Death of a Salesman Summary gone to Africa and worked in the diamond mines, this for him in the store.
ines, this for him in the store. He needs Willy to keep selling to
Willy Loman is a salesman living in New York City in the
late 1940's. He lives with his wife, Linda, in the same
house for the last twenty-five years. The house once
sat apart from other homes, now it is surrounded by
apartment buildings, which makes Willy feel closed in.
Willy is having trouble concentrating on driving and
often makes mistakes such as crossing the white line,
driving off the road, and running red lights, while
stopping for green lights. He has begun to talk to
himself more and more, which causes concern for
Linda. He, at the beginning of the play, has come home
from a business trip because he has had trouble with
his driving. He is also concerned, because his sons are
not progressing in the business world the way he had
hoped they would. His son Happy does have a job and
lives in his own apartment, but his son, Biff, rambles
from job to job, as a farmhand, never making much
money.
Willy has been demoted from a salary employee to a
commission employee at his job. This means he makes
less money to support himself and his wife. This
combined with the constant driving and lackluster
sales, causes Willy so much stress, that he begins to
hallucinate. He thinks he is living in an earlier time in
his life. He speaks to people who aren't there and he
disturbs his friend, Charley, who comes over to play
cards with Willy. During the game Willy thinks his dead
brother, Ben, is in the room with them. He is talking to
Ben and Charley at the same time, which causes
Charley and Willy to have a disagreement about the
card game. Charley leaves, but Willy is still talking to
Ben asking him how he made his fortune. Ben had
is how he became rich. Willy also needs Ben to tell him
he is proud of Willy and his sons. During this
hallucination the boys are teenagers and Biff is the
sports star at his school. Willy sees a very bright future
for his son, but in reality this does not come to pass.
Willy is not as proud of Happy, who does all he can to
garner some attention from his father. He is constantly
telling his dad about the weight he has lost, but Willy
instead of praising his son, tells him more ways in
which to lose weight.
Biff and Happy are surprised at the turn their father
has taken. Happy knew his father would often talk to
himself, but did not know he was so loud about it and
how often it occurred. Biff, meanwhile had no idea his
father was behaving in this manner. Now their mother
tells them the car accidents Willy has been having, are
in fact attempts at suicide. The boys agree to try to stay
closer to home and start a business together. Biff
decides to ask his former boss for a loan to help start
the new business.
At the beginning of act two, Willy and Linda are full of
hope for their family's future. Willy is going to talk to
his boss, Howard, and try to change his job from that
of traveling salesman to floor salesman in the store.
They are also hopeful about Biff and Happy's future
business venture. If Biff can receive the loan from his
former employer, than it will mean a bright future for
the boys. Biff at age 34, needs to settle down and make
a career for himself, he sees that and so does his
parents.
Willy tries to talk to Howard about the job change, but
Howard tells him he just doesn't have a position open
the clients in the New England area. Willy becomes
angry with Howard and starts to yell at him. Howard
after trying to calm Willy down, eventually has to fire
him.
Biff is left waiting in his former boss, Bill Oliver's office
for six hours and he only sees Bill, as he is leaving for
the day. It is clear that Bill either doesn't remember
Biff or doesn't want to speak to him. Biff, after all, did
steal some basketballs from Bill's business. Biff in a
pique of anger enters Bill's office and steals his pen. As
he is making his escape from Bill's office he realizes he
and Bill never did have a real relationship and he has
made a mess of his life.
Biff and Happy have made plans to meet their father
in a restaurant to celebrate the anticipated good news
from the day. Instead, it is all bad news and Willy is not
willing to accept the truth from Biff. The two boys
meet some girls and leave Willy alone in the
restaurant, which causes Willy to have another
hallucination about a woman he had used to cheat on
Linda.
At home, Linda is furious with the boys for leaving their
father behind at the restaurant. She tells them it would
be better if they left and never returned, because they
causes so much stress for their father. Willy and Biff
finally tell each other how they feel, which makes Willy
understand that his son loves him. Willy decides the
insurance money of twenty-five thousand dollars
would benefit his family. He talks to Ben and decides
to kill himself. Afterward, Linda has a hard time dealing
with Willy's death. She cannot bring herself to cry,
because she keeps on waiting for him to return from
another business trip. She is sad, because finally the
house is paid for and now she does not have a husband
to share it with.
This play shows how false perceptions of ourselves and
others can bring about the ruin of a person. If a life is
based on a lie, then eventually the truth can be too
much to endure.
Death of a Salesman Act One Summary
Willy Loman lives in a house in New York City with his
wife Linda. He is a man whose life is falling apart
around him and he doesn't know how to cope with the
changes he has to endure. He is a salesman who has
worked for the same company for thirty-six years.
