• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

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