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Key Events 7&8

English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 2.1.5

Act One: Key Event Seven

The play returns to the present and Willy's current feelings of inferiority and shame.

Key event seven

Key event seven

  • One memory now merges into another as Willy reacts to Linda’s attempts to comfort him.
Significance

Significance

  • We begin to see how Willy is unable to control his memories and how they torment him.
  • The guilty secret that Willy has kept from his wife for years surfaces and leads to an angry outburst.
Quotation

Quotation

  • __ “WILLY [angrily, taking them from her]: I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!”__
Explanation

Explanation

  • Willy’s anger springs from two sources.
  • First, there is a sense of wounded pride as he is not able to provide for his wife to afford new stockings.
    • That Linda must mend them reminds him of his failure.
  • The sight of silk stockings also provokes a sense of guilt as they remind Willy of his affair with the Woman in Boston.

Act One: Key Event Eight

We are introduced to Willy's neighbour Charley and their simultaneously close and strained relationship.

Key event eight

Key event eight

  • Charley, Willy’s friend and neighbour calls by, despite the late hour, worried about the noise he has heard.
  • He and Willy settle down to a game of cards
Significance

Significance

  • We see the difficult relationship between Willy and Charley.
  • Willy feels able to open up to Charley, asking him for advice on how to deal with Biff, but he reacts angrily when Charley offers him a job.
  • The squabble then moves on to Charley not being able to put up a ceiling.
Quotation

Quotation

  • “A man who can’t handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting.”
Explanation

Explanation

  • Willy dismisses Charley as a “man”, perhaps because Charley does not share the Loman men’s ability to work with their hands but perhaps also because Willy is resentful of Charley.
  • His pride is wounded by Charley being able to offer him a job and, on Willy’s side, there is a competitive streak looking for a way to put Charley down.

Test yourself on Key Events 7&8

  • What is Willy's guilty secret that he has kept from Linda for years?

  • Why does Charley call round on the Loman's at this point in the play?

  • What is Charley unable to do that causes him to argue with Willy?

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