Because he is no longer as productive a salesman as he
once was, he has been demoted from salary to
commission only wages and therefore his income is
much lower than it used to be.
The stress of trying to bring in enough money has
taken an enormous emotional toll on him. He is not
able to concentrate on his driving anymore. This
causes him to make mistakes such as crossing the
dividing line between the lanes on the road and
stopping for green traffic lights and going on red lights.
He has to drive to Boston and Portland in order to
make his sales pitches. The stress of all this driving on
the sixty-three year old man is becoming too much for
him to bear.
He is starting to have hallucinations about his life,
before it began to fall apart. He thinks of his boys, Biff
and Happy, as teenage boys. He is proud of Biff's
achievements in sports and his popularity in high
school. He is not as proud of Happy, but he is still proud
of him. He has such high hopes for his sons, especially
Biff. Biff is recruited by three colleges to play sports for
them, but Biff's grades are so poor he is in danger of
not graduating. Happy spends his time trying to garner
some attention from his father, by telling him he has
lost weight. All Willy does is to tell Happy other ways
in which he can lose even more weight. Willy, while he
is living in the past, talks out loud to himself.
He disturbs his neighbor Charley, who comes over to
play cards with Willy. While they are playing cards,
Willy again goes into his own world and he sees his
brother Ben, who has passed away. He is begging Ben
to find the time to talk with him, to tell him about their
father, who left when Willy was about three years old.
He is playing cards with Charley and talking to Ben at
the same time. Eventually, Willy and Charley argue
about the card game, causing Charley to leave. Willy
continues to talk to Ben and even has his teenage sons
in his hallucination. He needs Ben to tell him he is
proud of him and impressed by Biff and Happy. He also
wants Ben to tell him how he made his fortune in
Africa. All Ben will tell him, is he walked into the jungle
in Africa, at age seventeen and walked out rich, at
twenty-one. He made his money working in the
diamond mines in Africa. Ben leaves, even though
Willy begs him to stay with him for a while.
Willy and his wife, Linda, have a good marriage. Linda
always tries to prop Willy up by telling him how
wonderful a salesman he is and how good a man he is,
she truly believes what she is saying is true. Willy has a
rough relationship with Biff, because Biff does not live
up to the expectations his father has for him. Biff
cannot find himself, instead he has been wandering
the American West going from job to job looking for
the one job which fits his needs, which is working on
farms and with his hands. He has just come home from
Texas, where he worked on a cattle ranch. He does not
know about the problems his father is having and is
stunned when he witnesses his father talking to
himself about how well Biff and Happy have cleaned
the car, an event which happened years ago. Biff is also
surprised to see how gray his mother's hair has
become, because he always thought of her as a young
woman. Now he has to face the realities of life, which
is his parents are growing older and he is also older.
He, at thirty-four, knows realistically he should be
settled down in a job and possibly have a wife and
family, instead he is still going from job to job, which
causes his father to lash out at him.
Happy, who is thirty-two, has a job and an apartment
of his own. He lives in New York, but does not see his
parents as often as he should. He is trying to live the
life his father wants him to live, even though he is not
content, he is not willing to give up trying to impress
his father.
Their mother tells the boys their father's car accidents
have not been accidents, but instead failed attempts
to kill himself. A woman witnessed one of the
accidents and saw Willy drive into a bridge on purpose.
Linda has also found a rubber hose that attaches to the
gas pipe in the basement, which she feels Willy put
there with the intent to kill himself. Biff and Happy are
stunned at the news, so they agree to try to garner
funding from various sources to start a business. This
would serve to make Willy happy and allow them to
stay close to home to help their parents.

Willy Loman is a man caught between the real world
and the world of his imagination, because he is
disappointed by his life and the lives his sons are living.
He does not know how to cope with the deterioration
of his sales career. His wife knows he is suicidal, but
she is incapable of talking to him about it, because she
will not let him feel as if he is a failure.
Death of a Salesman Act Two - Requiem
Summary
The second act begins with Willy and Linda full of hope
for their family's future. Willy is going to tell his boss
he will not travel anymore and ask him for an advance
on his pay to help with the bills. Biff is visiting Bill
Oliver, his previous boss, to ask him for a loan of ten to
fifteen thousand dollars to start a business with Happy.
The boys are so confident about their business plans,
that they have asked their father to meet them at a
local restaurant for a steak meal.
