, and that Bernard does not whistle in the elevator. Biff says that Willy does whistle, however. Biff tells Willy that he\'s going to see Bill Oliver tomorrow to talk about a sporting good business. Happy says that the beauty of the plan is that it would be like they were playing ball again. Willy reminds Biff to wear a business suit, not to crack any jokes, and not to say \"gee.\" Willy says that it is personality that wins the day. Willy reprimands Linda for interrupting, but Biff tells him not to yell at her and the two start fighting once again. After the boys leave, Linda worries that Oliver won\'t remember Biff. Willy says that if Biff had stayed with Oliver he\'d be on top now. Willy reminisces about Biff\'s ball game at Ebbets Field.
Analysis:
Miller, who returns to the present reality of the play in this segment, here definitively establishes that the È?flashbacks\' occur in the context of Willy Loman\'s imagination and are a symptom of a larger dementia. Linda attributes her husband\'s hallucinations to the presence of Biff, likely a sign that Biff reminds Willy of his failures as a father and as a businessman. However, the most significant effect of Willy\'s dementia that Miller focuses on during this segment of the play is that which it has on Linda. She has been the one to deal with Willy\'s erratic behavior alone, and doing so has made her age considerably. She must be her husband\'s only defender, even when this threatens to further exacerbate the conflicts her family faces.
Miller deals with the indignities that Willy has suffered largely in terms of their effect on Linda. Since her existence and identity depend entirely on her husband, she staunchly defends him even when she realizes that he does not deserve the defense. When she tells Biff that he cannot love her if he does not love Willy, Linda essentially makes the choice of her husband over her children. She does this largely out of a strong feeling of duty toward Willy, for she knows that she is the only person who will show any concern for whether he lives or dies. Significantly, she centers her defense of Willy around his status as a human being and not his role as a father or husband. In these respects, Linda thus admits Willy\'s failures but nevertheless still maintains that \"attention must be paid.\" This declaration is significant in its construction; Linda declares that someone must regard Willy, but does no specify anybody in particular, thus avoiding a particular accusation against her sons and condemning society in general for the ill treatment of Willy Loman. As shown by Linda\'s condemnation of Happy\'s philandering and Biff\'s immaturity, Linda has few qualms about confronting her sons, yet when she demands attention for her husband she does not lay the blame only on her sons.
However, as Miller ennobles Linda as the long-suffering and devoted wife, he nevertheless shows Willy Loman to be undeserving of the respect and admiration Linda accords him. Biff emphasizes the fact that Willy has no sense of character and no respect for Linda, while notes about her physical appearance emphasize that Linda has aged considerably because of her demanding husband. It is Biff who gives the most accurate conception of Willy as a fake who cannot accept others who realize his own false character.
This final segment of the first act serves as a turning point for Biff, who finally realizes that he must È?apply himself\' as his parents have demanded of him. This realization comes when Linda finally reveals that Willy has attempted suicide, finally focusing on the severity of his plight. Willy\'s suicide attempts are the mark of a failed man, but more importantly show the disparity between his aspirations and his actual achievements. Even when he focuses on Biff\'s opportunity, Willy believes that whatever he desires Biff should easily receive because of the force of his personality and not on his actual accomplishments.
The idea that Biff proposes for a sporting goods business with his brother demonstrates the various character flaws in Biff and his father. It continues the family emphasis on appearance and personality over substance and achievement. Biff places his aspirations for success on Bill Oliver just as his father depended on Frank Wagner; Linda even worries about this, thinking that Bill Oliver may not remember Biff. Finally, the idea of the sporting goods business emphasizes the immaturity of Biff and Happy; both men want to work in sporting goods as an attempt to relive their youth and high school athletic glory. Even Willy himself sees this as an opportunity for him and his sons to regain what they had lost decades before.
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