Authors: Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman (10 page)

BOOK: Death of a Salesman

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BIFF [
angered
]: Screw the business world!

HAPPY: All right, screw it! Great, but cover yourself!

LINDA: Hap, Hap!

BIFF: I don’t care what they think! They’ve laughed at Dad for years, and you know why? Because we don’t belong in this nuthouse of a city! We should be mixing cement on some open plain, or—or carpenters. A carpenter is allowed to whistle!

[WILLY
walks in from the entrance of the house, at left.
]

WILLY: Even your grandfather was better than a carpenter. [
Pause. They watch him.
] You never grew up. Bernard does not whistle in the elevator, I assure you.

BIFF [
as though to laugh
WILLY
out of it
]: Yeah, but you do, Pop.

WILLY: I never in my life whistled in an elevator! And who in the business world thinks I’m crazy?

BIFF: I didn’t mean it like that, Pop. Now don’t make a whole thing out of it, will ya?

WILLY: Go back to the West! Be a carpenter, a cowboy, enjoy yourself!

LINDA: Willy, he was just saying—

WILLY: I heard what he said!

HAPPY [
trying to quiet
WILLY]: Hey, Pop, come on now . . .

WILLY [
continuing over
HAPPY’S
line
]: They laugh at me, heh? Go to Filene’s, go to the Hub, go to Slattery’s, Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!

BIFF: All right, Pop.

WILLY: Big!

BIFF: All right!

WILLY: Why do you always insult me?

BIFF: I didn’t say a word. [
To
LINDA] Did I say a word?

LINDA: He didn’t say anything, Willy.

WILLY [
going to the doorway of the living-room
]: All right, good night, good night.

LINDA: Willy, dear, he just decided . . .

WILLY [
to
BIFF]: If you get tired hanging around tomorrow, paint the ceiling I put up in the living-room.

BIFF: I’m leaving early tomorrow.

HAPPY: He’s going to see Bill Oliver, Pop.

WILLY [
interestedly
]: Oliver? For what?

BIFF [
with reserve, but trying, trying
]: He always said he’d stake me. I’d like to go into business, so maybe I can take him up on it.

LINDA: Isn’t that wonderful?

WILLY: Don’t interrupt. What’s wonderful about it? There’s fifty men in the City of New York who’d stake him. [
To
BIFF] Sporting goods?

BIFF: I guess so. I know something about it and—

WILLY: He knows something about it! You know sporting goods better than Spalding, for God’s sake! How much is he giving you?

BIFF: I don’t know, I didn’t even see him yet, but—

WILLY: Then what’re you talkin’ about?

BIFF [
getting angry
]: Well, all I said was I’m gonna see him, that’s all!

WILLY [
turning away
]: Ah, you’re counting your chickens again.

BIFF [
starting left for the stairs
]: Oh, Jesus, I’m going to sleep!

WILLY [
calling after him
]: Don’t curse in this house!

BIFF [
turning
]: Since when did you get so clean?

HAPPY [
trying to stop them
]: Wait a . . .

WILLY: Don’t use that language to me! I won’t have it!

HAPPY [
grabbing
BIFF,
shouts
]: Wait a minute! I got an idea. I got a feasible idea. Come here, Biff, let’s talk this over now, let’s talk some sense here. When I was down in Florida last time, I thought of a great idea to sell sporting goods. It just came back to me. You and I, Biff—we have a line, the Loman Line. We train a couple of weeks, and put on a couple of exhibitions, see?

WILLY: That’s an idea!

HAPPY: Wait! We form two basketball teams, see? Two water-polo teams. We play each other. It’s a million dollars’ worth of publicity. Two brothers, see? The Loman Brothers. Displays in the Royal Palms—all the hotels. And banners over the ring and the basketball court: “Loman Brothers.” Baby, we could sell sporting goods!

WILLY: That is a one-million-dollar idea!

LINDA: Marvelous!

BIFF: I’m in great shape as far as that’s concerned.

HAPPY: And the beauty of it is, Biff, it wouldn’t be like a business. We’d be out playin’ ball again . . .

BIFF [
enthused
]: Yeah, that’s . . .

