Why did biff stop working for bill oliver

Theme And Conflict In Death

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1915 -2005)

Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

THE CHARACTERS

WILLY LOMAN THE WOMAN JENNY

LINDA CHARLEY STANLEY

BIFF UNCLE BEN MISS FORSYTHE

HAPPY HOWARD WAGNER LETTA

BERNARD

The action takes place in WILLY LOMAN’s house and yard and in various places he visits in the New York and Boston of today.

Act One

A melody is heard, playing upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling of grass and trees and the horizon. The curtain rises.

Before us is the Salesman’s house. We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides. Only the blue light of the sky falls upon the house and forestage; the surrounding area shows an angry flow of orange. As more light appears, we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality. The kitchen at center seems actual enough, for there is a kitchen table with three chairs, and a refrigerator. But no other fixtures are seen. At the back of the kitchen there is a draped entrance, which leads to the living-room. To the right of the kitchen, on a level raised two feet, is a bedroom furnished only with a brass bedstead and a straight chair. On a shelf over the bed a silver athletic trophy stands. A window opens onto the apartment house at the side.

Behind the kitchen, on a level raised six and a half feet, is the boys’ bedroom, at present barely visible. Two beds are dimly seen, and at the back of the room a dormer window. (This bedroom is above the unseen living-room.) At the left a stairway curves up to it from the kitchen.

The entire setting is wholly or, in some places, partially transparent. The roofline of the house is one-dimensional; under and over it we see the apartment buildings. Before the house lies an apron, curving beyond the forestage into the orchestra. This forward area serves as the back yard as well as the locale of all WILLY’s imaginings and of his city scenes. Whenever the action is in the present the actors observe the imaginary wall-lines, entering the house only through its door at the left. But in the scenes of the past these boundaries are broken, and characters enter or leave a room by stepping “through” a wall onto the forestage.

From the right, WILLY LOMAN, the Salesman, enters, carrying two large sample cases. The flute plays on. He hears but is not aware of it. He is past sixty years of age, dressed quietly. Even as he crosses the stage to the doorway of the house, his exhaustion is apparent. He unlocks the door, comes into the kitchen, and thankfully lets his burden down, feeling the soreness of his palms. A word-sigh escapes his lips—it might be “Oh, boy, oh, boy.” He closes the door, then carries his cases out into the living-room, through the draped kitchen doorway.

LINDA, his wife, has stirred in her bed at the right. She gets out and puts on a robe, listening. Most often jovial, she has developed an iron repression of her exceptions to WILLY’s behavior—she more than loves him, she admires him, as though his mercurial nature, his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him, longings which she shares but lacks the temperament to utter and follow to their end.

LINDA [hearing WILLY outside the bedroom, calls with some trepidation] Willy!

WILLY It’s all right. I came back.

LINDA Why? What happened? [slight pause] Did something happen, Willy?

WILLY No, nothing happened.

LINDA You didn’t smash the car, did you?

WILLY [with casual irritation] I said nothing happened. Didn’t you hear me?

LINDA Don’t you feel well?

WILLY I’m tired to the death. [The flute has faded away. He sits on the bed beside her, a little numb.] I couldn’t make it. I just couldn’t make it, Linda.

LINDA [very carefully, delicately] Where were you all day? You look terrible.

WILLY I got as far as a little above Yonkers. I stopped for a cup of coffee. Maybe it was the coffee.

LINDA What?

WILLY [after a pause] I suddenly couldn’t drive any more. The car kept going off onto the shoulder, y’know?

LINDA [helpfully] Oh. Maybe it was the steering again. I don’t think Angelo knows the Studebaker.

WILLY No, it’s me, it’s me. Suddenly I realize I’m goin’ sixty miles an hour and I don’t remember the last five minutes. I’m—I can’t seem to—keep my mind to it.

LINDA Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses.

WILLY No, I see everything. I came back ten miles an hour. It took me nearly four hours from Yonkers.

LINDA [resigned] Well, you’ll just have to take a rest, Willy, you can’t continue this way.

WILLY I just got back from Florida.

LINDA But you didn’t rest your mind. Your mind is overactive, and the mind is what counts, dear.

WILLY I’ll start out in the morning. Maybe I’ll feel better in the morning. [She is taking off his shoes.] These goddam arch supports are killing me.

LINDA Take an aspirin. Should I get you an aspirin? It’ll soothe you.

WILLY [with wonder] I was driving along, you understand? And I was fine. I was even observing the scenery. You can imagine, me looking at scenery, on the road every week of my life. But it’s so beautiful up there, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm. I opened the windshield and just let the warm air bathe over me. And then all of a sudden I’m goin’ off the road! I’m tellin’ ya, I absolutely forgot I was driving. If I’d’ve gone the other way over the white line I might’ve killed somebody. So I went on again—and five minutes later I’m dreamin’ again, and I nearly— [He presses two fingers against his eyes.] I have such thoughts, I have such strange thoughts.

LINDA Willy, dear. Talk to them again. There’s no reason why you can’t work in New York.

WILLY They don’t need me in New York. I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England.

LINDA But you’re sixty years old. They can’t expect you to keep traveling every week.

WILLY I’ll have to send a wire to Portland. I’m supposed to see Brown and Morrison tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to show the line. Goddammit, I could sell them! [He starts putting on his jacket.]

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LINDA [taking the jacket from him] Why don’t you go down to the place tomorrow and tell Howard you’ve simply got to work in New York? You’re too accommodating, dear.

WILLY If old man Wagner was alive I’d a been in charge of New York now! That man was a prince, he was a masterful man. But that boy of his, that Howard, he don’t appreciate. When I went north the first time, the Wagner Company didn’t know where New England was!

LINDA Why don’t you tell those things to Howard, dear?

WILLY [encouraged] I will, I definitely will. Is there any cheese?

LINDA I’ll make you a sandwich.

WILLY No, go to sleep. I’ll take some milk. I’ll be up right away. The boys in?

LINDA They’re sleeping. Happy took Biff on a date tonight.

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WILLY [interested] That so?

