Willy Loman
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 11.1.1
Quotations About Willy Loman
Here are seven quotations about Willy's character:
Ordinariness
- Linda: “not a great man… a small man”.
- Biff: pleads with his father to finally accept that they are both just “dime a dozen”.
Idealistic but delusional
- “We’ve got quite a streak of self-reliance in our family”
- “… Three of the stores were half-closed for inventory… Otherwise I woulda broke records”
- Biff: "Wrong dreams"
Flawed
- Miller warns us of Willy's “little cruelties” in the opening stage direction. We see many of his flaws - his pettiness, short temper and infidelity – throughout the play.
Insecure
- Willy admits to Linda that, deprived of a guiding influence at a young age, Willy has always felt “kind of temporary” about himself.
Test yourself on Willy Loman
What does Miller warn us about in the opening stage directions?