Linda reminds Willy about the need for the money to
pay the insurance payment and the last house
payment. Finally, after paying for twenty-five years the
house will be theirs free and clear. Willy is happy to pay
off the house loan, but he is sad that his home, which
once sat almost alone on the block, is now surrounded
by apartment buildings.
Willy tries to talk to his boss, Howard, about the
changes he wants to make in his job. He tells Howard
he just needs to make sixty-five dollars a week to pay
his bills. Howard doesn't have a place for him in the
main store and tells him the only way they can keep
him on is if he travels. Willy asks for fifty dollars a week,
but Howard is firm in his position. By this time Willy is
becoming more and more desperate, and he asks for
forty dollars a week. He reminds Howard of his
connection to Howard's father, the original owner of
the company, and begins to bang on Howard's desk
and shout at him. Howard, to his credit, tries to calm
Willy down, to give him some time to collect himself,
but in the end Howard fires Willy, telling him needs to
take a long rest.
Biff, in the meantime has spent six hours waiting to see
Bill Oliver, but to no avail. He watches Bill as he is
leaving for the day. In their minds, Willy and Biff have
built up a relationship between Biff and Bill, which in
fact does not exist. Bill only remembers Biff as the
shipping clerk who stole basketballs from him. For
some reason, Willy and Biff thought Biff was a
salesman for Bill, but that is not true. Biff, in a fit of
anger, enters Bill's office and steals his fountain pen,
and as he is running away, Biff realizes his life has been
a lie. He has always stole from people and had even
spent three months in jail for stealing a suit. We also
find out Biff did not graduate high school, because he
failed math class. He went to see his father in Boston
to tell him about his failure, but he found his father in
a hotel room with a woman. Biff at this point sees his
father as a liar, which is a turning point in his life. He
decides to stop trying to please a man who is a fraud.
He feels all the lessons of hard work, loyalty, and
honesty are nothing but a lie, because his father
cheated on his mother. This revelation causes Biff to
stop trying and to start to drift through life, this and
the fact his father had always told him he should be
the boss and Biff couldn't attain that goal.
Happy implores Biff to tell his father he has a lunch
date to discuss the business deal with Bill. He wants to
make his father happy, but Biff wants to tell his father
the truth.
Biff tries to tell Willy the truth, but Willy is in no
condition to accept the truth. He is starting to
hallucinate again; he had an episode in Howard's
office-he thought he was talking to his brother Ben,
and then he thought he was with his family getting
ready for Biff to play in the big football game, and
finally in the restaurant he is hearing the voice of the
woman in the hotel room. The boys meet some girls at
the restaurant and leave with them. Willy is left behind
in a confused state and has to find his own way home.
He is still talking to his brother about the twenty-five
thousand dollars his family could have from the
insurance policy. He thinks this money will solve all the
problems for his family.
At home, Linda is angry at her boys for leaving their
father behind at the restaurant. She wants them to
leave and never return, because of the problems
between them and their father. She is especially angry
at Biff, for all the problems he seems to cause between
himself and Willy. Biff tries to tell Willy the truth about
himself. He tells him that he is not a big shot and
neither is Willy, they are just people who are trying to
earn a living. After a scene in which Willy and Biff tell
each other their true feelings, Willy finally feels his son
loves him. Willy gets into his car and drives away,
never to return home again. Willy Loman has
committed suicide.
After the funeral Linda is reluctant to leave her
husband's grave. She is disappointed by the low
attendance to Willy's funeral. She also tells Willy that
she cannot cry for him, because to her he is just away
on another business trip. She tells him she has paid off
the house and they are finally free from debt. This is
bittersweet for her, because now she has to live in the
house alone.

This play shows how false expectations, for yourself

and your children, can cause more harm than good.
Willy thought he should be shown more respect,
because he was a superior salesman. He thought Biff
should have had a wonderful career, because he was
well liked and good at sports. He in the end could not
face up to reality and killed himself.
TEST 6. What aspect of Willy's c. A punching bag d. Clarinet a. Starting a social club
Death of a Salesman ACT ONE neighborhood irks him? d. A crate of basketballs 16. Whom does Willy borrow b. Starting a sporting goods
a. His house is by the railroad money from to make ends store
1. Even though Willy has just tracks 11. What class is Biff in meet? c. Starting a men's suit store
come back from a vacation in b. Apartment buildings are danger of flunking? a. Howard d. Starting a bank
_____, he is still tired. too close to his house a. English b. Charley
a. New York c. He doesn't think his b. Science c. Ben 21. Where does Happy work?