LINDA It was so nice to see them shaving together, one behind the other, in the bathroom. And going out together. You notice? The whole house smells of shaving lotion.

WILLY Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.

LINDA Well, dear, life is a casting off. It’s always that way.

WILLY No, no, some people—some people accomplish something. Did Biff say anything after I went this morning?

LINDA You shouldn’t have criticized him, Willy, especially after he just got off the train. You mustn’t lose your temper with him.

WILLY When the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is that a criticism?

LINDA But, dear, how could he make any money?

WILLY [worried and angered] There’s such an undercurrent in him. He became a moody man. Did he apologize when I left this morning?

LINDA He was crestfallen, Willy. You know how he admires you. I think if he finds himself, then you’ll both be happier and not fight any more.

WILLY How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week?

LINDA He’s finding himself, Willy.

WILLY Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!

LINDA Shh!

WILLY The trouble is he’s lazy, goddammit!

LINDA Willy, please!

WILLY Biff is a lazy bum!

LINDA They’re sleeping. Get something to eat. Go on down.

WILLY Why did he come home? I would like to know what brought him home.

LINDA I don’t know. I think he’s still lost, Willy. I think he’s very lost.

WILLY Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff—he’s not lazy.

LINDA Never.

WILLY [with pity and resolve] I’ll see him in the morning; I’ll have a nice talk with him. I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school?

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WILLY The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks.

LINDA We should’ve bought the land next door.

WILLY The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard. They should’ve had a law against apartment houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?

LINDA Yeah, like being a million miles from the city.

WILLY They should’ve arrested the builder for cutting those down. They massacred the neighborhood. [lost] More and more I think of those days, Linda. This time of year it was lilac and wisteria. And then the peonies would come out, and the daffodils. What fragrance in this room!

LINDA Well, after all, people had to move somewhere.

WILLY No, there’s more people now.

LINDA I don’t think there’s more people. I think—

WILLY There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is maddening! Smell the stink from that apartment house! And another one on the other side . . . How can they whip cheese?

[On WILLY’s last line, BIFF and HAPPY raise themselves up in their beds, listening.]

LINDA Go down, try it. And be quiet.

WILLY [turning to LINDA, guiltily] You’re not worried about me, are you, sweetheart?

BIFF What’s the matter?

HAPPY Listen!

LINDA You’ve got too much on the ball to worry about.

WILLY You’re my foundation and my support, Linda.

LINDA Just try to relax, dear. You make mountains out of molehills.

WILLY I won’t fight with him any more. If he wants to go back to Texas, let him go.

LINDA He’ll find his way.

WILLY Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B. F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff.

LINDA And Willy—if it’s warm Sunday we’ll drive in the country. And we’ll open the windshield, and take lunch.

WILLY No, the windshields don’t open on the new cars.

LINDA But you opened it today.

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WILLY Me? I didn’t. [He stops.] Now isn’t that peculiar! Isn’t that a remarkable—[He breaks off in amazement and fright as the flute is heard distantly.]

LINDA What, darling?

WILLY That is the most remarkable thing.

LINDA What, dear?

WILLY I was thinking of the Chevvy. [slight pause] Nineteen twenty-eight . . . when I had that red Chevvy—[breaks off] That funny? I coulda sworn I was driving that Chevvy today.

LINDA Well, that’s nothing. Something must’ve reminded you.

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WILLY Remarkable. Ts. Remember those days? The way Biff used to simonize that car? The dealer refused to believe there was eighty thousand miles on it. [He shakes his head.] Heh! [to LINDA] Close your eyes, I’ll be right up. [He walks out of the bedroom.]

HAPPY [to BIFF] Jesus, maybe he smashed up the car again!

LINDA [calling after WILLY] Be careful on the stairs, dear! The cheese is on the middle shelf! [She turns, goes over to the bed, takes his jacket, and goes out of the bedroom.]

[Light has risen on the boys’ room. Unseen, WILLY is heard talking to himself, “Eighty thousand miles,” and a little laugh. BIFF gets out of bed, comes downstage a bit, and stands attentively. BIFF is two years older than his brother HAPPY, well built, but in these days bears a worn air and seems less self-assured. He has succeeded less, and his dreams are stronger and less acceptable than HAPPY’s. HAPPY is tall, powerfully made. Sexuality is like a visible color on him, or a scent that many women have discovered. He, like his brother, is lost, but in a different way, for he has never allowed himself to turn his face toward defeat and is thus more confused and hard-skinned, although seemingly more content.]

HAPPY [getting out of bed] He’s going to get his license taken away if he keeps that up. I’m getting nervous about him, y’know, Biff?

BIFF His eyes are going.

HAPPY No, I’ve driven with him. He sees all right. He just doesn’t keep his mind on it. I drove into the city with him last week. He stops at a green light and then it turns red and he goes. [He laughs.]

BIFF Maybe he’s color-blind.

HAPPY Pop? Why he’s got the finest eye for color in the business. You know that.

BIFF [sitting down on his bed] I’m going to sleep.

HAPPY You’re not still sour on Dad, are you Biff?

BIFF He’s all right, I guess.

WILLY [underneath them, in the living-room] Yes, sir, eighty thousand miles—eighty-two thousand!

BIFF You smoking?

HAPPY [holding out a pack of cigarettes] Want one?

BIFF [taking a cigarette] I can never sleep when I smell it.

WILLY What a simonizing job, heh!

HAPPY [with deep sentiment] Funny, Biff, y’know? Us sleeping in here again? The old beds. [He pats his bed affectionately.] All the talk that went across those two beds, huh? Our whole lives.

BIFF Yeah. Lotta dreams and plans.

HAPPY [with a deep and masculine laugh] About five hundred women would like to know what was said in this room.

[They share a soft laugh.]

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BIFF Remember that big Betsy something—what the hell was her name—over on Bushwick Avenue?

HAPPY [combing his hair] With the collie dog!

BIFF That’s the one. I got you in there, remember?

HAPPY Yeah, that was my first time—I think. Boy, there was a pig! [They laugh, almost crudely.] You taught me everything I know about women. Don’t forget that.

