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WILLY: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!

LINDA: Shh!

WILLY: The trouble is he’s lazy, goddammit!

LINDA: Willy, please!

WILLY: Biff is a lazy bum!

LINDA: They’re sleeping. Get something to eat. Go on down.

WILLY: Why did he come home? I would like to know what brought him home.

LINDA: I don’t know. I think he’s still lost, Willy. I think he’s very lost.

WILLY: Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff—he’s not lazy.

LINDA: Never.

WILLY [with pity and resolve]: I’ll see him in the morning; I’ll have a nice talk with him. I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up. When he walked down the street . . . [He loses himself in reminiscences.]

LINDA [trying to bring him out of it]: Willy, dear, I got a new kind of American-type cheese today. It’s whipped.

WILLY: Why do you get American when I like Swiss?

LINDA: I just thought you’d like a change—

WILLY: I don’t want a change! I want Swiss cheese. Why am I always being contradicted?

LINDA [with a covering laugh]: I thought it would be a surprise.

WILLY: Why don’t you open a window in here, for God’s sake?

LINDA [with infinite patience]: They’re all open, dear.

WILLY: The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks.

LINDA: We should’ve bought the land next door.

WILLY: The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard. They should’ve had a law against apartment houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?

LINDA: Yeah, like being a million miles from the city.

WILLY: They should’ve arrested the builder for cutting those down. They massacred the neighborhood. [Lost] More and more I think of those days, Linda. This time of year it was lilac and wisteria. And then the peonies would come out, and the daffodils. What fragrance in this room!

LINDA: Well, after all, people had to move somewhere.

WILLY: No, there’s more people now.

LINDA: I don’t think there’s more people. I think—

WILLY: There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is maddening! Smell the stink from that apartment house! And another one on the other side . . . How can they whip cheese?

[On WILLY’S last line, BIFF and HAPPY raise themselves up in their beds, listening.]

LINDA: Go down, try it. And be quiet.

WILLY [turning to LINDA, guiltily]: You’re not worried about me, are you, sweetheart?

BIFF: What’s the matter?

HAPPY: Listen!

LINDA: You’ve got too much on the ball to worry about.

WILLY: You’re my foundation and my support, Linda.

LINDA: Just try to relax, dear. You make mountains out of molehills.

WILLY: I won’t fight with him any more. If he wants to go back to Texas, let him go.

LINDA: He’ll find his way.

WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B. F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff.

LINDA: And Willy—if it’s warm Sunday we’ll drive in the country. And we’ll open the windshield, and take lunch.

WILLY: No, the windshields don’t open on the new cars.

LINDA: But you opened it today.

WILLY: Me? I didn’t. [He stops.] Now isn’t that peculiar! Isn’t that a remarkable—[He breaks off in amazement and fright as the flute is heard distantly.]

LINDA: What, darling?

WILLY: That is the most remarkable thing.

LINDA: What, dear?

WILLY: I was thinking of the Chevvy. [Slight pause.] Nineteen twenty-eight . . . when I had that red Chevvy—[Breaks off.] That funny? I coulda sworn I was driving that Chevvy today.

LINDA: Well, that’s nothing. Something must’ve reminded you.

WILLY: Remarkable. Ts. Remember those days? The way Biff used