What questions has the play raised so far? Does the audience have any answers?
From reading three quarters of ‘Death of a salesman’ many questions have surfaced from the play. I think that the main question that has been raised so far from the play is the American Dream. The American Dream is the dream people have for themselves and their family; good job, good home, good life and to be treated fairly. In Willy loman case anyone who worked hard and was “well liked” in business would have a happy life.
Another question raised in the play is lying and exaggerating (should family lye to each other just for the sake of pride?). Because Willy doesn’t want to face his failure, he has been lying to himself and others his family in particular, Fantasizing and fooling himself into a false vision of his popularity of being “well liked” or his “false pride” as his boss calls it. Willy knows that he is not doing well in his job so doesn’t have money to support his family. Even though his family knows this as well they are afraid to hurt his feelings by telling him that they know what’s going on with him. For example “he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a week” to pretend to Linda that was his salary.
The play also raises the question about Willy’s parental kills (is he a good father?).
Some may say that he is and tries to be a good father to the boys; he loves them and give them his attention, but he also doubts himself sometimes. Other might say that he is not a good father because he is not very strict with the boys and not very responsible at teaching the boys about the importance of education. We can see this from the scene where Bernard come over and tells Biff to revise for his maths or he was going to fail it. Willy tells Bernard to live biff alone and that Biff didn’t have to study because he was “well liked” so was going to get into University anyway.
The audience might also question his ability of being a good husband