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BIFF I bet you forgot how bashful you used to be. Especially with girls.

HAPPY Oh, I still am, Biff.

BIFF Oh, go on.

HAPPY I just control it, that’s all. I think I got less bashful and you got more so. What happened, Biff? Where’s the old humor, the old confidence? [He shakes BIFF’s knee. BIFF gets up and moves restlessly about the room.] What’s the matter?

BIFF Why does Dad mock me all the time?

HAPPY He’s not mocking you, he—

BIFF Everything I say there’s a twist of mockery on his face. I can’t get near him.

HAPPY He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I wanted to talk to you about Dad for a long time, Biff. Something’s—happening to him. He—talks to himself.

BIFF I noticed that this morning. But he always mumbled.

HAPPY But not so noticeable. It got so embarrassing I sent him to Florida. And you know something? Most of the time he’s talking to you.

BIFF What’s he say about me?

HAPPY I can’t make it out.

BIFF What’s he say about me?

HAPPY I think the fact that you’re not settled, that you’re still kind of up in the air . . .

BIFF There’s one or two other things depressing him, Happy.

HAPPY What do you mean?

BIFF Never mind. Just don’t lay it all to me.

HAPPY But I think if you just got started—I mean—is there any future for you out there?

BIFF I tell ya, Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know—what I’m supposed to want.

HAPPY What do you mean?

BIFF Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still—that’s how you build a future.

HAPPY Well, you really enjoy it on a farm? Are you content out there?

BIFF [with rising agitation] Hap, I’ve had twenty or thirty different kinds of jobs since I left home before the war, and it always turns out the same. I just realized it lately. In Nebraska when I herded cattle, and the Dakotas, and Arizona, and now in Texas. It’s why I came home now, I guess, because I realized it. This farm I work on, it’s spring there now, see? And they’ve got about fifteen new colts. There’s nothing more inspiring or—

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beautiful than the sight of a mare and a new colt. And it’s cool there now, see? Texas is cool now, and it’s spring. And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not gettin’ anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I’m thirty-four years old. I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s

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when I come running home. And now, I get here, and I don’t know what to do with myself. [after a pause] I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life, and everytime I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life.

HAPPY You’re a poet, you know that, Biff? You’re a—you’re an idealist!

BIFF No, I’m mixed up very bad. Maybe I oughta get married. Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that’s my trouble. I’m like a boy. I’m not married. I’m not in business, I just—I’m like a boy. Are you content, Hap? You’re a success, aren’t you? Are you content?

HAPPY Hell, no!

BIFF Why? You’re making money, aren’t you?

HAPPY [moving about with energy, expressiveness] All I can do now is wait for the merchandise manager to die. And suppose I get to be merchandise manager? He’s a good friend of mine, and he just built a terrific estate on Long Island. And he lived there about two months and sold it, and now he’s building another one. He can’t enjoy it once it’s finished. And I know that’s just what I would do. I don’t know what the hell I’m workin’ for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment—all alone. And I think of the rent I’m paying. And it’s crazy. But then, it’s what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I’m lonely.

BIFF [with enthusiasm] Listen why don’t you come out West with me?

HAPPY You and I, heh?

BIFF Sure, maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles. Men built like we are should be working out in the open.

HAPPY [avidly] The Loman Brothers, heh?

BIFF [with vast affection] Sure, we’d be known all over the counties!

HAPPY [enthralled] That’s what I dream about, Biff. Sometimes I want to just rip my clothes off in the middle of the store and outbox that goddam merchandise manager. I mean I can outbox, outrun, and outlift anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from those common, petty sons-of-bitches till I can’t stand it any more.

BIFF I’m tellin’ you, kid, if you were with me I’d be happy out there.

HAPPY [enthused] See, Biff, everybody around me is so false that I’m constantly lowering my ideals . . .

BIFF Baby, together we’d stand up for one another, we’d have someone to trust.

HAPPY If I were around you—

BIFF Hap, the trouble is we weren’t brought up to grub for money. I don’t know how to do it.

HAPPY Neither can I!

BIFF Then let’s go!

HAPPY The only thing is—what can you make out there?

BIFF But look at your friend. Builds an estate and then hasn’t the peace of mind to live in it.

HAPPY Yeah, but when he walks into the store the waves part in front of him. That’s fifty-two thousand dollars a year coming through the revolving door, and I got more in my pinky finger than he’s got in his head.

BIFF Yeah, but you just said—

HAPPY I gotta show some of those pompous, self-important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade. I want to walk into the store

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the way he walks in. Then I’ll go with you, Biff. We’ll be together yet, I swear. But take those two we had tonight. Now weren’t they gorgeous creatures?

BIFF Yeah, yeah, most gorgeous I’ve had in years.

HAPPY I get that any time I want, Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted. The only trouble is, it gets like bowling or something. I just keep knockin’ them over and it doesn’t mean anything. You still run around a lot?

BIFF Naa. I’d like to find a girl—steady, somebody with substance.

HAPPY That’s what I long for.

BIFF Go on! You’d never come home.

HAPPY I would! Somebody with character, with resistance! Like Mom, y’know? You’re gonna call me a bastard when I tell you this. That girl Charlotte I was with tonight is engaged to be married in five weeks. [He tries on his new hat.]

BIFF No kiddin’!

HAPPY Sure, the guy’s in line for the vice-presidency of the store. I don’t know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can’t get rid of her. And he’s the third executive I’ve done that to. Isn’t that a crummy characteristic? And to top it all, I go to their weddings! [indignantly, but laughing] Like I’m not supposed to take bribes. Manufacturers offer me a hundred-dollar bill now and then to throw an order their way. You know how honest I am, but it’s like this girl, see. I hate myself for it. Because I don’t want the girl, and, still, I take it and—I love it!

BIFF Let’s go to sleep.

HAPPY I guess we didn’t settle anything, heh?

BIFF I just got one idea that I think I’m going to try.

HAPPY What’s that?

BIFF Remember Bill Oliver?

HAPPY Sure, Oliver is very big now. You want to work for him again?

