Act 2 (Part 1)

In Act 2, the audience is positioned to view Willy's boss, Howard Wagner, negatively because of the way he treats Willy. When Willy comes into Howard's office to beg for a job in New York, instead of listening to what Willy has to say, Howard keeps on trying to get Willy to listen to his new recorder. This shows how disrespectfully Howard treats Willy and that he has absolutely no interest in what Willy has to say to him. Every time Willy tries to continue the conversation with Howard, Willy gets interrupted and Howard even says, "Sh, for God's sake!" (77). Also, although Willy has been working at his company for over thirty years, he has never been anything else but a traveling salesman who goes to Boston everyday and never earned a sufficient amount of money for his family. This even lead to Willy's delusion that he averages "a hundred and seventy dollars a week"(82) in 1982, when he never earned even half of that money. Additionally, Howard continually refers to Willy as "kid" (84), which shows that Willy doesn't even have the slightest power in his company and emphasizes the fact that Howard looks down upon him and has so much authority over him even though Howard's father asked Willy "what [he] thought of the name Howard"(80). Miller includes this scene to show the audience that Willy is an insignificant member of his company and to contrast the life of Howard and Willy. Howard seems to have a perfect life: the perfect job and a happy family, which resembles "the American Dream". When Willy listens to Howard's recorder, the audience can picture a happy family, which sharply contrasts with Willy's disconnected family. Howard embodies "the American Dream" that Willy envisioned and when Howard fires him, Willy becomes further from "the American Dream" than he ever was before.

As Willy and Biff's next door neighbors, Charley and Bernard appear several times throughout the play, but as complete opposites of Willy and Biff. Bernard is seen running in and out of the scene during Biff's high school years, telling Biff and Willy that "[Biff's] got to study"(32). Back then, Willy would shake Bernard off and merely ask Biff if Bernard was "well-liked"(33). Willy would also tell Bernard to just let Biff be and then Biff would change the topic by asking Willy if "[he's] see[n] [his] sneakers"(32), where he painted the University of Virginia onto them. However, later on, Bernard is seen to have become a successful lawyer sixteen years later when Biff has never even had one proper job. Additionally, Willy would always tell Biff that he (Willy) was better off than Charley because Charley was not "well-liked"(30), whereas Willy was. But several years down the road, Willy is seen borrowing money from Charley every week because he doesn't earn a single cent from his job. Charley and Bernard worked hard and dealt with reality, which brought success upon them because they worked hard in every situation. However, Willy and Biff had the wrong approach to life and kept following "the American Dream" and whether Charley and Bernard were "well-liked" or not. This is why the two families ended up so differently even though they lived right next door to one another.

I think that Frank's Chop House symbolizes the fact that Willy got cut from his job because Frank was Willy's old boss and the word "chop" is similar to "cut", which can also mean to fire. Frank made "promises across [Frank's] desk"(82), something that would accomplish the "American Dream" for Willy. However, when Frank passed away and his son Howard took charge of the company, things didn't go as planned for Willy. Additionally, J.P. Morgan was an extremely successful American financier who owned a company with branches in many different businesses. Miller says that he looks like a "butcher" because he links this idea with being a businessman: harsh. However, this doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation because Miller is basically saying that being a business men means you have to be tough and harsh sometimes, which links to Willy's idea of always having to be "well-liked", which isn't true.

Willy loves sports and thinks they are very important when walking down the road to success, especially because Biff was such a star athlete. Willy is also very competitive so this makes him a high supporter of sports. Charley on the other hand, does not think much of sports. He is also not as competitive as Willy, which shows his disinterest in sports. Also, Bernard doesn't play sports and just studies hard so Charley never had a reason to support sports anyways. This is significant because this shows a big contrast between the two fathers and sons. Because Biff and Willy put so much value on competition, they did not succeed like Bernard and Charley did because they were always too focused on being "well-liked" than others. Also, as Biff's father, Willy didn't really prioritize Biff's grades for him like he should have because Biff's ability to play football 'clouded' his failing math grade. Instead Willy told Bernard not to "be a pest" and doubted that "with scholarships to three universities, [the school would] flunk [Biff]"(33). If Willy had been a bit more like Charley and had Biff listen to Bernard when Bernard was chasing after Biff telling him "he's gotta study"(32), Biff's life might have ended in a different way than it had. Additionally, the significance of the Ebbets Field game is that Biff's life went completely downhill after the game because he discovered that Willy was having an affair with The Woman. He lost all hope and motivation afterwards and that was the significance of the Ebbets Field game; because it was Biff's last 'big' moment.

Foreshadowing Quotations


--Most of the foreshadowing quotes found in this play are ones that foreshadow Willy's sad death. Here, I found three quotations that are all foreshadowing his death. 

1. "he died the death of a salesman"(81)
When the story of Dave Singleman is mentioned, it is not hard to see that Willy admires him and longs for an ending like his. Dave Singleman was a well-known man in the business industry and Willy dreams of becoming a successful man like Dave and dying a 'noble' death of a successful salesman. This foreshadows the death of Willy because he longs for this so much.

2. "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive"(98)
This is another quotation that foreshadows Willy's death because here Willy realizes that after all of his hard work, he didn't gain much out of it and shows that because he didn't earn much, it would be better if he was dead because he would earn the same amount.

3. "I think you need a good long rest, Willy"(83)
When Howard dismisses Willy, he mentions how he thinks Willy needs to take a rest/break from everything. However, we know that there is actually more to this meaning and that Willy will take a rest from life, which also foreshadows Willy's death that will come in the end.