Act Two: Key Events 7-8 Quotes
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 11.2.10
Act Two: Key Events 7-8
Here are two quotations showing key events in Act Two:
Key quotation 7
- Willy relives the moment Biff discovers he is having an affair.
- “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!”
- These short exclamations see Biff almost spitting out these lines in disgust. That Biff sees Willy as a “fake” and “phony” immediately connects this scene to the one moments earlier, where Biff had discovered his adult life had been based on a “lie”.
Key quotation 8
- “Oh, Ben, that’s the whole beauty of it! I see it like a diamond, shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch in my hand.”
- Willy’s words are full of dark symbolism. The “diamond” is the $20,000 from his life insurance policy, the prospect of which entrances Willy with its “beauty”. It is so close that Willy can almost reach out and “touch” it, but in order to do this, Willy has to enter “the dark”.
Test yourself on Act Two: Key Events 7-8 Quotes
What does the "diamond" symbolise in this quotation?
“Oh, Ben, that’s the whole beauty of it! I see it like a diamond, shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch in my hand.”