BIFF No, but when I quit he said something to me. He put his arm on my shoulder, and he said, “Biff, if you ever need anything, come to me.”

HAPPY I remember that. That sounds good.

BIFF I think I’ll go to see him. If I could get ten thousand or even seven or eight thousand dollars I could buy a beautiful ranch.

HAPPY I bet he’d back you. ’Cause he thought highly of you, Biff. I mean, they all do. You’re well liked, Biff. That’s why I say to come back here, and we both have the apartment. And I’m tellin’ you, Biff, any babe you want . . .

BIFF No, with a ranch I could do the work I like and still be something. I just wonder though. I wonder if Oliver still thinks I stole that carton of basketballs.

HAPPY Oh, he probably forgot that long ago. It’s almost ten years. You’re too sensitive. Anyway, he didn’t really fire you.

BIFF Well, I think he was going to. I think that’s why I quit. I was never sure whether he knew or not. I know he thought the world of me, though. I was the only one he’d let lock up the place.

WILLY [below] You gonna wash the engine, Biff?

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HAPPY Shh!

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[BIFF looks at HAPPY, who is gazing down, listening. WILLY is mumbling in the parlor.]

HAPPY You hear that?

[They listen. WILLY laughs warmly.]

BIFF [growing angry] Doesn’t he know Mom can hear that?

WILLY Don’t get your sweater dirty, Biff!

[A look of pain crosses BIFF’s face.]

HAPPY Isn’t that terrible? Don’t leave again, will you? You’ll find a job here. You gotta stick around. I don’t know what to do about him, it’s getting embarrassing.

WILLY What a simonizing job!

BIFF Mom’s hearing that!

WILLY No kiddin’, Biff, you got a date? Wonderful!

HAPPY Go on to sleep. But talk to him in the morning, will you?

BIFF [reluctantly getting into bed] With her in the house. Brother!

HAPPY [getting into bed] I wish you’d have a good talk with him.

[The light on their room begins to fade.]

BIFF [to himself in bed] That selfish, stupid . . .

HAPPY Sh . . . Sleep, Biff.

[Their light is out. Well before they have finished speaking, WILLY’s form is dimly seen below in the darkened kitchen. He opens the refrigerator, searches in there, and takes out a bottle of milk. The apartment houses are fading out, and the entire house and surroundings become covered with leaves. Music insinuates itself as the leaves appear.]

WILLY Just wanna be careful with those girls, Biff, that’s all. Don’t make any promises. No promises of any kind. Because a girl, y’know, they always believe what you tell ’em, and you’re very young, Biff, you’re too young to be talking seriously to girls.

[Light rises on the kitchen. WILLY, talking, shuts the refrigerator door and comes downstage to the kitchen table. He pours milk into a glass. He is totally immersed in himself, smiling faintly.]

WILLY Too young entirely, Biff. You want to watch your schooling first. Then when you’re all set, there’ll be plenty of girls for a boy like you. [He smiles broadly at a kitchen chair.] That so? The girls pay for you? [He laughs.] Boy, you must really be makin’ a hit.

[WILLY is gradually addressing—physically—a point offstage, speaking through the wall of the kitchen, and his voice has been rising in volume to that of a normal conversation.]

WILLY I been wondering why you polish the car so careful. Ha! Don’t leave the hubcaps, boys. Get the chamois to the hubcaps. Happy, use newspaper on the windows, it’s the easiest thing. Show him how to do it, Biff! You see, Happy? Pad it up, use it like a pad. That’s it, that’s it, good work. You’re doin’ all right, Hap. [He pauses, then nods in approbation for a few seconds, then looks upward.] Biff, first thing we gotta do when we get time is clip that big branch over the house. Afraid it’s gonna fall in a storm and hit the roof. Tell you what. We get a rope and sling her around, and then we climb up there with a couple of saws and take her down. Soon as you finish the car, boys, I wanna see ya. I got a surprise for you, boys.

BIFF [offstage] Whatta ya got, Dad?

WILLY No, you finish first. Never leave a job till you’re finished—remember that, [looking toward the “big trees”] Biff, up in Albany I saw

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a beautiful hammock. I think I’ll buy it next trip, and we’ll hang it right between those two elms. Wouldn’t that be something? Just swingin’ there under those branches. Boy, that would be . . .

[YOUNG BIFF and YOUNG HAPPY appear from the direction WILLY was addressing. HAPPY carries rags and a pail of water. BIFF, wearing a sweater with a block “S,” carries a football.]

BIFF [pointing in the direction of the car offstage] How’s that, Pop, professional?

WILLY Terrific. Terrific job, boys. Good work, Biff.

HAPPY Where’s the surprise, Pop?

WILLY In the back seat of the car.

HAPPY Boy! [He runs off.]

BIFF What is it, Dad? Tell me, what’d you buy?

WILLY [laughing, cuffs him] Never mind, something I want you to have.

BIFF [turns and starts off] What is it, Hap?

HAPPY [offstage] It’s a punching bag!

BIFF Oh, Pop!

WILLY It’s got Gene Tunney’s signature on it!

[HAPPY runs onstage with a punching bag.]

BIFF Gee, how’d you know we wanted a punching bag?

WILLY Well, it’s the finest thing for the timing.

HAPPY [lies down on his back and pedals with his feet] I’m losing weight, you notice, Pop?

WILLY [to HAPPY] Jumping rope is good too.

BIFF Did you see the new football I got?

WILLY [examining the ball] Where’d you get a new ball?

BIFF The coach told me to practice my passing.

WILLY That so? And he gave you the ball, heh?

BIFF Well, I borrowed it from the locker room. [He laughs confidentially.]

WILLY [laughing with him at the left]

I want you to return that.

HAPPY I told you he wouldn’t like it!

BIFF [angrily] Well, I’m bringing it back!

WILLY [stopping the incipient argument, to HAPPY] Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he? [to BIFF] Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative!

BIFF Oh, he keeps congratulating my initiative all the time, Pop.

WILLY That’s because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball there’d be an uproar. So what’s the report, boys, what’s the report?

