Act I opens in Willy Loman’s house in Brooklyn. Willy, a traveling salesman at 63 years of age, is exhausted after years of traveling. He has yet to reach a level of success that would allow him to stop traveling and afford the household bills that always seem to swallow his diminishing wages. The audience learns that Willy’s grown son, Biff, returned home to visit and come to know Willy’s character as he complains to his wife Linda about his disappointment in Biff’s failure to find a steady, serious job. Willy is tired, confused, and argumentative, but he loves his son and tried to conform Biff into an enthusiastic, optimistic and confident salesman. Willy is salesman, who returns early from a business trip. After almost collapsing several times, he is enlightened and realized that he should perhaps change his job to once in which he will not be required to travel. Linda, his wife, also realizes that her husband is no longer suitable for his job as a traveling salesman; thus, she suggests that he requests that his manager, Howard, gives him a local job at the New York headquarters. Willy believes this should be possible because of his contribution throughout the years as a respected salesman. On the night, Willy decides to …show more content…
Willy’s last act, according to his brother, Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond . . . rough and hard to the touch” (Act 2. pg 1388). In the nonexistence of any material amount of self-knowledge or certainty, Willy achieves a tangible result. Willy has some kind of realization, as he now understands that the product he sells is himself. Ben’s advice helps Willy believe what he said to Charley: that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive” (Act 2, pg