ACT 2 Charley& Bernard vs Willy& Biff

Willy and Biff are compelled by the notion of material success- being popular and being wealthy, more so than anything else. It can be argued though that Biff has the same attitude towards life as Willy precisely because of the great influence that Willy had on him and from the way Willy taught Biff. Willy especially consider “Business” to be the only legitimate occupation and of course, the more the money the merrier. Charley and Bernard on the other hand don’t care too much about what others think about them. Bernard valued education and finishing school. Miller pairs these foil characters together to pose the questions to the audience along the lines of- “what do you value?” “what is success to you?” By presenting Willy and Biff’s relationship in a dysfunctional light, Miller seems to suggest that what those characters value aren’t all that valuable in the long run after all. 

Act 2- Howard Wagner

The audience is positioned to feel a little bit of aversion towards Howard Wagner. For one thing, he isn’t completely engaged in the conversation when Willy is trying to ask him a serious favor. His focus is on the recorder that he had recently bought and showing it off to Willy. In a way a similarity between Howard and Willy is the consumerist mindset—both characters place value on man-made objects like machines. One characteristic we see in Howard is his love for his family, which is evident in the way he brags about his children’s talents. He is also seen cutting off Willy to let him hear his children- which further emphasizes the love he has for them as seen in “Sh! Get this now, this is my son” (57). “She is crazy for me”(57) referring to her daughter really shows that Howard is a family man. 

ACT 1- Willy

Act 1

Willy

He cares about his children as evident in the concerns he shows for Biff. From Willy feeling frustrated that Biff is only a “farmhand”(5) and  him yelling in fits of anger that Biff is “a lazy bum” (5) to Willy calming down to acknowledge that Biff is actually “such a hard worker” (6) we can see that Willy’s frustration stems from genuine love and care. What father would not want to see his son succeed? Willy is also old, and is “talking to himself.” This makes him the worry among his family members.

Standout quote from Willy:

“The way they boxed us in here”(6). Contextually, we know that Willy is referring to “bricks and windows” of the house, but it appears as though there is more that is holding Willy down, stuck. A big part of it is Willy’s attachment to the past as he often recalls the past and picks out the best parts of them to saying, “Remember those days” (8).  It could be that Willy is not only stuck in the past, but also stuck in the idea that the present is bad. It is obvious that he is not enjoying the present all to much as he is “tired to death” but at the same time, we don’t see him doing much about it in the first act, other than recalling better times.

ACT 1- First Impressions

Act 1

My first impressions:

One of the things that I noticed first about this play is that the visualization is a bit more difficult. This is mainly due to the breaking of the fourth wall, as there are moments of the past within the present scenes. Additionally, at times, characters like Ben, seem to only appear as a fragment of memory, in which his interaction and presence is not completely integrated with the other characters.

I think the element that I find most striking in the first act is the notion of plans and dreams; the hope for a better future coupled with a feeling of distress in the present. Even the stage notes at the beginning highlight this theme of dreams (plans, not sleep-experiences) as there is “an air of dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality,” Characters talk about doing this or that which will surely make their lives better. For example, the exchange between Happy and Biff to start the Loman Brothers sporting goods (46) is a romantic and “Million dollar” (47) idea. However, we see that there seems to be more talk than action occurring to realize anything. 

Welcome to my blog!

This is where I'll post my thoughts on Arthur Miller's play:

Death of a Salesman

Thanks,

-Sean