BIFF Where’d you go this time, Dad? Gee we were lonesome for you.

WILLY [pleased, puts an arm around each boy and they come down to the apron] Lonesome, heh?

BIFF Missed you every minute.

WILLY Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don’t breathe it to a soul. Someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll never have to leave home any more.

HAPPY Like Uncle Charley, heh?

WILLY Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not—liked. He’s liked, but he’s not—well liked.

BIFF Where’d you go this time, Dad?

p. 249

p. 1245

p. 2429

WILLY Well, I got on the road, and I went north to Providence. Met the Mayor.

BIFF The Mayor of Providence!

WILLY He was sitting in the hotel lobby.

BIFF What’d he say?

WILLY He said, “Morning!” And I said, “You got a fine city here, Mayor.” And then he had coffee with me. And then I went to Waterbury. Waterbury is a fine city. Big clock city, the famous Waterbury clock. Sold a nice bill there. And then Boston—Boston is the cradle of the Revolution. A fine city. And a couple of other towns in Mass., and on to Portland and Bangor and straight home!

BIFF Gee, I’d love to go with you sometime, Dad.

WILLY Soon as summer comes.

HAPPY Promise?

WILLY You and Hap and I, and I’ll show you all the towns. America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ’cause one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own. This summer, heh?

BIFF and HAPPY [together] Yeah! You bet!

WILLY We’ll take our bathing suits.

HAPPY We’ll carry your bags, Pop!

WILLY Oh, won’t that be something! Me comin’ into the Boston stores with you boys carryin’ my bags. What a sensation!

[BIFF is prancing around, practicing passing the ball.]

WILLY You nervous, Biff, about the game?

BIFF Not if you’re gonna be there.

WILLY What do they say about you in school, now that they made you captain?

HAPPY There’s a crowd of girls behind him everytime the classes change.

BIFF [taking WILLY’s hand] This Saturday, Pop, this Saturday—just for you, I’m going to break through for a touchdown.

HAPPY You’re supposed to pass.

BIFF I’m takin’ one play for Pop. You watch me, Pop, and when I take off my helmet, that means I’m breakin’ out. Then you watch me crash through that line!

WILLY [kisses BIFF] Oh, wait’ll I tell this in Boston!

[BERNARD enters in knickers. He is younger than BIFF, earnest and loyal, a worried boy.]

BERNARD Biff, where are you? You’re supposed to study with me today.

WILLY Hey, looka Bernard. What’re you lookin’ so anemic about, Bernard?

BERNARD He’s gotta study, Uncle Willy. He’s got Regents next week.

HAPPY [tauntingly, spinning BERNARD around] Let’s box, Bernard!

BERNARD Biff! [He gets away from HAPPY.] Listen, Biff, I heard Mr. Birnbaum say that if you don’t start studyin’ math he’s gonna flunk you, and you won’t graduate. I heard him!

WILLY You better study with him, Biff. Go ahead now.

p. 250

BERNARD I heard him!

p. 1246

p. 2430

BIFF Oh, Pop, you didn’t see my sneakers! [He holds up a foot for WILLY to look at.]

WILLY Hey, that’s a beautiful job of printing!

BERNARD [wiping his glasses] Just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers doesn’t mean they’ve got to graduate him, Uncle Willy!

WILLY [angrily] What’re you talking about? With scholarships to three universities they’re gonna flunk him?

BERNARD But I heard Mr. Birnbaum say—

WILLY Don’t be a pest, Bernard! [to his boys] What an anemic!

BERNARD Okay, I’m waiting for you in my house, Biff.

[BERNARD goes off. The Lomans laugh.]

WILLY Bernard is not well liked, is he?

BIFF He’s liked, but he’s not well liked.

HAPPY That’s right, Pop.

WILLY That’s just what I mean. Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him. That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.

BIFF Did you knock them dead, Pop?

WILLY Knocked ’em cold in Providence, slaughtered ’em in Boston.

HAPPY [on his back, pedaling again] I’m losing weight, you notice, Pop?

[LINDA enters, as of old, a ribbon in her hair, carrying a basket of washing.]

LINDA [with youthful energy] Hello, dear!

WILLY Sweetheart!

LINDA How’d the Chevvy run?

WILLY Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built. [to the boys] Since when do you let your mother carry wash up the stairs?

BIFF Grab hold there, boy!

HAPPY Where to, Mom?

LINDA Hang them up on the line. And you better go down to your friends, Biff. The cellar is full of boys. They don’t know what to do with themselves.

BIFF Ah, when Pop comes home they can wait!

WILLY [laughs appreciatively] You better go down and tell them what to do, Biff.

BIFF I think I’ll have them sweep out the furnace room.

WILLY Good work, Biff.

BIFF [goes through wall-line of kitchen to doorway at back and calls down] Fellas! Everybody sweep out the furnace room! I’ll be right down!

VOICES All right! Okay, Biff.

BIFF George and Sam and Frank, come out back! We’re hangin’ up the wash! Come on, Hap, on the double!

[He and HAPPY carry out the basket.]

p. 251

LINDA The way they obey him!

p. 1247

p. 2431

WILLY Well, that training, the training. I’m tellin’ you, I was sellin’ thousands and thousands, but I had to come home.

LINDA Oh, the whole block’ll be at that game. Did you sell anything?

WILLY I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston.

LINDA No! Wait a minute, I’ve got a pencil. [She pulls pencil and paper out of her apron pocket.] That makes your commission . . . Two hundred—my God! Two hundred and twelve dollars!

WILLY Well, I didn’t figure it yet, but . . .

LINDA How much did you do?

WILLY Well, I—I did—about a hundred and eighty gross in Providence. Well, no—it came to—roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip.

LINDA [without hesitation] Two hundred gross. That’s . . . [She figures.]

WILLY The trouble was that three of the stores were half closed for inventory in Boston. Otherwise I woulda broke records.

LINDA Well, it makes seventy dollars and some pennies. That’s very good.

WILLY What do we owe?

LINDA Well, on the first there’s sixteen dollars on the refrigerator—

WILLY Why sixteen?

