74 pages • 2 hours read
Arthur MillerDeath of a Salesman
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1949A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Act I, Scenes 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scenes 7-9 Summary
Willy’s reverie focuses again on his conversation with Linda. She is unaware of the Woman’s interruption and continues praising Willy’s attractiveness. Acutely aware of the Woman’s responses, Willy promises Linda he will make it up to her. Linda fixes her stockings, unaware of what he is talking about. Disturbed by the sight of the stockings, Willy orders her to throw them away.
A frantic Bernard enters the scene, looking for Biff so he can help Biff study. When Willy demands that Bernard help Biff cheat, Bernard reveals that he already does but cannot do so on the Regents exam. An angered Willy threatens to beat Biff. Linda reminds Willy that Biff stole a football and drives without a license. Willy becomes increasingly disturbed and yells “Shut up!” (7) when he hears the Woman laugh. Willy orders Bernard to leave. Linda defends Bernard, and Willy contradicts his previous criticism of Biff, claiming that Biff has what Bernard doesn’t. He says, “There’s nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s got spirit, personality…” (27).
Back in the present, Willy rambles about how Biff never stole anything. Happy descends to calm Willy down. Willy admits he nearly hit a kid and regrets not going to Alaska with his “genius” (27) brother Ben, who became wealthy after discovering an African diamond mine at the age of 21. Charley arrives to play cards with Willy. After some small talk, Charley offers Willy a job, insulting and angering Willy. Willy shares his distress over Biff returning to Texas, and Charley reassures him that he’ll be fine. When Charley admires Willy’s handiwork with the ceiling, Willy mocks Charley’s lack of masculinity due to low skill with tools. The mirage of a dignified, confident Ben enters, visible and audible only to Willy. Willy converses with both Ben and Charley, unable to separate the two discussions. A flustered Willy accuses Charley of cheating at cards. Confused and angry, Charley leaves.
Scene 9 shifts to Willy’s memory of meeting Ben. Ben has to catch a train but agrees to entertain Willy’s questions about his good fortune. When Willy was three years old, his father abandoned him and Ben. Ben left home to look for their father but never found him. He tells Biff and Happy about their grandfather, who made flutes as a traveling salesman before heading to Alaska for a gold rush. Willy vaguely remembers images of a campfire, a large bearded man, and flute music. Ben begins boxing with Biff and advises him to never fight fair with a stranger, making Linda uncomfortable. Willy boasts that Brooklyn has all the things they loved about the great outdoors, including opportunities to hunt. He then instructs the boys to steal some sand from a construction site to demonstrate their skills. Charley arrives to warn Willy that the watchman will have the boys arrested if they are caught stealing again. Bernard adds that the watchman is already after Biff. Willy is anxious until Ben compliments Biff’s courage. Willy pleads with Ben to stay, but Ben insists that he is late for his train, again emphasizing how he walked into the jungle and became rich.
Act I, Scenes 10-12 Summary
In the present, Linda finds Willy talking to himself outside. Willy asks if she still has the diamond watch fob Ben gave him. Linda reminds him that he pawned it years ago. As Willy walks off in his slippers, Biff and Happy come outside and sit with Linda to discuss Willy’s behavior. Biff is angry and ashamed, demanding to know why Linda never wrote about Willy’s condition. Upset, Linda tells Biff that he himself never wrote or gave her an address. Willy is always excited to hear about Biff returning but becomes more and more agitated as his arrival nears. She scolds Biff for wandering from job to job, as Linda and Willy are getting older.
Linda goes on to defend Willy, claiming he isn’t crazy but exhausted. Despite his years of experience, Willy is paid the commission rate of a beginner salesman and has been secretly borrowing money from Charley to pay the bills. Linda complains that Biff and Happy selfishly abandoned their father. She tells Biff that he can either respect his father or never return. Biff agrees to stay and financially support them, though he dislikes the business world and loves the outdoors. Biff reminds her that Willy kicked him out because Biff discovered his fraudulent ways. When Linda says that she never knew why, Biff refuses to elaborate. Finally, she admits to the sons that their father has attempted suicide multiple times; one time, she discovered a rubber hose attached to a gas pipe. Happy tells Biff that Willy’s lack of success in business was because people thought he was crazy.
