Throughout the play, Willy feeds on being positively addressed. He’s obsessed with people commenting about him. For example, Linda says “you are, Willy. The handsomest man.” And the woman says “you’ve got such a sense of humour”. He’s obsessed with telling everybody that he’s well known, and that he has loads of friends, “one thing, boys: I have friends…I am very well liked in Hartford.” But later on he says to Charley “charley, you’re the only friend I got. Isn’t that a remarkable thing?”, and when it comes to the funeral, its only Linda, biff, happy, and Charley that turns up.
The play is basically based on the rise and fall of Willy Loman. The rise is where everything was going so well. Biff came home, and everything was so great.
The first scene is where Willy talks to Linda about his life and talks about Biff “the trouble is he’s lazy, goddammit!... Biff is a lazy bum!... why did he come home? I would like to know what brought him home.”
The second scene is where biff and happy are in the other room and can hear every word the parents are saying. They talk about their relationship with Willy “why does dad mock me all the time?... everything I say there’s a twist of mockery on his face. I can’t get near him.” And what Biff has been up to “I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up.”
The third scene is where we see a flashback to show the relationship between Willy and his two boys in the passed “show him how to do it, Biff! You see, Happy?... you’re doin’ alright, Hap…something I want you to have… it’s got Gene Tunney’s signature on it!”
The fourth scene is where Willy and Linda are talking about how useless Willy actually is “I get the feeling that I’ll never sell anything again, that I won’t make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys.” but Linda tries to convince him that he’s amazing “to me you are. The handsomest. And the boys, Willy. Few men are idolized by their children the way you are.”
The fifth scene is where the woman is telling Willy about how she chose him, and about how funny he is “I picked you… you’ve got such a sense of humour.”
The rest of the scenes include Bernard and Charlie. Willy talks about how if he went with his brother Bernard, he would be successful too “why didn’t I go Alaska with my brother Ben that time! Ben! That mans a genius, that man was success incarnated! What a mistake! He begged me to go.”
We see how much Willy loves Biff “he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!... a young god. Hercules”, but when Biff finds out about Willy’s affair, Biff hates him “don’t touch me, you – liar!…you fake! You phony little fake! You fake!”.
Then the last scene is the fall, when the family breaks apart and Willy dies. Linda, Biff, Happy and Charlie are the only ones to be at the funeral, even though Willy told them he was well liked “one thing, boys: I have friends…I am very well liked in Hartford.”, except from Charlie when he said: “charley, you’re the only friend I got. Isn’t that a remarkable thing?”.
Willy wasn’t only lying to his family, but he was lying to himself.
