Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. How does Willy’s home function as
a metaphor for his ambitions?
2. What role does the fear of abandonment
play in
Willy’s life?
3. Willy and Biff have different explanations
for Biff’s
failure to succeed in the business world. How are their explanations
different?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Willy recalls his sons’ teenage
years as an idyllic past. What evidence can we find to show that
the past is not as idyllic as Willy imagines it to be?
2. What evidence can we find
to show that Willy may
have chosen a profession that is at odds with his
natural inclinations?
3. Why does Willy reject Charley’s
job offer?
4. How does Willy’s interview
with Howard reveal that Willy transfers his professional anxieties
onto his relationship with his family and conflates the professional
and personal realms of his life?
5. What evidence can we find
to show that Willy misses the distinction between being loved and
being well liked? What are the consequences of Willy’s failure to
distinguish between the two?
6. How is Willy’s retreat into
the past a form of escape from his unpleasant present reality? How
does it function as a way for Willy to cope with the failure to
realize his ambitions?
7. How does Willy’s desperate
quest for the American Dream resemble a religious crusade?