Willy returns from his walk and overhears Happy tell Biff that people think he is crazy. He confronts Biff, telling him to return to Texas. However, he immediately becomes excited when Happy shares Biff’s plans to speak to Bill Oliver and start his own business, a line of sporting goods called the Loman Line. Willy instructs Biff on how much money to ask for, what to wear, how to speak, and what to talk about. At first, he advises Biff to be serious and avoid jokes but then contradicts himself and tells Biff to be confident and tell stories. Though Linda offers encouragement, Willy repeatedly yells at her for interrupting. Biff is angered by Willy’s treatment of Linda. When Linda tries to stop the argument, Willy accuses her of always siding with Biff before going to bed. Linda asks Biff to say goodnight to his father so the day ends on a positive note.
As everyone heads to bed, the scene continues in the Lomans’ respective bedrooms. Linda tells Willy that the shower needs repair, angering him. She wonders if Bill Oliver will remember Biff, but Willy is confident that he will. He believes that Biff’s experience wandering between jobs will prove valuable, convinced once again about Biff’s potential. An uneasy Linda asks Willy what Biff knows about his past that he holds against him, and Willy doesn’t answer. Meanwhile, Biff retrieves a piece of rubber tubing that Willy hid behind the heater for an attempted suicide.
Act I, Scenes 7-12 Analysis
The continued fluidity of the past and present as the two flow into each other reflects Willy’s rambling stream of consciousness and his perception of reality. The picturesque past is largely Willy’s own perception of his earlier years, serving as both an escape a means of reconstructing his skewed beliefs about his ability to achieve the American Dream. Even in this idealized past, however, Willy is never entirely able to deny his current situation, as the roots of his present failures are found in each of his memories. Memories of the Woman remind Willy of his deepest betrayal. He cannot stand to see Linda repairing old stockings due to the memory of giving the Woman stockings as a gift. At the same time, memories of ignoring Biff’s failings, such as his constant thieving, remind him again and again of his own disillusions about his abilities. Unable to let go of the American Dream, Willy places the pressure of its fulfillment on Biff’s shoulders, despite the son’s inclination toward a career working with his hands—the complete opposite of becoming a businessman and obtaining a fortune.
Willy’s interactions with Biff in the past demonstrate the depth of his denial of reality—he ignores Biff’s troubles to consistently prove his greatness. While Bernard repeatedly expresses his concern that Biff is failing math, Willy chooses to instead focus on just how well-liked Biff is in comparison. Willy’s treatment of his son Happy in the past, and Happy’s desperate commitment to his father’s dreams is reflective of Happy’s broader experience in the Loman family. As Willy ignores his bids for attention, Happy strives to become a businessman like his father, only to follow in Biff’s footsteps of being good with women and becoming a petty thief.
Abandoned by both his father and his older brother Ben, Willy obsesses over both their successes as pioneers. Willy seeks the acceptance he never received from his father or brother by dedicating himself to being well-liked and becoming obsessed with the importance of his personality. Though he becomes a salesman as a way to pursue the American Dream and earn a fortune, this career decision is also a manifestation of Willy’s desire for the perfect family that the Dream dictates. He becomes a salesman to provide the stability for his family, something his own father never achieved. Despite Willy’s desperate longing to accept Ben’s offer to go to Alaska, it would have gone against his commitment to the Dream. However, Ben’s offer and subsequent successes string a chord in Willy’s heart; abandoning the Dream might have been his ultimate success. It becomes all the more clear that Willy’s obsession over the American Dream and the glamor of being a successful businessman is an effort to come to terms with his failure to take on that offer.
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