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, Bill!

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! Way 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.

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 stars. 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 now cries out his promise: that boy –that boy is going to be magnificent! Ben appears in the light just outside the kitchen.

BEN:

Yes, outstanding, with twenty thousand behind him.

LINDA:

sensing the racing of his mind, fear fully, ,carefully: Now come to bed, Willy. It’s all settled now.

WILLY:

finding it difficult not to rush out of the house: Yes, we’ll sleep. Come on. Go to sleep, Hap.

BEN:

And it does take a great kind of a man to crack the jungle. In accents of dread, Ben’s idyllic music starts up.

HAPPY:

his arm around Linda: I’m getting married, Pop, don’t forget it. I’m changing everything. I’m gonna run that department before the year is up. You’ll see, Mom. He kisses her.

BEN:

The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy. Willy turns, moves, listening to Ben.

LINDA:

Be good. You’re both good boys, just act that way, that’s all.

HAPPY:

‘Night, Pop. He goes upstairs.

LINDA:

to Willy: Come, dear.

BEN:

with greater force: One must go in to fetch a diamond out.

WILLY:

to Linda, as he moves slowly along the edge of the kitchen, toward the door: I just want to get settled down, Linda. Let me sit alone for a little.

LINDA:

almost uttering her fear: I want you upstairs.

WILLY:

taking her in his arms: In a few minutes, Linda, I couldn’t sleep right now. Go on, you look awful tired. He kisses her.

BEN:

Not like an appointment at all. A diamond is rough and hard to the touch

WILLY:

Go on now. I’ll be right up.

LINDA:

I think this is the only way, Willy.

WILLY:

Sure, it’s the best thing.

BEN:

Best thing!

WILLY:

The only way. Everything is gonna be –go on, kid, got to bed. You look so tired.

LINDA:

Come right up.

WILLY:

Two minutes. Linda goes into the living-room, then reappears in her bedroom. Willy moves just outside the kitchen door.

WILLY:

Loves me. Wonderingly: Always loved me. Isn’t that a remarkable thing? Ben, he’ll worship me for it!

BEN:

with promise: it’s dark there, but full of diamonds.

WILLY:

Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?

LINDA:

calling from her room: Willy! Come up!

WILLY:

calling into the kitchen: Yes! Yes. Coming! It’s very smart, you realize that, don’t you, sweetheart? Even Ben sees it. I gotta go, baby. ‘By! ‘by! Going over to Ben, almost dancing: Imagine? When the mail comes he’ll be ahead of Bernard again!

BEN:

A perfect proposition all around.

WILLY:

Did you see how he cried to me? Oh, if I could kiss him, Ben!

BEN:

Time, William, time!

WILLY:

Oh, Ben, I always knew one way or another we were gonna make it, Biff and I!

BEN:

looking at his watch: The boat. We’ll be late. He moves slowly off into the darkness.

WILLY:

elegiacally, turning to the house: Now when you kick off, boy, I want a seventy-yard boot, ,and get right down the field under the ball, and when you hit, hit low and hit hard, because it’s important, boy. He swings around and faces the audience: There’s all kinds of important people in the stands, and the first thing you know … Suddenly realizing he is alone: Ben! Ben, where do I …? He makes a sudden movement of search, Ben, How do i…?

LINDA:

calling: Willy, you coming up?

WILLY:

Uttering a gasp of fear, whirling about as it to quiet her: Sh! He turns around as if to find his way; souds, faces, voices, seem to be swarming in upon him and he flicks at them, crying: Sh! Sh! Suddenly music, faint and high, stops him. It rises in intensity, almost to an unbearable scream. He goes up and down on his toes, and rushes off around house: Shhh!

LINDA:

Willy? There is no answer. Linda waits. Biff gets up off his bed. He is still in his clothes. Happy sits up. Biff stands listening.

LINDA:

with real fear: Willy, answer me! Willy! There is the sound of a car starting and moving away at full speed.

LINDA:

No!

BIFF:

rushing down the stairs: Pop! As the car speeds off, the music crashes down in a frenzy of sound, which becomes the soft pulsation of a single cello string. Biff slowly returns to his bedroom. He and Happy gravely don their jackets. Linda slowly walks out of her room. The music has developed into a dead march/ the leaves of day are appearing over everything. Charley and Bernard, somberly dressed, appear and knock on the kitchen door. Biff and Happy slowly descend the stairs to the kitchen as Charley and Bernard enter. All stop a moment when Linda, in clothes of mourning, bearing a little bunch of roses, comes through the draped doorway into the kitchen. She goes to Charley and takes his arm. Now all move toward the audience, through the wall-line of the kitchen. At the limit of the apron. Linda lays down the flowers, kneels, and sits back on her heels. All stare down at the grave.