The office scene (pages 59 - 66) is a crucial part of the play as it sees the turning point in Willy's career and encourages the last part of his mental downfall towards destruction and dramatises many of the central concerns that are shown throughout.

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                Mary Sweeney L6PCL

The office scene (pages 59 – 66) is a crucial part of the play as it sees the turning point in Willy’s career and encourages the last part of his mental downfall towards destruction and dramatises many of the central concerns that are shown throughout. Willy is humiliated during his time in Howard’s office and the audience therefore have an increasing amount of sympathy and pathos for Willy.  

The scene opens with Willy entering Howard’s office repeating the word “Pst!”. From the very beginning of the scene the audience see Willy as a pathetic character and a failure in business. He shows his inability to show confidence around his boss, possibly because Howard is a successful businessman and this is exactly what Willy cannot achieve. Willy is already contradicting himself as he had previously told Biff to “Walk in very serious”, yet he shows an undignified entrance which does not command respect from anyone around. Howard refuses to give Willy instant attention and he repeatedly ignores what Willy is saying which automatically gives Howard higher status. Howard is preoccupied with a newly purchased wire recorder and so is slow to listen to Willy’s plea. This wire recorder highlights Willy’s isolation from technology in the continually modernising America and could be seen metaphorically alongside the drama of this scene where the communication is one way between Howard and Willy. The technology is grasping Howard’s attention, but at the same time blocking out anything that Willy is trying to say – similar to the new order of business taking over from the old order, including Willy. New businessmen and new technology are crushing Willy and he is getting left behind.

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The wire recorder is playing Howard’s son reciting the capital cities of American states and is effectively recalling the American Dream. This also shows Howard’s relationship with his children and emphasises how proud he is of his children and this is seen in contrast to the relationships that Willy shares with his sons. The proud Howard exclaims that his son will “make an announcer some day” putting emphasis on the probability of his son having a successful future which is all that Willy wanted for his children. Howard is constantly but unconsciously defining his comparatively higher status through embedded hints ...

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