pity and fear due to tragic hero

• even as he crosses the stage to the doorway of the house, his exhaustion is apparent'


  willy(3) exhaustion from work, decision to dedicate himself to a profession that he's not suited to due to its capitalist nature and urban setting, sense that he's already on the ledge
• i'm tired to death'


  willy(4) hints toward ending, showcases the way capitalist society uses people, chews them up and then spits them out when they're out of usage toward them
• he breaks off in amazement and fright as the flute is heard distantly'


  willy(10) realising he was thinking about their old chevy, introduction of his delusions, powerful as they can fully over power a recent memory, living in the past- link to his constant desire for a simpler life like the past
• oh, i'll knock em dead next week. i'll go to hartford. i'm very well-liked in hartford. you know, the trouble is, linda, people don't seem to take to me'


  willy(26) reinforces his beliefs out loud, knows linda can see through his lies but continues to convince himself that he's better than he is, clings on to idea of being well-liked
• i'm fat. i'm very foolish to look at, linda'

  'but they do laugh at me. i know that's

  linda-'few men are idolised by their children the way you are'

  'i get the feeling that i'll never sell anything again, that i won't make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys'


  willy + linda(27) discussing how willy is truly failure, link to his belief you must make something to be worth anything is countered by linda's interjection about being loved by the boys
• the woods are burning! i can't drive a car!'


  willy(31) sense of incessant despair and turmoil within him, likened to a wood as he shows a deep connection to nature and pastoral setting, shows he's close to his death
• i don't say he's a great man. willy loman never made a lot of money. his name was never in the paper...but he's a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him. so attention must be pain. he's not allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person'


  linda(44) idea of tragedy and the common man, he's just like everyone else so can't fall from a high pedestal above all others but is still experiencing a great tragedy that she believes others must acknowledge as they tend to sweep men like him under the rug, shows her love and devotion
• a small man can be just as exhausted as a great man'


  linda(45) bridges gap between great and common men, shows how evident willy's exhaustion is to those around him, delusions and lies only resonate within him- no others believe him
• he drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no one knows him anymore, no one welcomes him'


  linda(45) showing she knows of willy's misgivings and failures, attempting to show the brothers how low he has been brought by the capitalist world, loss of old values, her complacency as she shows full understanding of willy's situation
• he's just a big stupid man to you, but i tell you there's more good in him than many other people'


  linda(47) before she confesses knowledge of his possible suicide attempt, makes audience more sympathetic toward willy due to the love and care she's showing him(must be something good about him to have incurred such devotion)
• biff, his life is in your hands'


  linda(48) places the weight and responsibility of keeping willy happy(therefore alive) onto her son, knows of willy's fixation upon the success of his family which comes from either his own or his first born son's success in the world of selling, unfairly places blame as she has been complicit in willy's deterioration too
• the light on willy is fading. the gas heater begins to glow through the kitchen wall, near the stairs, a blue flame beneath red coils'


  sd(56) final scene of act, after willy begins hallucinating the ebbets field game, shows the inevitability of willy's suicide and how he's clearly nearing the point of no return, despite being at apex of story he's fading due to previous failures
• because he's only a little boat looking for a harbour'


  linda(61) phone call with biff, just found out biff moved the tubing from the gas heater, encouraging biff to 'be loving' to willy, places pressure upon biff (and blame?), shows how willy is lost in the world of corporations and industrialisation
• you can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!'


  willy(67) in howard's office, shows the clear difference in his old-fashioned thinking with howard's capitalist ideals as he believes they should be treating people well, they used to be the life of the business as they created connections with buyers, but now they just need to make as much money as possible, once they can't do that they lose all value, men are just pawns in this world
• bernard, bernard, was it my fault? y'see? it keeps going round in my mind, maybe i did something to him, i got nothing to give him'


  willy(77) lack of remembrance/realisation of his detrimental impact on biff's career, unstable mind is hindering his memory, stuck on the idea of having something tangible to pass down, an heirloom of sorts to show he did something with his life
• i loved him, willy, y'know? and he came back after that month and took his sneakers... and burned them up in the furnace... i often thought of how strange it was that i knew he had given up his life. what happened in boston, willy?


  bernard(78) becomes the catalyst to willy's remembrance and subsequent understanding of his impact on biff's life, shows the connection he and biff used to have and how biff has completely changed due to the realisation of his father's folly
• but sometimes, willy, it's better for a man just to walk away'

  'but if you can't walk away?'

  'i guess that's when it's tough'


  bernard + willy(79) inversion of maturity and wisdom as bernard shows how clear-sighted he is by giving advice to his elder, giving advice about the situation with biff as well as willy's own situation of sticking to selling or giving up
• the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. and the funny thing is that you're a salesman and you don't know that's

  charley(81) shows understanding of the world of selling, how you're just a cog in the machine and must sell almost everything you have in order to succeed (or just survive) until you have nothing left, by then you're finished and must be discarded by the higher-ups, shows how willy never truly understood his own business- wasn't built to live in this type of society
• funny, y'know? after all the highways and trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive'


  wily(82) causes an encroaching feeling of pity and dread to fall upon audience, seems to have set his mind to a new idea, realisation of all the work he put in over the years was a waste as he never truly succeeded in gaining financial freedom or fame
• how the hell did i ever get the idea i was a salesman there?... i realised what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! we've been talking in a dream for fifteen years. i was a shipping clerk'


  biff(87) moment of realisation for biff as he leaves bill oliver's office, understands that he never belonged in an office building and was only over doing it to fulfil his father's wishes, like his father understands that he wasted years of his life on a false idea
• hap, he's got to understand that i'm not the man that somebody lends that kind of money to. he thinks i've been spitting at him all these years and it's eating him up'


  biff(88) shows maturity for the first time in the play as he shows emotional understanding of his father's actions, knows how his actions have seemed and wants to try and show him truth, audience feels a sense of fear as they've been watching willy's deterioration and know his character won't allow him to accept biff's failure after not accepting his own failure= tipping point
• why did i go? why did i go? look at you! look at what's become of you!'


