Willy Key Quotes Flashcards
(16 cards)
‘I’m ______ to the _____ (the _____ has ______ away) I _______ make it’
‘I’m tired to the death. (the flute has faded away) I couldn’t make it’ page 8
- Flute fading away shows hope fading away immediately
- Immediate talk of death
- Flute is motif of tragedy and symbolic of his successful father and brother and so as it leaves him so does the hope of success
- Hinting at his mental instability
‘Work a ________ to ___ off a _____. ___ finally own it ___ ______ nobody to ____ __ it’
‘Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it and there’s nobody to live in it’ page 10
- Dark aspect of the AD
- Worked all life to provide for family but hasn’t accomplished anything because he had the wrong view and looked in the wrong places
- Foreshadows play ending of Willy’s life insurance paying off their mortgage
- Corrupt nature of society that this was life for ordinary people and futility of AD led to this
‘How can __ ____ himself on _ ____? Is ____ _ life? A ________’
‘How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand?’ page 11
- Villain of Willy and pressures on Biff
- Willy contradicts himself - saying how beautiful the environment is but discards Biff’s positive attitude to that life
- Believes only life worth living is a capitalist one
- Parental disappointment in children
‘______ is not liked. He’s ______, but he’s ___ ____ liked’
‘Charley is not liked. He’s liked, but he’s not well liked’ page 23 (flashback of punching bag)
- Willy is threatened by Charley but takes pride in Biff and Happy outdoing him and ignores Biff is failing math’s
- Willy’s belief that only people who are well liked succeed
‘they know __ ____, they ____ __ up and ____ New _______’
‘they know me boys, they know me up and down New England’ page 24
- Stark contrast to Willy’s first entrance and dialogue with Linda
- He’s putting on a show for his sons instead of telling them the truth he hates his job and feels life is pointless - he tells them stories of his travels
- Feels he must be successful and an example for his sons = myopic
‘I’m ___ I’m very _______ to ____ __ _____’
‘I’m fat I’m very foolish to look at Linda’ page 29
- Insecure + personal attractiveness means a lot
- Previous past boasts (e.g. ‘I’m very well liked in Hartford’ page 28) contradicted by acknowledgement he’s not well liked
- Creates sympathy
- Self worth is tied to business success
- Corrupt nature of society
‘I get ___ _______ that I’ll never ____ _______ ______ that I won’t ____ _ living for you’
‘I get the feeling that I’ll never sell anything again that I won’t make a living for you’
- Tragic protagonist
- Comes close to anagnorisis
- Moment of self awareness humanises him = audience can relate to same feeling
- Societal idea that you strive to make money and a name for yourself in order to have a family and secure a house = Willy hasn’t achieved this
- Could show guilt eating at him as just after we find out about the affair
‘_____ the mystery? The ___ knew what __ ______ and ____ out and ___ __. Walked into _ ______ and comes out… and he’s rich!’
‘What’s the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle and comes out and he’s rich!’ page 32
- Myopic (+ Tragedy of Common man)
- Plays on idealised version of AD that you makes your fortune overnight = Willy’s living Miller’s AD reality of an aimless man who hasn’t achieved fulfilment or happiness
- Principal refrain for Ben (repeated theme) as he repeats it throughout = Ben is figment of Willy’s imagination and Willy’s attached all ideas of success to Ben’s success
‘I got _ ___ (slight _____) What ___ ____ are you _______ me _ ___ for?’
‘I got a job (slight pause) What the hell are you offering me a job for?’ page 33
-Refusing Charley’s job offer
- W is persistent in not accepting defeat so doesn’t take help which could actually turn his life around for the better
- W facade of success is falling
- Hubristic
- Tragedy of the Common man - tragic feeling evoked at man ready to lay his life down for personal dignity
‘_____ break your ____ to ___ _ ____ in this ____’
‘Gotta break your neck to see a star in this yard’ page 41
- Foreshadows death is only way he can escape this self created trap
- American dream (reality) - effects of idealism
- Miller makes contrast between nature and city = for Willy Jungle and stars represent passion and success (because of Ben), but he’s stuck in city life working tirelessly for no gain
- Stars are clouded by industrialism (‘towering angular shapes’)
‘Like a young ___. _______’
‘Like a Young God. Hercules’ page 54
- Simile - Greek mythology and supernatural qualities
- Willy reflecting on Biff’s football game = warped mixture of nostalgia ad idealism
- Hercules renound for strength and power = tragic as Biff is far from that
- Play not like Aristotle’s tragedy as Biff isn’t of high status but he is destined to fall form the start
- Willy is deceiving himself that Biff is too magnificent to fail = unrealistic expectations and idealism of American dream
‘___ ____ eat the ______ and throw the ____ _____’
‘you can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away’ page 64
- Theme of exploitation = Like fruit, Willy is being used in his best years and then discarded when not needed
- Talking to Howard who won’t listen to him (he’s more interested in his dictation machine than Willy his employer of 30 years
- Corrupt system = you can’t use a man to reap his rewards then hit him when he’s down - Miller using Willy as his mouthpiece
- Doesn’t understand the system broke him and only wants you if you can make money
- Willy is the martyr of the American dream
‘___ ___ up worth more ____ than _____’
‘you end up worth more dead than alive’ page 77
- Paradox (statement contradictive to common sense)
- Criticism of American dream and futility of capitalism
- Reasons for his suicide are beginning to coalesce (come together)
- Pathos (evokes pity, sadness)
- Willy expressing discontent over all his years of work - he didn’t earn enough to save, build or grow so now has nothing left which brings him to realisation about life insurance)
- Audience can relate
- Slight moment of anagnorisis
’(________)I’ve got to ___ some _____ ____ away. Nothing’s ______’
‘(anxiously) I’ve got to get some seeds right away. Nothing’s planted’ page 96
- Coming to his senses after Biff and Happy abandoned him in the restaurant and he’s speaking to Stanley the waiter who’s helped him get back on his feet (slips back the tip willy tried to give him, helps the disorientated Willy to the door and the seed store)
- Seeds represent his desire to leave a legacy
- However he’s planting them in ‘the blue of the night’ which is the dark so shows he’s still detatched from reality and his futility
- Shows failed AD and capitalist as he resorts to anything even though it won’t work = completely myopic
- The plants are bound to fail = symbol of Willy’s endeavors (goals)
- He plants them in the ‘apron’ = intimate
- Arcadia has become industrialised - even nature and arcadia can’t save him
‘I am not _ ____ a _____. I am _____ _____ and you are ____ _____!’
‘I am not a dime a dozen. I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!’
- Biff’s attempt to cure Willy’s delusions fails
- Moment of catharsis (Biff liberated from stress of living false life even though Willy’s tragic end highlights inability to do the same)
- Tragic flaw of Willy = hubris (he was lead to believe happiness comes from the AD and can’t come to terms with just being a normal man)
- If your a dime a dozen it means your so common that your practically worthless = destroys all what Willy has striven to be his whole life but failed - hits him in the face with this tragic realisation
- Willy refuses to believe that his self worth all comes from being better than the next guy and admitting that would mean his life was false and had been futile
- Loman = Low man