WILLY: Million-dollar . . .

HAPPY: And you wouldn’t get fed up with it, Biff. It’d be the family again. There’d be the old honor, and comradeship, and if you wanted to go off for a swim or somethin’ —well you’d do it! Without some smart cooky gettin’ up ahead of you!

WILLY: Lick the world! You guys together could absolutely lick the civilized world.

BIFF: I’ll see Oliver tomorrow. Hap, if we could work that out . . .

LINDA: Maybe things are beginning to—

WILLY [
wildly enthused, to
LINDA]: Stop interrupting! [
To
BIFF] But don’t wear sport jacket and slacks when you see Oliver.

BIFF: No, I’ll—

WILLY: A business suit, and talk as little as possible, and don’t crack any jokes.

BIFF: He did like me. Always liked me.

LINDA: He loved you!

WILLY [
to
LINDA]: Will you stop! [
To
BIFF] Walk in very serious. You are not applying for a boy’s job. Money is to pass. Be quiet, fine, and serious. Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.

HAPPY: I’ll try to get some myself, Biff. I’m sure I can.

WILLY: I see great things for you kids, I think your troubles are over. But remember, start big and you’ll end big. Ask for fifteen. How much you gonna ask for?

BIFF: Gee, I don’t know—

WILLY: And don’t say “Gee.” “Gee” is a boy’s word. A man walking in for fifteen thousand dollars does not say “Gee”!

BIFF: Ten, I think, would be top though.

WILLY: Don’t be so modest. You always started too low. Walk in with a big laugh. Don’t look worried. Start off with a couple of your good stories to lighten things up. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it—because personality always wins the day.

LINDA: Oliver always thought the highest of him—

WILLY: Will you let me talk?

BIFF: Don’t yell at her, Pop, will ya?

WILLY [
angrily
]: I was talking, wasn’t I?

BIFF: I don’t like you yelling at her all the time, and I’m tellin’ you, that’s all.

WILLY: What’re you, takin’ over this house?

LINDA: Willy—

WILLY [
turning on her
]: Don’t take his side all the time, goddammit!

BIFF [
furiously
]: Stop yelling at her!

WILLY [
suddenly pulling on his cheek, beaten down, guilt ridden
]: Give my best to Bill Oliver—he may remember me. [
He exits through the living-room doorway.
]

LINDA [
her voice subdued
]: What’d you have to start that for? [BIFF
turns away.
] You see how sweet he was as soon as you talked hopefully? [
She goes over to
BIFF.] Come up and say good night to him. Don’t let him go to bed that way.

HAPPY: Come on, Biff, let’s buck him up.

LINDA: Please, dear. Just say good night. It takes so little to make him happy. Come. [
She goes through the living-room doorway, calling upstairs from within the living-room.
] Your pajamas are hanging in the bathroom, Willy!

HAPPY [
looking toward where
LINDA
went out
]: What a woman! They broke the mold when they made her. You know that, Biff?

BIFF: He’s off salary. My God, working on commission!

HAPPY: Well, let’s face it: he’s no hot-shot selling man. Except that sometimes, you have to admit, he’s a sweet personality.

BIFF [
deciding
]: Lend me ten bucks, will ya? I want to buy some new ties.

HAPPY: I’ll take you to a place I know. Beautiful stuff. Wear one of my striped shirts tomorrow.

BIFF: She got gray. Mom got awful old. Gee, I’m gonna go in to Oliver tomorrow and knock him for a—

HAPPY: Come on up. Tell that to Dad. Let’s give him a whirl. Come on.

BIFF [
steamed up
]: You know, with ten thousand bucks, boy!

HAPPY [
as they go into the living-room
]: That’s the talk, Biff, that’s the first time I’ve heard the old confidence out of you! [
From within the living-room, fading off
] You’re gonna live with me, kid, and any babe you want just say the word . . . [
The last lines are hardly heard. They are mounting the stairs to their parents’ bedroom.
]

LINDA [
entering her bedroom and addressing
WILLY,
who is in the bathroom. She is straightening the bed for him.
] Can you do anything about the shower? It drips.

