3.1.3

Key Events 5&6

Test yourself

Act Two: Key Event Five

Biff undergoes a moment of self-realisation and becomes determined to get his father to face the truth as well.

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Key event five

  • Biff arrives at Frank’s Chop House in an emotional state, “strangely unnerved” and talking “breathlessly”.
  • He recounts what happened at Bill Oliver’s office to Happy.
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Significance

  • Biff has been unable to see Bill Oliver and, in his frustration (“I got so mad I could’ve torn the walls down!”), steals Bill Oliver’s fountain pen.
  • This instinct to steal (“I just - wanted to take something”), like Happy’s womanising, appears to be a way of ‘getting back at’ superiors.
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Quotation

  • “I even believed myself that I’d been a salesman for him! And then he gave me one look and - I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been. We’ve been talking in a dream for fifteen years. I was a shipping clerk.”
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Explanation

  • Like Willy in the previous scene, Biff has undergone a moment of self-realisation, now able to see the “lie” and “dream” he has blindly accepted.
  • However, unlike Willy, this discovery will not be short-lived.
  • Biff is now determined to get his father to face the truth, leading up to the climax of the play.

Act Two: Key Event Six

Willy, despite physically being in the restaurant, is mentally reliving the moment when Biff discovers his affair.

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Key event six

  • After Willy arrives, Biff tries to delicately break the news to Willy about what happened with Bill Oliver.
  • However, Willy is impatient and Biff becomes frustrated.
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Significance

  • As Biff and Willy begin to argue with each other, Willy is again overwhelmed with guilt and resentment.
  • The suppressed memory of Biff’s discovery of his affair in Boston wells up in his mind.
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Significance cont.

  • Willy cannot control the voices he hears in his head:
    • Of the operator calling up to his room.
    • Of the woman.
    • Or of Biff at the hotel room door.
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Quotation

  • “I’m not in my room!... I’m not there, stop it!”
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Explanation

  • As Miller himself said, Willy is now “at that terrible moment where the voice of the past is… as loud as the voice of the present.”
  • His short exclamations reveal his panic, while the desperate plea to “stop” show how tormented and the pain he is in: he can no longer control his thoughts.
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Explanation cont.

  • That this plays out in front of everyone in the restaurant adds to the power of the scene, with the stage directions telling us that Biff is “frightened” and “horrified” by his father’s behaviour.
  • This feeling of horror will be widely shared by the audience who witness Willy so lost in his memories that he has no consciousness of where he actually is.

Jump to other topics

1Introduction

2Act One

3Act Two

4Extended Passage Analysis

5Character Profiles

6Key Themes

7Writing Techniques

8Historical Context

9Literary Context

10Critical Debates

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