The Death of a Salesman
Act II: Dream, Self-Deception
and Capitalist Reality
Starting Questions
Their Dreams
I. Willy
A.



What is his dream and why does he fail to
accomplish it?
What roles do the Woman, Linda and Ben play in his
pursuit of dream?
Is he a complete failure, going insane, or does he
gain any self-knowledge, self-confirmation and
retain his sense of dignity?
II. Happy and Biff



What are their dreams? Do they fail?
Why does Biff steal, and Happy womanize?
How do they respond to their father differently?
Starting Questions
A. Their Dreams



How do Charley and Bernard serve as a foil to Willy
and Biff?
Why does Willy refuse to work for Charley?
Jobs: What does “being a salesman” mean? How is
it different from being a shipping clerk or a lawyer?
B. Stage Directions and Symbols


How do flashbacks happen in this act?
Besides cars, flute and rubber tube, what
symbolic meanings do the recorder and the
fountain pen have?
Outline
Plot Summary & Passage Reading
 Reality vs. Dreams

1) Failure of the Lowmans’ Dreams 1) their
(Self-) Deceptiveness;
2) reality checks: Act 1; Act 2: Willy pushed to
face reality by a) those around him; b)
Flashbacks
3) Biff and Reality
4) Willy’s Last Action
Minor Characters and their Reality:
Stanley and the woman
 Symbols in the Play

Act I: Plot Summary
Present
Willy gets home;
talks with Linda
Flashbacks
Willy talks to himself and to Biff
Happy with Biff
1. Willy comes home with a punching
bag  Bernard’s warning ignored
2. Linda about their debts
Willy about his weaknesses  ※the
Woman
1. Happy trying to ask W to
sleep
2. Charley plays card with
Willy
1. Linda talks to Happy and
Biff
2. Willy comes in to join their
discussion of plans 1671
3. ※ Ben about their father and the
jungle
Act II: Plot Summary
Present
Flashbacks
Morning: Linda talks with Willy
Willy visits Howard
Willy talks with Ben about what he
builds (1683)
The Lomans ready to go to Ebbets Field
Bernard in Charley’s office
Charley
Happy and Biff meet in the
restaurant, joined by Willy
Willy goes to the restroom
Bernard to Linda about Biff’s failing math
(1695)
※ Willy in Boston (1696)
The two brothers leave the
restaurant with the two
women
Stanley
※ Willy in Boston
Stanley with Willy
Back home 1702, Biff
confronts Willy
Willy drives off
Willy talks to Ben (1702)
Ben (1708)
Act II: Plot Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
(1676-) Willy and Linda: plans and dreams vs.
money; Linda’s phone conversation;
(1678) Howard’s office: capitalist reality (+ machine)
vs. Willly’s values & memories ( Ben 1683)
(1684) Biff’s last game (Willy vs. Charley)
(1685) Willy vs. Bernard (about the past); (1687)
Willy vs. Charley
(1691) restaurant [Frank’s Chop house] Happy vs.
Forsythe; Biff vs. Happy first about his visit and
(1247-) then Willy comes in
(1698-)  Willy into the bathroom and to his past.
(1698) Stanley comes in
(1702 -) family together at home  Biff vs. Willy;
(1704, 1708 -) Willy’s last action ( Ben)
Act II– Pattern
1.
2.
3.





Reality checks: two office visits (by the father) vs.
one (by the son) 
Two arguments about job (with Howard and Charley)
Two arguments about reality (vs. dream) in the
restaurant scene & at home
Willy (to Ben and Bernard): What is the answer (the
secret)?
Two propositions: Act I from Ben, Act II to Ben
Two father-son relationships
Two brothers’ differences: Biff’s self-realization vs.
Happy’s maintenance of the dream
Willy’s final action (self-deception or realization of
his dream?)
Readings

Act 1 Willy, Biff, Happy and Linda about their
plan: pp. 1671-1675

Act 2 Biff to Willy about his visit to Bill Oliver
(Happy, Young Bernard, Linda, Operator and
The Woman): pp. 1694-1697

Act 2 Willy and Biff at Boston (Stanley)
pp. 1699-
1701

Act 2 Willy and Biff’s final confrontation (Linda
& Happy) pp. 1705-07

Act 2 Willy, Ben, Linda: Willy’s plan pp.
1708-1709
1703-04;
Flashbacks:
A Way to Reality and Dreams
“Like a young god. Hercules. . .
And the sun, the sun all around
him.” (end of Act 1)
The Lowman Family’s Dreams:
Why do they fail?

1)
Reasons for the failure: wrong
dream
Capitalist-industrialist environment:
wandering salesman no longer
possible

2)
3)
Sources of Dream: Willy’s father as a
flute-maker on the road; Ben—an
adventurer; Dave Singleman 1681)
Character: their lack of money, solid
training and self-awareness  their
self-deception
The Lowman family vs. Charley’s
family [More about Charley later]
The Lowman Family’s (Self-)Deception

Willy –dreams of his own and his son’s success;
 unable to face his own failure, Biff’s problem, the past
conflict.
 Linda: in support of her husband’s dream;
 blind to her husband’s weaknesses and failures.
 Happy: deceptive -- lies to attract women (West Point,
Champaign 1691; about his father 1698) and to
comfort his father (ask Biff to do so, too);
 Aggressive in womanizing as a means of competition
 e.g. “I’m gonna retire you for life” (Act 1); “I’m gonna
get married” (1708); “I’m gonna win it for him” (1710).
 Biff: forced to support his father’s dream about his
being a salesman;
 faces reality -- always a shipping clerk; habitual theft
(steals things out of his failures)
Flashbacks in Act I: Memories &
Dreams vs. Reality
The family in the present
A. worries vs. good memories
1.


