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WILLY: Never heard of it.

BIFF: There’ll be no pity for you, you hear it? No pity!

WILLY [to LINDA]: You hear the spite!

BIFF: No, you’re going to hear the truth—what you are and what I am!

LINDA: Stop it!

WILLY: Spite!

HAPPY [coming down toward BIFF]: You cut it now!

BIFF [to HAPPY]: The man don’t know who we are! The man is gonna know! [To WILLY] We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!

HAPPY: We always told the truth!

BIFF [turning on him]: You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?

HAPPY: Well, I’m practically—

BIFF: You’re practically full of it! We all are! And I’m through with it. [To WILLY] Now hear this, Willy, this is me.

WILLY: I know you!

BIFF: You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a suit in Kansas City and I was in jail. [To LINDA, who is sobbing] Stop crying. I’m through with it.

[LINDA turns away from them, her hands covering her face.]

WILLY: I suppose that’s my fault!

BIFF: I stole myself out of every good job since high school!

WILLY: And whose fault is that?

BIFF: And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!

WILLY: I hear that!

LINDA: Don’t, Biff!

BIFF: It’s goddam time you heard that! I had to be boss big shot in two weeks, and I’m through with it!

WILLY: Then hang yourself! For spite, hang yourself!

BIFF: No! Nobody’s hanging himself, Willy! I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in the middle of that office building, do you hear this? I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw—the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can’t I say that, Willy? [He tries to make WILLY face him, but WILLY pulls away and moves to the left.]

WILLY [with hatred, threateningly]: The door of your life is wide open!

BIFF: Pop! I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!

WILLY [turning on him now in an uncontrolled outburst]: I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!

[BIFF starts for WILLY, but is blocked by HAPPY. In his fury, BIFF seems on the verge of attacking his father.]

BIFF: I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like all the rest of them! I’m one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn’t raise it. A buck an hour! Do you gather my meaning? I’m not bringing home any prizes any more, and you’re going to stop waiting for me to bring them home!

WILLY [directly to BIFF]: You vengeful, spiteful mut!

[BIFF breaks from HAPPY. WILLY, in fright, starts up the stairs. BIFF grabs him.]

BIFF [at the peak of his fury]: Pop, I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop. Can’t you understand that? There’s no spite in it any more. I’m just what I am, that’s all.

[BIFF’S fury has spent itself, and he breaks down, sobbing, holding on to WILLY, who dumbly fumbles for BIFF’S face.]

WILLY [astonished]: What’re you doing? What’re you doing? [To LINDA] Why is he crying?

BIFF [crying, broken]: Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens? [Struggling to contain himself, he pulls away and moves to the stairs.] I’ll go in the morning. Put him—put him to bed. [Exhausted, BIFF moves up the stairs to his room.]

WILLY [after a long pause, astonished, elevated]: Isn’t that—isn’t that remarkable? Biff—he likes me!

LINDA: He loves you, Willy!

HAPPY [deeply moved]: Always did, Pop.

WILLY: Oh, Biff! [Staring wildly] He cried! Cried to me. [He is choking with his love, and