DOAS 1.2 Flashcards
(9 cards)
Willy’s Values - Cult of Personality
. Values physical strength over academia, makes Happy insecure: “I’m losing weight, you notice Pop?”
. Bernard contrasts the boys w intelligence, “anaemic”, “liked, but not well-liked” Cult of personality
. The boys are “built like Adonises” so will make “an appearance in the business world”
Willy’s Values - moral dubiety
. “laughing with [Biff] at the theft” when he steals a ball in his youth, CoP lets him get away with it
. “if someone else took the ball there’d be uproar”
. Boasts of selling “five hundred gross in Providence”, discover he’s lying as he struggles with the bills”
. Crushes Happy’s budding morality by not chastising Biff
Willy’s Values - inconsistency
. Fridge is questionable then “a fine machine”
. The Chevy is “the greatest car ever built” then “they ought to prohibit the manufacture of it”
. Demonstrates his confusion + unreliability
Willy’s Values - family
. Appearing in Boston with the boys would cause a “sensation”, an obvious over-exaggeration
. Confident in the power of family
. “Since when do you let your mother carry washing up the stairs.”
Willy’s self image
. Very insecure
. “I talk too much… I’m fat. I’m very - foolish to look at.”
. The pathos is balanced by Linda’s quiet reassurance
. “You’re the handsomest man in the world… To me you are.”
The Woman
. Unnamed: a symbol of Willy’s weakness
. Despises himself for the relationship but doesn’t stop
. The affair boosted Willy’s ego
. L + Woman on stage together mocks L+W’s marriage
. “takes her” “pulls her” property
. The Woman sees herself as initiating the relationship, “I picked you”
The Woman - Stockings
. Important recurring symbol - initially mysterious
. Willy harbours a double guilt: Biff’s upbringing + Linda - seeing her with stockings makes him nervous
. Compares Linda vs Woman: Willy gives the Woman stockings while Linda has to mend old ones
. “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house!”
. Also used to blend into a scene emphasising Biff’s shortcomings: his behavior later linked to disillusionment with women
The Loman’s problems with Biff
. Anxiety over his academia: Bernard bullied into helping him, “You’ll give him the answers”
. Linda: “he’s too rough with the girls” + the theft
. “He’s driving the car without a license!… He’s stuck up… if he doesn’t buckle down he’ll flunk math!”
. “You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s got spirit, personality” - Willy’s contradictions again
. Linda is “almost in tears” even Willy is frustrated: “Why is he stealing… I never in my life told him anything but decent things.” Difficult child
The End
. Ends with a switch back to the present as Happy appears