Flashbacks  Biff in high school  Willy and Linda
( the woman; Bernard)
Card playing  Willy and Ben (Willy: “I was right!”) 
Bernard and Charley about Biff’s failure and stealing
B. Linda defending Willy in front of Biff and Happy
C. the three’s plans– another dream
Flashbacks in Act II vs. Reality Checks:
Willy Pushed to Face Reality
Memories would serve as an escape, if Willy could
dwell on the good part.
But for Willy, facing reality is inevitable, because he





Is fired by Howard,  “You never averaged …” “No
time for false pride, Willy” p. 1681; 1682)
sees Bernard, Biff never trains himself; what
happened at Boston
has to borrow money from Charley,  (1688-89)
importance of what one can sell and money
Seeks comfort from Biff in vain (tell me what
happened),
Is left alone by his sons to search for Answers and
Solutions.
Willy and “Reality”: Howard &
Charley
1.
Talk to Howard:
 – very short and matter-of-fact (no personal
feeling for him or the past)
 Willy interrupted by the recording machine
(1682)
2.
(After being fired) another reality check in
Charley’s office:


Willy, when are you going to grow up?”
Charley as a businessman:
 My salvation is that I never took any interest in anything
 Love shooting casino
 Also aggressive and proud
 “Knock a homer, Biff, knock a homer!”
 “Knock’em dead, Bernard!”
Reality in the past
(Act 1: Financial problems; Willy’s
difficulties at work.)
Act 2:
3. To Bernard: what’s the secret



“Oh, Ben, how did you do it? What is the answer?
Did you wind up the Alaska deal already?” (1683)
Ben vs. Willy – What Willy builds with the firm (name and
connections) has no substance (1683)
Biff’s last game – Charley: not important
Flashbacks in Act II:
Willy Pushed to Face Reality
3. (1694-1697)  the pen & Biff’s attempts to tell
Willy that he is not a salesman, is not hired by
Oliver, takes a pen, has no appointment, and is
no good.
-- Willy cannot stops the past (the woman’s,
operator’s and pager’s voices) from emerging in
his mind.
-- “Open the door.” He goes to the bathroom to
face his past.
Biff and Reality

The rubber tube:


wants to tell the truth, but gets pushed to tell
lies (1694-1697), because




takes it away (1675), not letting Linda keep her false
optimism;
Happy urges him to;
Willy is fired, and wants some good news for his wife;
His lies: warmly received by BO, having an
appointment the next day
cannot face him first, and then later confronts
his father on the issues of the rubber tube, his
theft and his incompetence and insignificance
1705-07

Rids Willy of his guilt “no spite”
Biff’s realistic statements:
about his father and himself
Act 1 – about his work and his real interest
 "To suffer fifty weeks a year for the sake of a two-week
vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with
your shirt off. "
Act 2 – about himself and his family
 "Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you.”
 "We never told the truth in the house for ten minutes."
Requiem – about Willy
 "He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong."
Biff – Act 2: Facing Himself
I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and
the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked
at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing
this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t
want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting
for me the minute I say I know who I am.
Willy & “Reality”: Ben in Act II:
(1708 -) Willy’s last action ( Ben)
A combination of realistic concern and
dream.
 Dream: planting seeds
 Realistic concern: 20,000 in his pocket
 Dream:
-- big funeral
-- The jungle is dark but full of diamonds.
-- The boat

Realism: his fear 1709
Reality as Revealed by the Minor
Characters:
The woman – Willy’s being self-centered,
her being a football (1700)
 Stanley: life’s tough for him, but he is kind
to Willy (returning W the money he gives
him). To Happy, he talks about how
people cannot stand a quiet place because
they are tired of staying home alone. (1690)

Symbols re. Willy’s Dream (1):
Materialism
Willy’s house vs. apartment buildings,
etc. [e.g. the first stage direction]
 Properties and Possessions:

Football and the sneakers with U. of V on them.
 the house and the mortgage, Things {Fridge,
car, vacuum cleaner ] that are broken/falling
apart
 Linda's stockings
 power and status: Tennis vs. football,
wire recorder and fountain pen

Symbols re. Willy’s Dream (2):
Ideal for Freedom and Nature

Nature and The West –



Seeds/plants/trees; light of green leaves
Working with tools/one's hands [e.g. Willy's
argument with Charley towards the end of Act
I: :A man who can't handle tools is not a
man." "hammer a nail"]
Roads -- [being on the road]
Cars/boats/trains:

[e.g. Willy's Red Chevvy; Willy compared to "a
little boat looking for a harbor" by Linda; Ben's
taking the train.]
Symbols –in stage direction





flute [Willy's father]– beginning of act 1, when
Ben appears,
Willy’s theme – flute?
Other kinds of music—to evoke Willy’s emotions;
e.g.
 gay music of the Boys [happy moment]
 Gay music at the beginning of Act 2
 jarring trumpet note [reality; Bernard’s
information of B’s failing math)
Ben's theme (idyllic田園 music)
the end of act II –a single cello string; dead
march