Who defends Willys dream at his funeral?

The Importance of the Requiem in Death of a Salesman

In the play, Death of a Salesman, the final chapter is titled "Requiem" instead of "Epilogue". The definition of Requiem in' The concise Oxford dictionary' is a special Mass for repose of souls of the dead'. The Requiem serves as a tribute to Willy Loman. Sympathy is evoked and reasons for his behavior are given. Charley gives the central speech-' Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.' Any blame or anger at Willy is counteracted. It echoes Linda earlier in the play' But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.' It is made absolutely certain that Willy is sympathized with rather than cursed. Though Biff criticizes Willy and argues with him, he still respects him and is compassionate-'A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working, unappreciated prince'.

The dramatic car crash at the end of the previous scene would be a violent ending, and would leave us with many questions. Before he kills himself it looks like things are on their way to getting better, as if Willy realizes the importance of himself in the family. We can see that Willy is killing himself to help Biff-' Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?'. Its ironic that Willy commits suicide to further Biff's career when it serves to finish it, but it convinces Happy, the son who was always second best, to carry on like his father. We know that Biff has no need for the money, as the things he appreciates in life are free. He thinks that his family will be thankful-' Ben, he'll worship me for it!' when we know they won't. Without the Requiem we wouldn't know how th...

---. Eight Plays. New York: Nelson Doubleday, 1981.

In the Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, the main characters are constantly being impacted by Willy’s dream. The main aspect of this is seen in Willy; in his family, his job, and his life. When Willy talks to his wife, he is constantly harassing her and critiquing her. Willy’s dream is seen affecting his job when he reminisces about Dave Singleman, the salesman, and his view of success. Finally, the “Loman Dream” can be seen affecting Willy when he imagines Ben and his constant conversations with him throughout the book. Starting in Act One, Willy is seen talking to Happy and Biff about their career opportunity with Oliver. Throughout this conversation, Linda is constantly chipping in with optimistic comments. “Willy: Lick the world! You guys together could absolutely lick the civilized world. Biff: I’ll see Oliver tomorrow. Hap, if we could work that out… Linda: Maybe things are…show more content…
Earlier in Willy’s life, when he was deciding whether or not to go try and find his father in Alaska, he met a man named Dave Singleman, and he set the picture of the perfect working man in Willy’s mind. “... I met a salesman in the Parker House. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed up merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet slippers-I’ll never forget-and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want.” (pg. 81). This view of the “greatest career a man could want” was the defining ideal of Willy’s life. He wanted to be so much like this man that he will “never forget”. In the end of WIlly’s life, he wasn’t exactly like that man, but he thought that if he could go with the amount of money that Dave had, and “that funeral will be massive! THey’ll come from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire!” (pg.

LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Death of a Salesman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

He’s a man way out there in the blue . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.

See Important Quotations Explained

To Linda’s considerable chagrin and bewilderment, Willy’s family, Charley, and Bernard are the only mourners who attend Willy’s funeral. She wonders where all his supposed business friends are and how he could have killed himself when they were so close to paying off all of their bills. Biff recalls that Willy seemed happier working on the house than he did as a salesman. He states that Willy had all the wrong dreams and that he didn’t know who he was in the way that Biff now knows who he is. Charley replies that a salesman has to dream or he is lost, and he explains the salesman’s undaunted optimism in the face of certain defeat as a function of his irrepressible dreams of selling himself. Happy becomes increasingly angry at Biff’s observations. He resolves to stay in the city and carry out his father’s dream by becoming a top businessman, convinced he can still “beat this racket.” Linda requests some privacy. She reports to Willy that she made the last payment on the house. She apologizes for her inability to cry, since it seems as if Willy is just “on another trip.” She begins to sob, repeating, “We’re free. . . .” Biff helps her up and all exit. The flute music is heard and the high-rise apartments surrounding the Loman house come into focus.

Analysis

Charley’s speech about the nature of the salesman’s dreams is one of the most memorable passages in the play. His words serve as a kind of respectful eulogy that removes blame from Willy as an individual by explaining the grueling expectations and absurd demands of his profession. The odd, anachronistic, spiritual formality of his remarks (“Nobody dast blame this man”) echo the religious quality of Willy’s quest to sell himself. One can argue that, to a certain extent, Willy Loman is the postwar American equivalent of the medieval crusader, battling desperately for the survival of his own besieged faith.

Read an in-depth analysis of Charley.

Charley solemnly observes that a salesman’s life is a constant upward struggle to sell himself—he supports his dreams on the ephemeral power of his own image, on “a smile and a shoeshine.” He suggests that the salesman’s condition is an aggravated enlargement of a discreet facet of the general human condition. Just as Willy is blind to the totality of the American Dream, concentrating on the aspects related to material success, so is the salesman, in general, lacking, blinded to the total human experience by his conflation of the professional and the personal. Like Charley says, “No man only needs a little salary”—no man can sustain himself on money and materiality without an emotional or spiritual life to provide meaning.

Read an in-depth analysis of Charley’s eulogy.

When the salesman’s advertising self-image fails to inspire smiles from customers, he is “finished” psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. According to Charley, “a salesman is got to dream.” The curious and lyrical slang substitution of “is” for “has” indicates a destined necessity for the salesman—not only must the salesman follow the imperative of his dreams during his life, but Miller suggests that he is literally begotten with the sole purpose of dreaming.

In many ways, Willy has done everything that the myth of the American Dream outlines as the key path to success. He acquired a home and the range of modern appliances. He raised a family and journeyed forth into the business world full of hope and ambition. Nevertheless, Willy has failed to receive the fruits that the American Dream promises. His primary problem is that he continues to believe in the myth rather than restructuring his conception of his life and his identity to meet more realistic standards. The values that the myth espouses are not designed to assuage human insecurities and doubts; rather, the myth unrealistically ignores the existence of such weaknesses. Willy bought the sales pitch that America uses to advertise itself, and the price of his faith is death.

Linda’s initial feeling that Willy is just “on another trip” suggests that Willy’s hope for Biff to succeed with the insurance money will not be fulfilled. To an extent, Linda’s comparison debases Willy’s death, stripping it of any possibility of the dignity that Willy imagined. It seems inevitable that the trip toward meaningful death that Willy now takes will end just as fruitlessly as the trip from which he has just returned as the play opens. Indeed, the recurrence of the haunting flute music, symbolic of Willy’s futile pursuit of the American Dream, and the final visual imprint of the overwhelming apartment buildings reinforce the fact that Willy dies as deluded as he lived.

Read an analysis of Linda’s graveside speech to Willy.