Charley

• Charley's Relationship with Willy

  Almost ten years after the first performance of the play, Arthur Miller wrote that Charley is “the most decent man” in the play.
• Similarities

  • Miller points out that Charley’s aims are not too different from Willy’s as he tries to build a successful career and wants his son to succeed, but Charley is not, in Miller’s word, a “fanatic” like Willy.
  • Charley conducts himself quietly and modestly and instils “worthwhile” values into his son.
• Charley's generosity

  • Charley’s decency can be seen in many ways.
  • He enters the Loman household in Act One, clearly concerned after being disturbed by noise.
  • He listens to Willy’s complaints, lends Willy money and, in Willy’s moment of crisis, offers him a job: “You can make fifty dollars a week. And I won’t send you on the road.”
  • His impulse is to be generous to Willy throughout.
• True friendship

  • Charley is also a true friend to Willy (Willy will admit that Charley is “the only friend I got”) in that he is able to stand up to him and tries to get Willy to accept reality.
  • When frustrated, he is able to tell Willy that “enough is enough” and “I know when I’m being insulted”.
• Criticisms

  • Charley is also able to criticise Willy for his upbringing of Biff and Happy.
  • When Willy boasts of his boys’ initiative and daring in stealing building materials from the construction site, Charley warns Willy that “the jails are full of fearless characters”.
  • We later learn that Charley will be proved right years late
• Charley's Defence of Willy

  Charley tries to help his friend after Willy is fired, and then continues to defend him after his death.
• Tyring to help

  • Charley senses the change in Willy after he has been fired and is clearly disturbed enough by Willy’s words and behaviour to urge that “nobody’s worth nothin’ dead”.
  • Willy, however, is now beyond Charley’s help.
  • Instead, the voice Willy responds to now is Ben’s.
• Defence

  • Charley offers a defence of Willy’s dreams in the Requiem.
  • His speech demonstrates that he understands the precarious existence of a salesman in that he is always dependant on how his buyers respond to him: “when they start not smiling back - that’s an earthquake.”
• Understanding

  • Charley understands the insecurities Willy has been battling with for years and how Willy has compensated for this:
  • “A salesman is got to dream, boy, It comes with the territory”.
• Language

  • Charley’s language in the Requiem tries to give Willy’s life and death a sense of grandeur with the almost Biblical tones of “Nobody dast blame this man”.
  • Throughout his speech, Charley looks to honour his friend.