FREE NOTES / STUDY GUIDE

ACT II

Notes

This act is filled with contrasts and pathos. Willy begins his day filled with hope, for Biff has gone to see Oliver, and Willy is certain great things will come from the meeting. He is so positive that he decides he will go out and get some seeds to plant for the yard and talk to Howard about a transfer from New England to New York. The first hint that Willy's day will not go well comes when his wife reminds him about the payments that are due - on the car, the refrigerator, and the house. Willy ironically responds, that they time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up." Although he is talking about the appliances and the car, this, in essence, also describes Willy's life. When he has paid his debts, he is used up and worthless, easily discarded by the company and his sons.

It is appropriate that when Willy is happy he wants to plant some seeds that will grow into plants. There is in Willy a strong need to create something, to leave something material behind. Just as he wants to plant seeds, he wants to plant ideas of success in the minds of his sons. Unfortunately, everything Willy plants does not seem to bloom, even though Willy cannot accept this fact. He still believes he will have flowers in the back yard, and he still believes his sons will be successful.

Willy first goes to his boss' office to ask for the transfer to New York. In order for his request to be honored, Willy desperately tries to prove to Howard that he has been a good salesman in the past; he even lies about how much he has made, because Willy cannot distinguish truth from illusion. When Howard contradicts the amount, Willy argues with him and gets angry. Howard responds by firing Willy, asking him to return his sales cases. The pathos of Willy's situation is summarized in his comment: "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit." But Howard, as a businessman, has squeezed out all of Willy's juices and has now permanently discarded him; he is no longer of use to the company, no matter how long he has worked for them.

There are two important things to notice about the scene with Howard. One is the description that Willy gives of the successful salesman who died at the age of eighty-four. Willy is impressed with the fact that many of his clients came to the man's funeral, indicating that Singleman was extremely popular. In truth, Singleman is the image of what Willy would like to be - a financially successful and well-liked salesman. Unfortunately, Willy is never to obtain this dream; at the end of the play, Willy dies penniless, and the audience sees that no one attends his funeral.

Additionally, in the scene with Howard, Willy is trapped by his own lies and illusions. He has always bragged to Howard about how wonderful and successful his sons are. Howard, therefore, has no qualms about firing Willy, for he is sure that his sons will be able to take care of their father. He even suggests to Willy that he should turn to his sons for help. Of course, neither Biff nor Happy is able to support Willy.

After he is fired, Willy goes into his fantasy world, where his dead brother Ben offers him a job. In the illusion, Linda interferes and reminds Willy that he is sure to make partner in his present job in New York. Of course, the audience realizes that Willy has probably repeatedly told Linda that he was going to be offered a partnership in the future. This illusion is particularly ironic, being juxtaposed next to his having been fired from the company that was to have made him a partner. Willy's exclamation to Ben that he is going to conquer the world is equally ironic.

His next illusion is to remember the day of Biff's great football game. Everyone is rushing to the game when Charley comes in, wondering where everyone is going in such a hurry. Willy is upset that his friend does not remember that it is Biff's big day. Charley laughs at Willy about making the game so important and asks him when he is going to grow up. In contrast to the practical, rational Charley, Willy does seem particularly childish and immature.

Facing the real world of his financial problems, Willy actually heads to Charley's office to see if he can borrow some more money from his friend. As Willy waits outside the office, talking to himself, Bernard, Biff's old friend and Charley's son, emerges, carrying tennis rackets and heading towards some private courts to play. He is the picture of success, and a sharp contrast to Biff. As a youth, Biff was the popular one - a successful athlete and a handsome boy; as an adult, however, he has turned into a drifter, unable to hold down a job. Now it is Bernard who is successful; he is a well-known lawyer who has enough financial security to play tennis during a business day. Bernard wants to know from Willy what has happened to Biff. As soon as Bernard mentions Biff's trip to Boston, Willy yells at him and accuses him of putting the blame on him. This is Willy's defense mechanism for his guilt over the Boston fiasco, which will be detailed in a flashback later in the act.