LINDA Well, the fan belt broke, so it was a dollar eighty.

WILLY But it’s brand new.

LINDA Well, the man said that’s the way it is. Till they work themselves in, y’know.

[They move through the wall-line into the kitchen.]

WILLY I hope we didn’t get stuck on that machine.

LINDA They got the biggest ads of any of them!

WILLY I know, it’s a fine machine. What else?

LINDA Well, there’s nine-sixty for the washing machine. And for the vacuum cleaner there’s three and a half due on the fifteenth. Then the roof, you got twenty-one dollars remaining.

WILLY It don’t leak, does it?

LINDA No, they did a wonderful job. Then you owe Frank for the carburetor.

WILLY I’m not going to pay that man! That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car!

LINDA Well, you owe him three and a half. And odds and ends, comes to around a hundred and twenty dollars by the fifteenth.

WILLY A hundred and twenty dollars! My God, if business don’t pick up I don’t know what I’m gonna do!

LINDA Well, next week you’ll do better.

WILLY Oh, I’ll knock ’em dead next week. I’ll go to Hartford. I’m very well liked in Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me.

[They move onto the forestage.]

LINDA Oh, don’t be foolish.

WILLY I know it when I walk in. They seem to laugh at me.

LINDA Why? Why would they laugh at you? Don’t talk that way, Willy.

[WILLY moves to the edge of the stage. LINDA goes into the kitchen and starts to darn stockings.]

p. 252

WILLY I don’t know the reason for it, but they just pass me by. I’m not noticed.

p. 1248

p. 2432

LINDA But you’re doing wonderful, dear. You’re making seventy to a hundred dollars a week.

WILLY But I gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men—I don’t know—they do it easier. I don’t know why—I can’t stop myself—I talk too much. A man oughta come in with a few words. One thing about Charley. He’s a man of few words, and they respect him.

LINDA You don’t talk too much, you’re just lively.

WILLY [smiling] Well, I figure, what the hell, life is short, a couple of jokes. [to himself] I joke too much! [The smiles goes.]

LINDA Why? You’re—

WILLY I’m fat. I’m very—foolish to look at, Linda. I didn’t tell you, but Christmas time I happened to be calling on F. H. Stewarts, and a salesman I know, as I was going in to see the buyer I heard him say something about—walrus. And I—I cracked him right across the face. I won’t take that. I simply will not take that. But they do laugh at me. I know that.

LINDA Darling . . .

WILLY I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it. I’m not dressing to advantage, maybe.

LINDA Willy, darling, you’re the handsomest man in the world—

WILLY Oh, no, Linda.

LINDA To me you are. [slight pause] The handsomest.

[From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman. WILLY doesn’t turn to it, but it continues through LINDA’s lines.]

LINDA And the boys, Willy. Few men are idolized by their children the way you are.

[Music is heard as behind a scrim, to the left of the house, THE WOMAN, dimly seen, is dressing.]

WILLY [with great feeling] You’re the best there is, Linda, you’re a pal, you know that? On the road—on the road I want to grab you sometimes and just kiss the life outa you.

[The laughter is loud now, and he moves into a brightening area at the left, where THE WOMAN has come from behind the scrim and is standing, putting on her hat, looking into a “mirror” and laughing.]

WILLY ’Cause I get so lonely—especially when business is bad and there’s nobody to talk to. I get the feeling that I’ll never sell anything again, that I won’t make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys. [He talks through THE WOMAN’s subsiding laughter; THE WOMAN primps at the “mirror.”] There’s so much I want to make for—

THE WOMAN Me? You didn’t make me, Willy. I picked you.

WILLY [pleased] You picked me?

THE WOMAN [who is quite proper-looking, WILLY’s age] I did. I’ve been sitting at that desk watching all the salesmen go by, day in, day out. But you’ve got such a sense of humor, and we do have such a good time together, don’t we?

WILLY Sure, sure. [He takes her in his arms.] Why do you have to go now?

p. 253

THE WOMAN It’s two o’clock . . .

WILLY No, come on in! [He pulls her.]

THE WOMAN . . . my sisters’ll be scandalized. When’ll you be back?

p. 1249

p. 2433

WILLY Oh, two weeks about. Will you come up again?

THE WOMAN Sure thing. You do make me laugh. It’s good for me. [She squeezes his arm, kisses him.] And I think you’re a wonderful man.

WILLY You picked me, heh?

THE WOMAN Sure. Because you’re so sweet. And such a kidder.

WILLY Well, I’ll see you next time I’m in Boston.

THE WOMAN I’ll put you right through to the buyers.

WILLY [slapping her bottom] Right. Well, bottoms up!

THE WOMAN [slaps him gently and laughs] You just kill me, Willy. [He suddenly grabs her and kisses her roughly.] You kill me. And thanks for the stockings. I love a lot of stockings. Well, good night.

WILLY Good night. And keep your pores open!

THE WOMAN Oh, Willy!

[THE WOMAN bursts out laughing, and LINDA’s laughter blends in. THE WOMAN disappears into the dark. Now the area at the kitchen table brightens. LINDA is sitting where she was at the kitchen table, but now is mending a pair of her silk stockings.]

LINDA You are, Willy. The handsomest man. You’ve got no reason to feel that—

WILLY [coming out of THE WOMAN’s dimming area and going over to LINDA] I’ll make it all up to you, Linda. I’ll—

LINDA There’s nothing to make up, dear. You’re doing fine, better than—

WILLY [noticing her mending] What’s that?

LINDA Just mending my stockings. They’re so expensive—

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

[LINDA puts the stockings in her pocket.]

BERNARD [entering on the run] Where is he? If he doesn’t study!

WILLY [moving to the forestage, with great agitation] You’ll give him the answers!

BERNARD I do, but I can’t on a Regents! That’s a state exam! They’re liable to arrest me!

WILLY Where is he? I’ll whip him, I’ll whip him!

LINDA And he’d better give back that football, Willy, it’s not nice.

WILLY Biff! Where is he? Why is he taking everything?

LINDA He’s too rough with the girls, Willy. All the mothers are afraid of him!

