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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Charley respond to Happy's claim that they (the brothers) would have helped Willy?

2. How does Biff convey his strong reluctance to see Bill Oliver?

3. What does Biff think Linda needs?

4. Biff speaking to whom when he says "'I know who I am, kid."

5. What is the guaranteed proposition Willy refers to as he "speaks" to Ben?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Biff feel about lying to his father about the Bill Oliver interview?

2. Is Biff correct in saying of Willy that "He never knew who he was."?

3. What cautions does Ben advise concerning Willy's plan to commit suicide?

4. How is it that Biff has come to regard his father as a hypocrite?

5. Account for Willy's anger towards Biff.

6. What is Willy's final fantasy?

7. How is it again made evident that Willy Loman "had the wrong dreams"?

8. In what way, according to Willy, does a man have to "add up to something" when he leaves this world?

9. How is the fact of Willy's severe disintegration communicated to the audience?

10. What is wrong with Happy's assertion that "the only dream you can have [is] to come out number one man."?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Death of a Salesman shows us, in a moving way, how disastrous it is if people lack the ability or to accept change in themselves and in the social and economic world." Discuss this statement, making close reference to the play.

Essay Topic 2

"Like tragic heroes, Willy Loman's fatal flaw is pride, but he is not a tragic hero." Do you agree? Explain your answer. If Willy is in fact a tragic hero, what makes him heroic? If he is not, explain why he is a protagonist at best, and should not be looked up to as a hero.

Essay Topic 3

"Willy Loman's problem is not that he had the wrong dream, but that the dream was not large enough." To what extent do you agree with this statement?

(see the answer keys)

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