Key Events 3&4

• After losing his job of 34 years, the memory of Ben’s job offer, the opportunity of a lifetime, resurfaces in Willy’s mind.
• In his distress, Willy reaches out to Ben (“Oh, Ben, how did you do it?”) and recalls Ben’s offer of a position in Alaska.
• Willy is rejected by Howard, essentially sacked from the company, and left alone on stage.
• After losing his job of 34 years, the memory of Ben’s job offer, the opportunity of a lifetime, resurfaces in Willy’s mind.
• An audience may see buried feelings of regret in Willy remembering this now, but we also see Willy’s faith in the dream which keeps him in New York and New England.
• "... and that’s the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked!”
• Willy is kept at home by the example of Dave Singleman, the salesman who died at 84 years of age after a career of success, a man who was “remembered and loved and helped by so many people”.
• Willy’s repetition of “wonder” helps to capture his child-like belief in this fantasy.
• His use of the metaphor “diamonds” is a deliberate reference to the source of Ben’s wealth.
• Willy is trying to tell Ben that he can equal his brother’s success.
• Willy has a rare moment of self-discovery at the end of this ‘scene’, admitting how hollow his boasts of popularity have been.
• Willy, in a state of crisis and lost in his thoughts of Ben and the Ebbets Field game, arrives at Charley’s office.
• After an emotional reunion with Bernard, now a successful attorney, Willy asks Charley for money but turns down Charley’s offer of a job.
• Willy’s pride will not allow him to accept a job from Charley.
• "Charley, you’re the only friend I got. Isn’t that a remarkable thing?”
• Willy has a rare moment of self-discovery at the end of this ‘scene’, admitting how hollow his boasts of popularity have been.
• However, there is little sense of relief here for the audience as this line follows Willy’s other epiphany (discovery) that, after a whole career, “you end up worth more dead than alive”, suggesting that Willy is again thinking of suicide.