Truth and Lies Flashcards
“I’ll go to Hartford. I’m very well-liked…”
“…in Hartford. You know what the problem is Linda? People don’t seem to take to me”
“Two hundred gross”
“Seventy dollars and…”
“…a few pennies”
“Handsomest man…”
“…In the world”
“When you grow up…”
“…You’ll understand about these things”
What quotation shows Willy to be patronising towards Biff, despite Biff being the only character ti have challenged Willy in the play and stand up for what’s right?
“When you grow up, you’ll understand about these things”
In what quotation is Willy disowned by his children which reflects not only his poor parenting, but how he is constructed by Miller to be generic and relatable?
“Just some guy”
What quotation shows Linda to be complicit in Willy’s misrepresentation of himself using pre modifiers?
“Handsomest man in the world”
What quotation shows Willy’s delusions not just to impact himself but to also impact his family’s finance, and also how in MC we cannot trust Willy’s recollection of the past?
“Two hundred gross”
“Seventy dollars and a few pennies”
What quotation shows Willy to be hypocritical and to contradict his own beliefs and to self-deceive himself?
“I’ll go to Hartford. I’m very well-liked in Hartford. You know what the problem is Linda? People don’t seem to take to me”
When does Willy’s self-deception end?
When he suffers his anagnorisis and recognises the truth
How is the frequency of mobile concurrency affected in the play?
Willy suppresses the truth which impacts his psychological well-being. The nature of mobile concurrency is also affected, when he sees the vivid hallucinations of his dead brother
How do Willy’s dreams contrast with his reality?
In his dreams he is good at his job, “well liked” by all and has raised his children well.
In reality, he doesn’t “make a living”, gets sacked by Howard and raises a thief. He also cheats on his wife
Why is Linda potentially to blame for Willy’s death?
She doesn’t confront his suicidal tendency and is cowardly in relation to the rubber tubing and not removing it. She lacks intervention out of fear of upsetting Willy
How can we not take Willy’s memory at face value?
We can’t trust Linda’s corroboration of past events as she “doesn’t know how to mention” his lies to him.
Willy’s mental state and self-deception means that the memories fed to us might be made up and not true.
“We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house” (Biff)
Why would Biff never tell the truth about Willy’s affair?
He doesn’t want to upset Linda. So is Biff as complicit as Linda in lying and concealing the truth?
