Death of A Salesman & Fences – Final Assessment
Directions: Provide detailed written responses to the following questions, worth 50 points. In class, be
prepared to contribute to a Socratic seminar discussion of the play based on these questions. Your
contributions to the discussion will also be worth 50 points.
1. What led up to Willy losing his job? Factor in as many causes as possible and explain how each
impacted his being fired.
2. Compare and contrast the Maxson and the Loman households in terms of family structures, family
values, and parallel characters.
3. Discuss the reliability of Willy’s flashbacks. Which were true to the way things really happened
originally? In which of them did he remember what he wanted to (and didn’t want to) remember?
Explain why.
4. Was Willy’s affair good or bad for the Loman family? (Take into account the fact that the Woman
gave him business connections, how Biff’s knowledge of the affair affected their father-son
relationship, and how the guilt affected his relationship with his family.)
5. Was Troy’s affair good or bad for Rose? (Take into account what she gained from her decision
regarding Raynell and Troy.)
6. Discuss the two sides of Linda we see in Act I. On the one hand, she seems weak, blindly and
submissively devoted to Willy. But in her conversations with her sons at the end of Act I and Act
II, she is portrayed as much stronger. Why does the author provide this contrast?
7. Discuss the two sides of Rose. She also seems submissive and devoted to Troy, but when he
reveals his affair, she stands up to him verbally but doesn’t leave. Why not? (Consider an African
American woman’s options in the 1950s.)
8. How does Cory show similar characteristics to both Happy and Biff? Which is he more like?
Why?
9. How are Biff’s and Lyons’s failures similar? Different? Are Biff’s failures out of spite, as Willy
accuses? Why or why not? What about Lyons? Does he fail to spite his father? Is he bitter about
having an absent father, or is there another reason for his failure? Is it a cycle?
10. After a person passes away, people generally want to forget the bad and remember only the good.
However, in the Requiem, out of all the characters, Biff is the most realistic about Willy’s
personal failure during his life. Why? Why are the others still ignorant to the truth about Willy? Is
it out of choice, or is that how they really feel? Explain.
11. It is commonly said that children follow in their parents’ footsteps and fall into the same cycles as
their parents. How do Cory, Lyons, Biff, and Happy fall into their fathers’ cycles? Which
character has the best chance of breaking the cycle? Why?
12. Was Willy’s suicide the best or worst thing that could have happened for the Loman family?
Factor in his income, insurance, respect, relationships with wife and sons, etc.
13. Troy’s death has a much more symbolic significance to the play than Willy’s. What does Troy’s
death mean to Gabriel? To Cory? To Lyons? To Rose?
14. Are Willy and Troy good or bad people? Argue both sides for each character. If you conclude that
either is a bad person, why do we feel bad for him at the end?