Death of a Salesman Plot Summary

622 Words3 Pages
Biff returns from the west to visit his family although he doesn’t know how long he’s going to stay. Happy is glad to see him, but Willy seems strangely irritated. He talks to old friends he imagines to the chagrin of his family, but no one has the heart to confront him about it. Willy has a flashback of a time when Biff and Happy were promising high school students. In the flashback, Willy gives his sons a punching bag. He also condones Biff’s stealing of a football and doesn’t encourage them to study as much as they should. He emphasizes being well liked. After the flashback, Happy talks with Willy and asks him why he didn’t go to New England for his business trip. Willy explains that he almost hit a kid in Yonkers. He also tells his sons of his brother Ben who made a fortune on a trip to Africa. Charley comes to Willy’s house at night complaining of not being able to sleep. Charley and Willy play cards, but at the same time, Willy hold a conversation with his imaginary brother. Charley has no idea what’s going on and leaves. Willy continues the conversation regretting that he stayed in American while he could have gone to Alaska or Africa with his brother and made a fortune. While Willy is having this imaginary conversation, Biff talks with Linda and asks her about Willy’s condition. Linda explains that she can’t bring herself to confront Willy about it. She also tells Biff that Willy has attempted suicide by crashing the car several times. Willy comes out of his reverie and speaks with his family about their jobs. Happy has an idea of starting a line of sporting goods so Biff decides to go to Bill Oliver to ask to borrow money. Willy decides to go to Howard the next day to ask if he can work in New York so that he wouldn’t have to drive 700 miles to work.. The next day Willy goes to Howard and Biff goes to see Oliver. They decide to
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