WILLY [
from the bathroom
]: All of a sudden everything falls to pieces! Goddam plumbing, oughta be sued, those people. I hardly finished putting it in and the thing . . . [
His words rumble off.
]

LINDA: I’m just wondering if Oliver will remember him. You think he might?

WILLY [
coming out of the bathroom in his pajamas
]: Remember him? What’s the matter with you, you crazy? If he’d’ve stayed with Oliver he’d be on top by now! Wait’ll Oliver gets a look at him. You don’t know the average caliber any more. The average young man today—[
he is getting into bed
]—is got a caliber of zero. Greatest thing in the world for him was to bum around.

[BIFF
and
HAPPY
enter the bedroom. Slight pause.
]

WILLY [
stops short, looking at
BIFF]: Glad to hear it, boy.

HAPPY: He wanted to say good night to you, sport.

WILLY [
to
BIFF]: Yeah. Knock him dead, boy. What’d you want to tell me?

BIFF: Just take it easy, Pop. Good night. [
He turns to go.
]

WILLY [
unable to resist
]: And if anything falls off the desk while you’re talking to him—like a package or something —don’t you pick it up. They have office boys for that.

LINDA: I’ll make a big breakfast—

WILLY: Will you let me finish? [
To
BIFF] Tell him you were in the business in the West. Not farm work.

BIFF: All right, Dad.

LINDA: I think everything—

WILLY [
going right through her speech
]: And don’t undersell yourself. No less than fifteen thousand dollars.

BIFF [
unable to bear him
]: Okay. Good night, Mom. [
He starts moving.
]

WILLY: Because you got a greatness in you, Biff, remember that. You got all kinds a greatness . . . [
He lies back, exhausted.
BIFF
walks out.
]

LINDA [
calling after
BIFF]: Sleep well, darling!

HAPPY: I’m gonna get married, Mom. I wanted to tell you.

LINDA: Go to sleep, dear.

HAPPY [
going
]: I just wanted to tell you.

WILLY: Keep up the good work. [HAPPY
exits.
] God . . . remember that Ebbets Field game? The championship of the city?

LINDA: Just rest. Should I sing to you?

WILLY: Yeah. Sing to me. [LINDA
hums a soft lullaby.
] When that team came out—he was the tallest, remember?

LINDA: Oh, yes. And in gold.

[BIFF
enters the darkened kitchen, takes a cigarette, and leaves the house. He comes downstage into a golden pool of light. He smokes, staring at the night.
]

WILLY: Like a young god. Hercules—something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. Remember how he waved to me? Right up from the field, with the representatives of three colleges standing by? And the buyers I brought, and the cheers when he came out—Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!

[
The light on
WILLY
is fading. The gas heater begins to glow through the kitchen wall, near the stairs, a blue flame beneath red coils.
]

LINDA [
timidly
]: Willy dear, what has he got against you?

WILLY: I’m so tired. Don’t talk any more.

[BIFF
slowly returns to the kitchen. He stops, stares toward the heater.
]

LINDA: Will you ask Howard to let you work in New York?

WILLY: First thing in the morning. Everything’ll be all right.

[BIFF
reaches behind the heater and draws out a length of rubber tubing. He is horrified and turns his head toward
WILLY’S
room, still dimly lit, from which the strains of
LINDA’S
desperate but monotonous humming rise.
]

WILLY [
staring through the window into the moonlight
]: Gee, look at the moon moving between the buildings!

[BIFF
wraps the tubing around his hand and quickly goes up the stairs.
]

CURTAIN

ACT TWO

Music is heard, gay and bright. The curtain rises as the music fades away.

[WILLY,
in shirt sleeves, is sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee, his hat in his lap.
LINDA
is filling his cup when she can.
]

WILLY: Wonderful coffee. Meal in itself.

LINDA: Can I make you some eggs?

WILLY: No. Take a breath.

LINDA: You look so rested, dear.

WILLY: I slept like a dead one. First time in months. Imagine, sleeping till ten on a Tuesday morning. Boys left nice and early, heh?

LINDA: They were out of here by eight o’clock.