When Willy meets with Charley, he again offers Willy a job, but Willy is too proud to accept. At first he even lies and tells Charley that he has a very good paying job. Then he confesses to his friend that he has just been fired, but still refuses to take Charley up on his offer of employment. Willy' words to Charley, that a man is worth more dead than alive, foreshadow Willy's suicide at the end of the play. The scene ends with a rare moment of Willy facing the truth; he admits to Charley that he is his only friend in the world, a sad statement from a man who thinks that being well liked is the most important thing in life.

The restaurant scene depicts Happy's totally irresponsible behavior. Although he knows he is meeting his father for lunch, he picks up a woman and has her at his table before Biff or Willy arrives. When Biff tries to explain to Happy that he needs to make Willy see the truth about Biff's failures, Happy counsels him to tell their father something that would make him happy rather than telling him the truth. Like Linda, Happy encourages Willy to continue his world of illusion.

In contrast to Happy, who is only interested in living life for the present moment, Biff is trying to come to on understanding of who he really is. After the interview with Oliver, who does not even recognize him, Biff realizes that his whole life has been a ridiculous lie, fed by Willy's compliments and dreams. During the interview, Biff has stolen a fountain pen from Oliver, just as he has earlier stolen basketballs from him. In fact, stealing is a compulsion with Biff and the reason he has been fired from every job. Biff would like to tell his father the entire truth about himself, but Willy refuses to listen. It is no wonder that Biff cries out that he cannot communicate with his father.

Ironically, Willy thinks that Biff is a failure to spite him. He is unable to accept any of the blame for his son's failures in life; he does not see how his permissiveness in the past has contributed to Biff's current problems. Instead, Willy convinces himself that Biff has not accepted Oliver's offer to hurt him. In actuality, Biff is trying to make Willy see the truth so he will not be hurt in the future. He even tells Ms. Forsyth that Willy is a fine, troubled Prince. A hardworking, unappreciated prince. A good companion always for his boys." Biff, in his search for truth, is able to evaluate his father in a realistic way. He feels that Willy has lots of faults, but lots of values too.

The young women at their table cause Willy to have another flashback - to the important scene in Boston. He is in a hotel room with a woman, when he hears a knocking on the door. Telling the woman to stay hidden in the bathroom, he goes to the door to find Biff, who has come to confess to his dad that he has flunked math and cannot continue his education. Biff gives all kinds of lame excuses for his failure and even confesses that he has cheated on the exam in order to pass, but even that did not work. Willy simply laughs it off. When the woman hears the laughter, she enters the room and demands the silk stocking that Willy has promised. Biff, realizing what is going on, is horrified and calls his father a liar and a fake.

Out of the three Loman men, Biff is the most honest. He admits that he is the lowliest sort of human and a total failure in life; he says, Nothing! I am nothing! He desperately wants Willy to realize the same thing about him and see how he has contributed to his son's problems. Biff says that Willy blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody." Now Biff just wants all of them to look at each other honestly; perhaps then they could make lives for themselves. Unfortunately, Willy is incapable of facing the truth, even though Biff tells him to burn his phony dreams. Happy has no desire to face the truth; he is totally content in his petty, live-for-today existence.

When Biff breaks down and sobs, over Willy's blindness and his own failures, it is a climactic moment in the play. Ironically, Biff's attempts to make Willy face reality turn out the very opposite of what Biff wants. Willy feels that Biff needs him more than ever and is desperate to give his son something to make him a success. The depth of Willy's desperation has become apparent in this act. He talks to his dead brother Ben, in couched terms, about committing suicide. He believes that if Biff has the twenty thousand dollars from his life insurance policy, he can make something of himself and become successful. He also believes that Biff, whom he feels hates him and spites him, will be impressed when he sees how many people attend his father's funeral. It is important to realize that the jungle that Ben keeps mentioning in Willy's illusion is the jungle of death. Ben's caution to his brother, "Time, William, Time," reminds Willy that life is closing in on her and time is running out. At the end of the act, Willy leaves in the car to commit suicide.