th h ape death

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How we cite the quotes:

Citations follow this format: (Act)

Linda Loman

>

Willy Loman

Quote 1

LINDA: Hell find his way.

WILLY: Sure. Certain men just dont get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of

them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] Ill put my money on Biff. (Act 1)

Willy clings to his hope that Biff will settle down and become a major business success despite the unlikelihood of

such an event. This desperate hope is what eventually leads him to commit suicide by the end of the play. He goes to

his death with the delusional idea that Biff will one day be a famous businessman.

Act OneDreams, Hopes, and Plans

Willy Loman

>

Happy Loman

Quote 2

WILLY: Dont say? Tell you a secret, boys. Dont breathe it to a soul. Someday Ill have my own business, and Ill

never have to leave home any more.

HAPPY: Like Uncle Charley, heh?

WILLY: Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not liked. Hes liked, but hes not well liked. (Act 1. p. 18)

Amidst his preoccupation with financial survival, Willy insists he will make it big some day and have the home life that

he wants. Almost more important to him than actual successful business deals is being liked. Over the course of the

play, however, we learn that Willy isn't particularly well liked at all. This is just another one of his delusions.

Act OneDreams, Hopes, and Plans

Linda Loman

>

Willy Loman

Quote 3

LINDA: Im just wondering if Oliver will remember him. You think he might?
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WILLY: [coming out of the bathroom in his pajamas]: Remember him? Whats the matter with you, you crazy? If hed

stayed with Oliver hed be on top by now! Waitll Oliver gets a look at him. You dont know the average caliber any

more. The average young man today [hes getting into bed] is got a caliber of zero. Greatest thing in the world for

him was to bum around. (Act 1)

Willy's comments cross the line from hopefulness about the future to the suggestion that his aspirations are already

reality. He clings to the delusional idea that Biff is somehow superior to the average young man

Death of a Salesman Theme of Visions of America

While characters such as Willy, Linda, and Happy believe the U.S. to be a wellspring of easy opportunity and

imminent success, the 1940s America ofDeath of a Salesman is crowded, competitive and mundane. This contrast

sets up an important gap between reality and characters aspirations in the play. In the end, Willys belief that his self-

worth is determined by material success destroys him.

Questions About Visions of America

1. Does Death of a Salesman attack the American Dream? If so, how?2. Compare and contrast the depictions of the East Coast and the American West in Death of a Salesman.

What do different geographic regions represent to Willy? Ben? To Happy and Biff?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.

By directly linking his sense of self-worth to the achievement of the American Dream, Willys professional failure

becomes personal failure and a crisis of identity.

Biffs struggle in Death of a Salesman is primarily one of separating his sense of self-worth from his professional life.

Test Yourself: Death of a Salesman

Click on the correct answer

1 Who says, "I'm losing weight, Pop, you notice?"

Biff Linda Ben Hap Charley

2 What object symbolizes Willy's best year, the year in which he felt

most happy and successful?

A Hastings refrigerator A Studebaker


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Willy's boss, the man who owns the wire recorder. Willy's father.

8 Who says, "Attention! Attention must be paid!"

Biff Hap Charley Linda Ben

9 Which one of the following is NOT a repeated motif, phrase, or

gesture in the play?

"The woods are burning!" That nothing is planted, and that there is no room in the

neighborhood any more. (Willy) The laugh of The Woman Biff's desire to work outdoors and with his hands Linda picking flowers

10 Which character says, "He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong"?

Biff Hap Charley Linda Bernard

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Arthur Miller

Quiz

1 . What was Biff doing in the West before the play begins?

(A) Laying railroad tracks

(B) Selling dishwashers
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(C) Working on a farm

(D) Robbing banks

2 . What did Biff steal from Bill Olivers store when he was a boy?

(A) A crate of basketballs

(B) A wire recorder

(C) A suit

(D) A car

3 . What does Biff steal from Bill Olivers office as an adult?

(A) A trophy

(B) Seeds

(C) Money

(D) A pen

4 . What product does Willy sell?

(A) Bibles

(B) Appliances

(C) Sporting goods

(D) Miller doesnt specify

5 . For what region is Willy responsible in his sales?

(A) New England

(B) Brooklyn

(C) Queens and Long Island

(D) New Jersey

6 . How old is Happy?

(A) 3 4


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(B) 2 8

(C) 32

(D) 3 0

7 . What did Willys father sell?