WILLY I’ll whip him!

BERNARD He’s driving the car without a license!

[THE WOMAN’s laugh is heard.]

WILLY Shut up!

LINDA All the mothers—

WILLY Shut up!

BERNARD [backing quietly away and out] Mr. Birnbaum says he’s stuck up.

WILLY Get outa here!

BERNARD If he doesn’t buckle down he’ll flunk math! [He goes off.]

LINDA He’s right, Willy, you’ve gotta—

p. 254

WILLY [exploding at her] There’s nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s got spirit, personality . . .

[As he speaks, LINDA, almost in tears, exist into the living-room. WILLY is alone in the kitchen, wilting and staring. The leaves are gone. It is night again, and the apartment houses look down from behind.]

p. 1250

p. 2434

WILLY Loaded with it. Loaded! What is he stealing? He’s giving it back, isn’t he? Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things.

[HAPPY in pajamas has come down the stairs; WILLY suddenly becomes aware of HAPPY’s presence.]

HAPPY Let’s go now, come on.

WILLY [sitting down at the kitchen table] Huh! Why did she have to wax the floors herself? Everytime she waxes the floors she keels over. She knows that!

HAPPY Shh! Take it easy. What brought you back tonight?

WILLY I got an awful scare. Nearly hit a kid in Yonkers. God! Why didn’t I go to Alaska with my brother Ben that time! Ben! That man was a genius, that man was success incarnate! What a mistake! He begged me to go.

HAPPY Well, there’s no use in—

WILLY You guys! There was a man started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines!

HAPPY Boy, someday I’d like to know how he did it.

WILLY What’s the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!

HAPPY Pop, I told you I’m gonna retire you for life.

WILLY You’ll retire me for life on seventy goddam dollars a week? And your women and your car and your apartment, and you’ll retire me for life! Christ’s sake, I couldn’t get past Yonkers today! Where are you guys, where are you? The woods are burning! I can’t drive a car!

[CHARLEY has appeared in the doorway. He is a large man, slow of speech, laconic, immovable. In all he says, despite what he says, there is pity, and, now, trepidation. He has a robe over pajamas, slippers on his feet. He enters the kitchen.]

CHARLEY Everything all right?

HAPPY Yeah, Charley, everything’s . . .

WILLY What’s the matter?

CHARLEY I heard some noise. I thought something happened. Can’t we do something about the walls? You sneeze in here, and in my house hats blow off.

HAPPY Let’s go to bed, Dad. Come on.

[CHARLEY signals to HAPPY to go.]

WILLY You go ahead, I’m not tired at the moment.

HAPPY [to WILLY] Take it easy, huh? [He exits.]

WILLY What’re you doin’ up?

CHARLEY [sitting down at the kitchen table opposite WILLY] Couldn’t sleep good. I had a heartburn.

WILLY Well, you don’t know how to eat.

CHARLEY I eat with my mouth.

p. 255

WILLY No, you’re ignorant. You gotta know about vitamins and things like that.

CHARLEY Come on, let’s shoot. Tire you out a little.

WILLY [hesitantly] All right. You got cards?

CHARLEY [taking a deck from his pocket] Yeah, I got them. Someplace. What is it with those vitamins?

p. 1251

p. 2435

WILLY [dealing] They build up your bones. Chemistry.

CHARLEY Yeah, but there’s no bones in a heartburn.

WILLY What are you talkin’ about? Do you know the first thing about it?

CHARLEY Don’t get insulted.

WILLY Don’t talk about something you don’t know anything about.

[They are playing. Pause.]

CHARLEY What’re you doin’ home?

WILLY A little trouble with the car.

CHARLEY Oh. [pause] I’d like to take a trip to California.

WILLY Don’t say.

CHARLEY You want a job?

WILLY I got a job, I told you that. [after a slight pause] What the hell are you offering me a job for?

CHARLEY Don’t get insulted.

WILLY Don’t insult me.

CHARLEY I don’t see no sense in it. You don’t have to go on this way.

WILLY I got a good job. [slight pause] What do you keep comin’ in here for?

CHARLEY You want me to go?

WILLY [after a pause, withering] I can’t understand it. He’s going back to Texas again. What the hell is that?

CHARLEY Let him go.

WILLY I got nothin’ to give him, Charley, I’m clean, I’m clean.

CHARLEY He won’t starve. None a them starve. Forget about him.

WILLY Then what have I got to remember?

CHARLEY You take it too hard. To hell with it. When a deposit bottle is broken you don’t get your nickel back.

WILLY That’s easy enough for you to say.

CHARLEY That ain’t easy for me to say.

WILLY Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room?

CHARLEY Yeah, that’s a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. How do you do it?

WILLY What’s the difference?

CHARLEY Well, talk about it.

WILLY You gonna put up a ceiling?

CHARLEY How could I put up a ceiling?

WILLY Then what the hell are you bothering me for?

CHARLEY You’re insulted again.

WILLY A man who can’t handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting.

CHARLEY Don’t call me disgusting, Willy.

[UNCLE BEN, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a mustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as WILLY speaks.]

WILLY I’m getting awfully tired, Ben.

[BEN’s music is heard. BEN looks around at everything.]

CHARLEY Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben?

[BEN looks at his watch.]

WILLY That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.

BEN I only have a few minutes. [He strolls, inspecting the place. WILLY and CHARLEY continue playing.]

p. 1252

p. 2436

CHARLEY You never heard from him again, heh? Since that time?

WILLY Didn’t Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his wife in Africa. He died.

CHARLEY That so.

BEN [chuckling] So this is Brooklyn, eh?

CHARLEY Maybe you’re in for some of his money.

WILLY Naa, he had seven sons. There’s just one opportunity I had with that man . . .

BEN I must make a train, William. There are several properties I’m looking at in Alaska.

WILLY Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.

CHARLEY Go on, you’d froze to death up there.

WILLY What’re you talking about?

BEN Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, William. Surprised you’re not up there.

WILLY Sure, tremendous.

CHARLEY Heh?

WILLY There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers.

CHARLEY Who?

BEN How are you all?