b. South Carolina neighbors like him c. Math d. Wagner a. In a factory
c. Florida d. There are too many trees d. Physical Education b. In a restaurant
d. Yonkers 17. Who thinks that Willy c. In a store
7. Who is more of a ladies' 12. What brand of car did Loman is a fake? d. On Wall Street
2. How old is Willy Loman? man: Biff or Happy? Willy used to own? a. Biff
a. 45 a. Biff a. Studebaker b. Linda 22. For what region is Willy
b. 70 b. Happy b. Ford c. Happy responsible in his sales?
c. 55 c. Chevrolet d. Bernard a. Brooklyn
d. 60 8. How old is Biff? d. Cadillac b. New England
a. 28 18. Who has the unfortunate c. New Jersey
3. Willy Loman's current boss b. 25 13. What present does Willy habit of whistling in the d. Queens and Long Island
is named . . . c. 34 get his mistress? elevator?
a. Wagner d. 30 a. Lipstick a. Happy 23 – 25. Is Death of a
b. Charley b. A new dress b. Biff Salesman a good play?
c. Ben 9. Biff thinks he might go talk c. New stockings c. Willy Explain your answer.
d. Howard to _____ about getting a job, d. A necklace d. Bernard
but he's afraid _____ will
4. Who is older: Biff or remember that he stole a 14. Where did Uncle Ben 19. When Linda finds a _____
Happy? crate of basketballs. make his fortune? in the basement, she suspects
a. Biff a. Willy Loman a. Antartica that Willy is trying to kill
b. Happy b. Howard b. Africa himself.
c. Old Man Wagner c. Alaska a. Gun
5. What type of cheese does d. Bill Oliver d. Alabama b. Noose
Willy like? c. Hatchet
a. Swiss 10. What present does Willy 15. What instrument did d. Rubber hose
b. American bring his boys when he comes Willy's dad play?
c. Whipped back from a sales trip? a. Trombone 20. Besides the ranch, Biff
d. Cheddar a. A football b. Trumpet and Happy have this other
b. New sneakers c. Flute "million dollar" business idea.
TEST 6. What aspect of Willy's c. A punching bag d. Clarinet a. Starting a social club
Death of a Salesman ACT ONE neighborhood irks him? d. A crate of basketballs 16. Whom does Willy borrow b. Starting a sporting goods
a. His house is by the railroad money from to make ends store
1. Even though Willy has just tracks 11. What class is Biff in meet? c. Starting a men's suit store
come back from a vacation in b. Apartment buildings are danger of flunking? a. Howard d. Starting a bank
_____, he is still tired. too close to his house a. English b. Charley
a. New York c. He doesn't think his b. Science c. Ben 21. Where does Happy work?
b. South Carolina neighbors like him c. Math d. Wagner a. In a factory
c. Florida d. There are too many trees d. Physical Education b. In a restaurant
d. Yonkers 17. Who thinks that Willy c. In a store
7. Who is more of a ladies' 12. What brand of car did Loman is a fake? d. On Wall Street
2. How old is Willy Loman? man: Biff or Happy? Willy used to own? a. Biff
a. 45 a. Biff a. Studebaker b. Linda 22. For what region is Willy
b. 70 b. Happy b. Ford c. Happy responsible in his sales?
c. 55 c. Chevrolet d. Bernard a. Brooklyn
d. 60 8. How old is Biff? d. Cadillac b. New England
a. 28 18. Who has the unfortunate c. New Jersey
3. Willy Loman's current boss b. 25 13. What present does Willy habit of whistling in the d. Queens and Long Island
is named . . . c. 34 get his mistress? elevator?
a. Wagner d. 30 a. Lipstick a. Happy 23–25. Is Death of a Salesman
b. Charley b. A new dress b. Biff a good play? Explain your
c. Ben 9. Biff thinks he might go talk c. New stockings c. Willy answer.
d. Howard to _____ about getting a job, d. A necklace d. Bernard
but he's afraid _____ will
4. Who is older: Biff or remember that he stole a 14. Where did Uncle Ben 19. When Linda finds a _____
Happy? crate of basketballs. make his fortune? in the basement, she suspects
a. Biff a. Willy Loman a. Antartica that Willy is trying to kill
b. Happy b. Howard b. Africa himself.
c. Old Man Wagner c. Alaska a. Gun
5. What type of cheese does d. Bill Oliver d. Alabama b. Noose
Willy like? c. Hatchet
a. Swiss 10. What present does Willy 15. What instrument did d. Rubber hose
b. American bring his boys when he comes Willy's dad play?
c. Whipped back from a sales trip? a. Trombone 20. Besides the ranch, Biff
d. Cheddar a. A football b. Trumpet and Happy have this other
b. New sneakers c. Flute "million dollar" business idea.