Act 1

Questions

1. What does Willy do for a living?
2. What does Willy's wife, Linda, want him to talk about to his boss?
3. Who lives upstairs from Willy and Linda and what is their relationship with them?
4. What was Biff doing out West?
5. What do Biff and Happy dream of doing?
6. What was Biff good at in high school?
7. What does Willy blame his failure on?
8. Why does Willy snap at Linda for mending her stockings in front of him?
9. Where does Willy wish he had gone with his brother Ben and where did Ben actually go?
10. What does Ben say you must do to survive a fight with strangers?

Answers

1. He's a traveling salesman.
2. She wants him to talk to his boss about transferring to a local office.
3. Biff and Happy live upstairs; they are Willy and Linda's sons.
4. Working as a farmhand
5. They want to move out West and buy a ranch.
6. He was a star football player.
7. He blames his lack of success on being ugly and fat.
8. Linda is mending her stockings because buying new ones is expensive. Willy is having an affair with another woman, who he just recently bought some new stockings for, so he feels guilty and takes it out on Linda.
9. Willy wishes he'd gone to Alaska with his brother Ben, but Ben actually ended up in Africa.
10. He says you have to cheat.