(A) Flutes

(B) Dictionaries

(C) Pizzas

(D) False teeth

8 . Where did Willys father go after he abandoned his family?

(A) Alabama

(B) Spain

(C) Alaska

(D) Las Vegas

9 . Where did Ben end up when he went looking for his father?

(A) Africa

(B) Alaska

(C) Brooklyn

(D) Boston

1 0 . Where does Biff find Willy with The Woman?

(A) Manhattan

(B) Hartford

(C) Providence

(D) Boston

1 1 . How old was Dave Singleman when he died?


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(A) 6 3

(B) 8 4

(C) 74

(D) 5 9

1 2 . What is the name of the restaurant where Happy and Biff take Willy?

(A) Franks Chop House

(B) Sams Hoagie Shack

(C) Divine Seafood

(D) The Carnage Deli

1 3 . How much money does Charley usually give Willy each week?

(A) $15 0

(B) $7 5

(C) $2 0 0

(D) $5 0

1 4 . What subject did Biff fail in high school?

(A) Math

(B) English

(C) Physics

(D) History

1 5 . Where does Happy work?

(A) In a factory

(B) In a store

(C) At a restaurant

(D) On Wall Street


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1 6 . What was Biffs position at Bill Olivers store when he was a boy?

(A) Salesman

(B) Manager

(C) Window dresser

(D) Shipping clerk

1 7 . On what day of the week does Willy die?

(A) Saturday

(B) Sunday

(C) Tuesday

(D) Monday

1 8 . On the sales trip that immediately precedes the beginning of the play, which city did Willy reach before turning back?

(A) Boston

(B) Hartford

(C) Buffalo

(D) Yonkers

1 9 . How long has Willy worked for his sales firm?

(A) Between thirty-four and thirty-six years

(B) Thirty-two years

(C) Forty years

(D) Twenty-five years

2 0 . What does Howard show Willy in his office?

(A) His pen

(B) His typewriter

(C) His wire recorder


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(D) A picture of his family

2 1 . What is Bernards adult occupation?

(A) Police officer

(B) Lawyer

(C) Doctor

(D) Writer

2 2 . What does Biff allow Bernard to carry to the Ebbets Field game?

(A) His helmet

(B) His football

(C) His cleats

(D) His shoulder pads

2 3 . What is the name of Charleys secretary?

(A) Michelle

(B) Jill

(C) Jenny

(D) Angela

2 4 . What does Happy order from Stanley at the restaurant?

(A) Lobsters

(B) Steak

(C) Veal

(D) Red snapper

2 5 . To what kind of store does Willy ask Stanley to direct him?

(A) A deli

(B) A shoe store


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(C) A sporting goods store

(D) A seed store

The Hairy Ape's Humanist Hell:

Theatricality and Evolution in O'Neill's"Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life"

Erika Rundle

Mount Holyoke College

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Notes/Works
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complaint being that this ambitious play, in four acts and ten episodes, "tells [its story]

episodically and not always convincingly" (22). APlaybillblurb laments that while "therewere real lions and monkeys onstage . . . the Ape Man managed to swing from tree to tree

for only thirteen performances."

According to Gabe Essoe, author ofTarzan of the Movies, "Tarzan's failure in thelegitimate theater contrasted heavily with the box office success of the serial. . . . [T]hecritics raged at the play insisting that it should have been left `to the films, as it is

unsuitable behind the footlights'" (44). The desire for such an outlandish story to be

dramatized "convincingly" was just as much the result of the realist expectations the early

silent entries in the Tarzan filmography created and achieved, title cards and all, as thecurrent domination of Broadway by domestic realism. For Tarzan's success as a fantasy

character in novels and films had already begun to transform his apocryphal journey from

nature to culture into a master narrative of American masculinity, white racial superiority,and Western political hegemony in an increasingly global economy shaped by the forces of

modernity.

The footlights reviewers found so unsuitable for this jungle tale represented the danger offoregrounding, literally and figuratively, Tarzan's fictional nature. In the theater, audience

members would be confronted with the limits of verisimilitude, spoiling the masterful

illusions cinema was able to uphold through the suturing of disparate images, naturalizingwhat would otherwise appear artificial at best, at worstkitsch. An alternative to the lure(and trap) of realism in the face of such demanding dramas was performed just a fewmonths later, however, when Broadway audiences encountered an "ape man" who could

satisfy the manifold requirements of the "legitimate theater," if not help to create them.

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