  biff(96) trying to make willy understand he only tries because he wants to please him, willy's reaction was one of delusion and in-acceptance as he avoids what biff is telling him in favour of making up a scenario wherein biff has a meeting the next day with bill oliver
• don't you understand what i'm talking about? he's going to kill himself, don't you know that?


  biff(98) shows his superior emotional maturity as he berates happy, as they were both informed of their father's suicidal tendencies but only biff seems to remember or understand the impact of two failures in one day on willy's mental state, happy shows a lack of change throughout play as he remains hard-headed
• he's not my father, he's just a guy'


  happy(98) dismissal of willy, ignorance and blindness toward others struggles, failure of the son to aid his father, bond of natural respect cracked, opposes linda's earlier statement of how the the boys love him
• you - you gave her mama's stockings'

  'you fake! you phoney little fake! you fake!'


  biff(103) mobile concurrence, willy forced to relive his shame, his greatest error- the moment biff's idolisation of his father was shattered as he realised how small and human he truly is, motivates willy to find a way to make it up to his sons in the only way his broken mind can think of
• a man can't go out the way he came in, ben, a man has got to add up to something'


  willy(108) speaking to ben the hallucination, shows his fractured belief, the materialistic ideals have shaped his thinking so far as to make him believe that only physical, tangible evidence of success and a well-lived life can make his like add up to something
• oh ben, that's the whole beauty of it! i see it like a diamond shining in the dark, hard and rough, that i can pick up and touch in my hand. not like - an appointment... because he thinks i'm nothing, see, so he spites me. but the funeral, ben, that funeral will be massive!... he'll see what i am, ben! he's in for a shock, that boy!'


  willy(108) become fixated upon the idea of having material proof of his success (link to ben's success with diamond mines, shows he wishes to prove himself to both ben and biff), still doesn't show any understanding of biff and his reasoning, still myopic, links back to his original reason for becoming a salesman (dave singleman), audience begins to fear what he has decided upon as he discusses his own funeral, on the brink of death
• (caged and wanting to escape)'

  'you saw it. the mice didn't bring it into the cellar. what is this supposed to do, make a hero out of you? this is supposed to make me feel sorry for you?


  willy sd + biff(112) confronts willy with the rubber tubing, shows how innately selfish willy is as he's so fixated on becoming a success in the only way he knows how, that he doesn't realise the impact of his actions or the severity of his delusions, only feels shame that biff caught on
• we never told the truth for ten minutes in this house'


  biff(113) point of highest tension as biff finally confronts his family (mainly willy) about the way the boys were raised on lies and deceit, audience realises this is a turning point in the family's dynamic as willy still can't seem to tell the truth, mirrored by happy's oblivious and short-sighted beliefs ('we always told the truth), and how biff is the only one that will be able to escape the cycle of destructive thinking
• and i never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air that i could never stand taking orders for anybody. that's whose fault it is!'


  biff(113) shows willy and the audience the real reason he could never stay cooped up in an office, or follow the set plays of his football team, audience knows that this pointing of the blame will backfire as willy will take it as a slant on his pride and self destruct
• i ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today... i stopped in the middle of that building and said to myself, 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 minuet i say i know who i am!'


  biff(114) attempting to help willy come to his own realisation of his place in the world being away from the city life and subsequent way of living, trying to save his father from himself, audience sees the great change in biff as he's able to understand his own dreams and accept them without the need for acceptance from his father (unlike at the beginning in the sd)
• i'm not bringing home any prizes anymore, and you're going to stop waiting for me to bring them home'


  biff(114) shows his determination, trying to break willy out of the delusion that one day, by chance, biff will have his life sorted out and bring home the fruits of his labour, gives audience image that he is refusing to repeat the fatal cycle of remaining in the city
• isn't that - isn't that remarkable? biff - he likes me!

  'oh biff (staring wildly) he cried! cried to me! (he is choking with his love, and now cries out his promise) that boy, that boy is going to be magnificent'


  willy(114 + 115) after brief moment of hope within audience due to possibility that biff broke him out of his irrational thoughts and anagnorisis, shattered by realisation that willy is too deep into his delusion that he can't comprehend the words biff threw at him, instead taking his heightened emotions as a symbol of love and devotion, giving willy more motivation to fulfil his goal
• loves me (wonderingly) always loved me. isn't that a remarkable thing? ben. he's worshipping me for it!'


  wily(116) once again lacks the mental faculties to understand the weight of his son's words, shows his continued tragic spiral into delusion through his address of ben, shows audience that his death is inevitable
• oh, ben, i always knew one way or another we were gonna make it, biff and i'


  willy(117) completely forgets about happy (gives audience an understanding of his character as he strives to be just like his dad to gain recognition), also shows his further outdated values of giving everything to the eldest son, shows how he will never be swayed from his way of thinking- idea of success being his driving force due to the industrialised american dream
• why did you do it? i search and search and i search, and i can't understand it, willy. i made the last payment on the house today. today, dear. and there'll be nobody home. (a sob rises to her throat) we're free and clear... we're free... we're free'


  linda(121) last lines of the play, shows the detrimental effect capitalist society has on those who are lower down the ladder and their close family, as they must live striving to pay off loans etc, willy's effect on those that loved him (one that he never realised as he was too focused on material benefits), shows he did in fact make an impact in the end (on both the audience and his loved ones)