WILLY [taking a pot, smiling] Fine, fine.

CHARLEY Pretty sharp tonight.

BEN Is Mother living with you?

WILLY No, she died a long time ago.

CHARLEY Who?

BEN That’s too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, Mother.

WILLY [to CHARLEY] Heh?

BEN I’d hoped to see the old girl.

CHARLEY Who died?

BEN Heard anything from Father, have you?

WILLY [unnerved] What do you mean, who died?

CHARLEY [taking a pot] What’re you talkin’ about?

BEN [looking at his watch] William, it’s half-past eight!

WILLY [as though to dispel his confusion he angrily stops CHARLEY’s hand] That’s my build!

CHARLEY I put the ace—

WILLY If you don’t know how to play the game I’m not gonna throw my money away on you!

CHARLEY [rising] It was my ace, for God’s sake!

WILLY I’m through, I’m through!

BEN When did Mother die?

p. 257

WILLY Long ago. Since the beginning you never knew how to play cards.

CHARLEY [picks up the cards and goes to the door] All right! Next time I’ll bring a deck with five aces.

WILLY I don’t play that kind of game!

CHARLEY [turning to him] You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

WILLY Yeah?

CHARLEY Yeah! [He goes out.]

WILLY [slamming the door after him] Ignoramus!

BEN [as WILLY comes toward him through the wall-line of the kitchen] So you’re William.

p. 1253

p. 2437

WILLY [shaking BEN’s hand] Ben! I’ve been waiting for you so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it?

BEN Oh, there’s a story in that.

[LINDA enters the forestage, as of old, carrying the wash basket.]

LINDA Is this Ben?

BEN [gallantly] How do you do, my dear.

LINDA Where’ve you been all these years? Willy’s always wondered why you—

WILLY [pulling BEN away from her impatiently] Where is Dad? Didn’t you follow him? How did you get started?

BEN Well, I don’t know how much you remember.

WILLY Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old—

BEN Three years and eleven months.

WILLY What a memory, Ben!

BEN I have many enterprises, William, and I have never kept books.

WILLY I remember I was sitting under the wagon in—was it Nebraska?

BEN It was South Dakota, and I gave you a bunch of wild flowers.

WILLY I remember you walking away down some open road.

BEN [laughing] I was going to find Father in Alaska.

WILLY Where is he?

BEN At that age I had a very faulty view of geography, William. I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska, I ended up in Africa.

LINDA Africa!

WILLY The Gold Coast!

BEN Principally diamond mines.

LINDA Diamond mines!

BEN Yes, my dear. But I’ve only a few minutes—

WILLY No! Boys! Boys! [YOUNG BIFF and HAPPY appear.] Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben!

BEN Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs.] And by God I was rich.

WILLY [to the boys] You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen!

BEN [glancing at his watch] I have an appointment in Ketchikan Tuesday week.

WILLY No, Ben! Please tell about Dad. I want my boys to hear. I want them to know the kind of stock they spring from. All I remember is a man with a big beard, and I was in Mamma’s lap, sitting around a fire, and some kind of high music.

p. 258

BEN His flute. He played the flute.

WILLY Sure, the flute, that’s right!

[New music is heard, a high, rollicking tune.]

BEN Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston, and he’d toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he’d drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Western states. And we’d stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he’d made on the way. Great inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime.

WILLY That’s just the way I’m bringing them up, Ben—rugged, well liked, all-around.

p. 1254

p. 2438

BEN Yeah? [to BIFF] Hit that, boy—hard as you can. [He pounds his stomach.]

BIFF Oh, no, sir!

BEN [taking boxing stance] Come on, get to me! [He laughs.]

WILLY Go to it, Biff! Go ahead, show him!

BIFF Okay! [He cocks his fist and starts in.]

LINDA [to WILLY] Why must he fight, dear?

BEN [sparring with BIFF] Good boy! Good boy!

WILLY How’s that, Ben, heh?

HAPPY Give him the left, Biff!

LINDA Why are you fighting?

BEN Good boy! [Suddenly comes in, trips BIFF, and stands over him, the point of his umbrella poised over BIFF’s eye.]

LINDA Look out, Biff!

BIFF Gee!

BEN [patting BIFF’s knee] Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way. [taking LINDA’s hand and bowing] It was an honor and a pleasure to meet you, Linda.

LINDA [withdrawing her hand coldly, frightened] Have a nice—trip.

BEN [to WILLY] And good luck with your—what do you do?

WILLY Selling.

BEN Yes. Well . . . [He raises his hand in farewell to all.]

WILLY No, Ben, I don’t want you to think . . . [He takes BEN’s arm to show him.] It’s Brooklyn, I know, but we hunt too.

BEN Really, now.

WILLY Oh, sure, there’s snakes and rabbits and—that’s why I moved out here. Why, Biff can fell any one of these trees in no time! Boys! Go right over to where they’re building the apartment house and get some sand. We’re gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now! Watch this, Ben!

BIFF Yes, sir! On the double, Hap!

HAPPY [as he and BIFF run off] I lost weight, Pop, you notice?

[CHARLEY enters in knickers, even before the boys are gone.]

CHARLEY Listen, if they steal any more from that building the watchman’ll put the cops on them!

LINDA [to WILLY] Don’t let Biff . . .

[BEN laughs lustily.]

WILLY You shoulda seen the lumber they brought home last week. At least a dozen six-by-tens worth all kinds a money.

p. 259

CHARLEY Listen, if that watchman—

WILLY I gave them hell, understand. But I got a couple of fearless characters there.

CHARLEY Willy, the jails are full of fearless characters.

BEN [clapping WILLY on the back, with a laugh at CHARLEY] And the stock exchange, friend!

WILLY [joining in BEN’s laughter] Where are the rest of your pants?

CHARLEY My wife bought them.

WILLY Now all you need is a golf club and you can go upstairs and go to sleep, [to BEN] Great athlete! Between him and his son Bernard they can’t hammer a nail!

BERNARD [rushing in] The watchman’s chasing Biff!

WILLY [angrily] Shut up! He’s not stealing anything!