Key Events 9&10
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 3.1.5
Act Two: Key Event Nine
The confrontation between Biff and Willy is the climax of the play, bringing its central conflict out into the open.
Key event nine
- Biff confronts Willy with the rubber tubing before breaking down in tears and, “exhausted”, heading upstairs.
Significance
- The confrontation between Biff and Willy is the climax of the play, bringing its central conflict out into the open.
Quotation
- “WILLY: [He is choking with his love, and now cries out his promise] That boy - that boy is going to be magnificent!"
Explanation
- Willy’s realisation that Biff loves him leads to a moment of discovery and understanding.
- However, this moment is short-lived.
- Almost immediately, Willy falls back on his old dreams for Biff, where his son is like Hercules - a conquering hero.
Explanation cont.
- Immediately after this line, Ben responds, “Yes, outstanding, with twenty thousand behind him”, showing how Willy links Biff’s golden future with the proceeds of his own life insurance policy.
Act Two: Key Event Ten - Requiem
Biff conducts a post-mortem analysis of his father's character, concluding Willy’s tragic flaw was his blindness to who he really was.
Key event ten
- In the play’s short closing scene the Loman family, Charley and Bernard stand by Willy’s grave.
Significance
- The requiem acts as a Chorus in Classical tragedy, allowing those present to comment on the tragic hero, Willy.
Quotation
- “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.”
Explanation
- Biff’s short, emphatic sentences, and his use of monosyllables and repetition help to give these lines their power.
- Biff, who has achieved some level of self-recognition, sums up Willy’s tragic flaw - his blindness to who he really was.
Test yourself on Key Events 9&10
Who does Willy compare Biff to in the 'scene' of Death of a Salesman?
What does Willy claim Biff will be?
Which character states: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.”?