Chapters Covered: Act Two and Requiem

This lesson maps the part of Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' covered in this unit: Act Two, the last day of Willy Loman's life, and the Requiem that follows his death. It shows the order of events and how the play moves between the present and memory.

Act Two follows Willy Loman through a single day in which his hopes are tested and collapse. He asks his young boss for a job in New York and is dismissed, is offered help by his neighbour Charley, meets his sons for dinner at a restaurant where Biff's attempt to tell the truth fails, and finally faces Biff at home before deciding to take his own life. The Requiem is the short scene at the graveside in which his family and friends respond to his death. Throughout, Miller blends scenes from the present with Willy's memories, so the audience sees both what happens and what Willy cannot let go of.

Death of a Salesman, first staged in 1949, describes itself on its title page as a set of private conversations in two acts and a requiem. This lesson covers the second of those acts and the requiem, which together bring the play to its end.

Where Act Two begins. Act One has shown Willy Loman, an ageing travelling salesman, coming home exhausted from a trip, drifting into memories of the past and clashing with his elder son Biff, who has returned home without a settled career. It has also made clear that his wife Linda fears for his life, and that Biff and his brother Happy hope to start a business with the help of a former employer of Biff's, Bill Oliver. Act Two begins the next morning, with Willy full of optimism.

The sequence of Act Two. The act can be followed in five stages.

• The morning at home. Willy is cheerful after a good night, and he plans to ask his boss, Howard Wagner, for a position in New York so that he no longer has to travel. Linda reminds him that his sons will join him for dinner that evening.
• Howard's office. Howard, a much younger man who runs the firm his father founded, is absorbed in a new recording gadget. When Willy asks for a job in New York, Howard refuses, and as Willy grows desperate Howard dismisses him. Willy's memory of Dave Singleman, an old salesman whose popularity and well-attended funeral once inspired him, shows what he believed a salesman's life could be.
• Charley's office. Willy turns to his neighbour Charley, who offers him a job, which Willy refuses out of pride, and lends him money. There Willy also meets Charley's son Bernard, now a successful lawyer, whose achievement contrasts with Biff's lack of direction and who raises the question of what happened to Biff after a trip to Boston years before.
• The restaurant. Willy meets Biff and Happy at Frank's Chop House. Biff has just failed to win Bill Oliver's support, and he tries to tell his father the truth, but Willy, who has just lost his job, cannot bear to hear failure and clings to the hope that Biff has succeeded. Under the strain Willy's mind slips back to a hotel room in Boston, where Biff once discovered his father with another woman. This is the discovery that destroyed Biff's faith in him. Biff leaves in distress, and Happy leaves too, with two women he has met, abandoning his father.
• The night at home. Biff and Happy return to find Linda angry that they left their father. Willy is in the garden, planting seeds in the dark and talking to the memory of his dead brother Ben, who seems to offer him a way out through his life insurance. Biff confronts Willy about the signs of his father's thoughts of suicide, and tells him that neither of them is the exceptional man Willy has always imagined. When Biff breaks down in tears, Willy realises that his son loves him. Believing that he can still give Biff a future through the insurance money, Willy drives away and kills himself in a car crash.

The Requiem. The short final scene takes place at Willy's grave. Linda, Biff, Happy, Charley and Bernard are present. Linda cannot make sense of what Willy has done, and she tells him that she has just made the last payment on the house, the moment when the family would be free of debt, with nobody left to live there. Charley defends Willy's dreams. Biff says that his father was never able to see himself or his family as they really were, and he decides to leave and make his own life. Happy vows to carry on his father's dream. The play ends with the music of the flute.

How the play moves. Miller does not tell the story in a straight line. Act Two moves between the present day and scenes from the past, which are staged without scene changes: lighting, music and the entrances of characters from Willy's memory show the audience that his mind has slipped. The Boston hotel scene, the conversation with Ben in the garden and the recollection of Dave Singleman all belong to this pattern. The effect is that the audience watches the present events and, at the same time, learns why they are so painful for Willy.

How this lesson links to the others. The other lessons in this unit treat the same material in more depth. They cover a detailed summary of Act Two, the Requiem, the themes of Act Two and Requiem and the development of the main characters, and they end with a conclusion. This lesson is the map that tells you where each of them sits.