‘I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vein… this is where I’m gonna win it for him’
This seems rather absurd to the reader as it is clear now that the American Dream for the Loman family is just that- a dream. The spectacular failure of his father and the collapse of the family show that the dogmatic pursuit of success is fruitless and even dangerous. ‘Happy’ is a very apt name for the son who tries to be happy and show a brave face even when things have collapsed around him. Other examples of this include Happy rallying Biff both when they talk about setting up business together and when Happy tries to make Biff attract women at the restaurant in Scene 2. Happy also represents the side of Willy that he was most used to (Happy, unlike Biff, lived with Willy day to day and so was more indoctrinated to the lies and falseness of Willy, whereas Biff had time to reflect on the situation physically separate from Willy) but we know that ‘happy Happy’ will never be truly happy with his present mindset.
Biff, who gives a ‘hopeless glance at Happy’, knows this. Biff seems to peace with himself by the Requiem, both in his relationship with his father and with his own goals. He has matured. He understands that Willy Loman was a spectacular failure in business, but as a man he was a good person-
‘There were a lot of nice days… you know something Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made’
Biff seems to speak for Arthur Miller when he implies that life is about living rather than working and that working does not lead to living. Biff seems in charge of the situation in the Requiem and his treatment of his mother shows that he, rather than Happy, is the son who is ‘something’.
Charley has the most incisive speech of the Requiem.
‘Nobody dast blame this man… Willy was a salesman and for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life… when they start not smiling back- that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.’
In this speech Charley manages to sum up Willy’s descent into death. Charley is in the business himself and knows how flawed it is. He speaks with a mixture of regret and sympathy. This reflects the whole theme of failure running through the play.
The Requiem is our chance to see Linda’s views, which up to now have been clipped and sugarcoated for the benefit of Willy. The overriding feeling is one of confusion. She keeps repeating- ‘I can’t understand it’ because, although she thought she knew Willy inside out, she only knew Willy’s actions and words, not his thoughts. This seems to contradict earlier assumptions that Linda knew Willy’s mind like the perfect wife. Instead of seeing the inevitable, as Charley does, or being somehow released like Biff, she can only see things in terms of money and time, like Willy used to obsess over- ‘He even finished with the dentist’.
The second half of the Requiem is dedicated to Linda. It is quite hard to understand. She says that she ‘can’t cry’ but then seconds later she is ‘sobbing more fully’. Why is this? Maybe telling her true feelings to Willy instead of suppressing them like when he was alive releases her, but she keeps repeating ‘we’re free’. As she whispers this she seems to be on a higher plane and connecting with Willy. This, however, is open to interpretation and all we can safely say is that the Requiem releases the pressure that was mounting in the Loman household in possibly the only way it could; with the realisation of the failure of the American Dream.
Ben Sellers.
