Death of a Salesman Page 6

  CHARLEY: Everything all right?

  HAPPY: Yeah, Charley, everything’s . . .

  WILLY: What’s the matter?

  CHARLEY: I heard some noise. I thought something happened. Can’t we do something about the walls? You sneeze in here, and in my house hats blow off.

  HAPPY: Let’s go to bed, Dad. Come on.

  [CHARLEY signals to HAPPY to go.]

  WILLY: You go ahead, I’m not tired at the moment.

  HAPPY [to WILLY]: Take it easy, huh? [He exits.]

  WILLY: What’re you doin’ up?

  CHARLEY [sitting down at the kitchen table opposite WILLY]: Couldn’t sleep good. I had a heartburn.

  WILLY: Well, you don’t know how to eat.

  CHARLEY: I eat with my mouth.

  WILLY: No, you’re ignorant. You gotta know about vitamins and things like that.

  CHARLEY: Come on, let’s shoot. Tire you out a little.

  WILLY [hesitantly]: All right. You got cards?

  CHARLEY [taking a deck from his pocket]: Yeah, I got them. Someplace. What is it with those vitamins?

  WILLY [dealing]: They build up your bones. Chemistry.

  CHARLEY: Yeah, but there’s no bones in a heartburn.

  WILLY: What are you talkin’ about? Do you know the first thing about it?

  CHARLEY: Don’t get insulted.

  WILLY: Don’t talk about something you don’t know anything about.

  [They are playing. Pause.]

  CHARLEY: What’re you doin’ home?

  WILLY: A little trouble with the car.

  CHARLEY: Oh. [Pause.] I’d like to take a trip to California.

  WILLY: Don’t say.

  CHARLEY: You want a job?

  WILLY: I got a job, I told you that. [After a slight pause] What the hell are you offering me a job for?

  CHARLEY: Don’t get insulted.

  WILLY: Don’t insult me.

  CHARLEY: I don’t see no sense in it. You don’t have to go on this way.

  WILLY: I got a good job. [Slight pause.] What do you keep comin’ in here for?

  CHARLEY: You want me to go?

  WILLY [after a pause, withering]: I can’t understand it. He’s going back to Texas again. What the hell is that?

  CHARLEY: Let him go.

  WILLY: I got nothin’ to give him, Charley, I’m clean, I’m clean.

  CHARLEY: He won’t starve. None a them starve. Forget about him.

  WILLY: Then what have I got to remember?

  CHARLEY: You take it too hard. To hell with it. When a deposit bottle is broken you don’t get your nickel back.

  WILLY: That’s easy enough for you to say.

  CHARLEY: That ain’t easy for me to say.

  WILLY: Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room?

  CHARLEY: Yeah, that’s a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. How do you do it?

  WILLY: What’s the difference?

  CHARLEY: Well, talk about it.

  WILLY: You gonna put up a ceiling?

  CHARLEY: How could I put up a ceiling?

  WILLY: Then what the hell are you bothering me for?

  CHARLEY: You’re insulted again.

  WILLY: A man who can’t handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting.

  CHARLEY: Don’t call me disgusting, Willy. [UNCLE BEN, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a mustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as WILLY speaks.]

  WILLY: I’m getting awfully tired, Ben.

  [BEN’S music is heard. BEN looks around at everything.]

  CHARLEY: Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben?

  [BEN looks at his watch.]

  WILLY: That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.

  BEN: I only have a few minutes. [He strolls, inspecting the place. WILLY and CHARLEY continue playing.]

  CHARLEY: You never heard from him again, heh? Since that time?

  WILLY: Didn’t Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his wife in Africa. He died.

  CHARLEY: That so.

  BEN [chuckling]: So this is Brooklyn, eh?

  CHARLEY: Maybe you’re in for some of his money.

  WILLY: Naa, he had seven sons. There’s just one opportunity I had with that man . . .

  BEN: I must make a train, William. There are several properties I’m looking at in Alaska.

  WILLY: Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.

  CHARLEY: Go on, you’d froze to death up there.

  WILLY: What’re you talking about?

  BEN: Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, William. Surprised you’re not up there.

  WILLY: Sure, tremendous.

  CHARLEY: Heh?

  WILLY: There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers.

  CHARLEY: Who?

  BEN: How are you all?

  WILLY [taking a pot, smiling]: Fine, fine.

  CHARLEY: Pretty sharp tonight.

  BEN: Is Mother living with you?

  WILLY: No, she died a long time ago.

  CHARLEY: Who?

  BEN: That’s too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, Mother.

  WILLY [to CHARLEY]: Heh?

  BEN: I’d hoped to see the old girl.

  CHARLEY: Who died?

  BEN: Heard anything from Father, have you?

  WILLY [unnerved]: What do you mean, who died?

  CHARLEY [taking a pot]: What’re you talkin’ about?

  BEN [looking at his watch]: William, it’s half past eight!

  WILLY [as though to dispel his confusion he angrily stops CHARLEY’S hand]: That’s my build!

  CHARLEY: I put the ace—

  WILLY: If you don’t know how to play the game I’m not gonna throw my money away on you!

  CHARLEY [rising]: It was my ace, for God’s sake!

  WILLY: I’m through, I’m through!

  BEN: When did Mother die?

  WILLY: Long ago. Since the beginning you never knew how to play cards.

  CHARLEY [picks up the cards and goes to the door]: All right! Next time I’ll bring a deck with five aces.

  WILLY: I don’t play that kind of game!

  CHARLEY [turning to him]: You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

  WILLY: Yeah?

  CHARLEY: Yeah! [He goes out.]

  WILLY [slamming the door after him]: Ignoramus!

  BEN [as WILLY comes toward him through the wall-line of the kitchen]: So you’re William.

  WILLY [shaking BEN’S hand]: Ben! I’ve been waiting for you so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it?

  BEN: Oh, there’s a story in that.

  [LINDA enters the forestage, as of old, carrying the wash basket.]

  LINDA: Is this Ben?

  BEN [gallantly]: How do you do, my dear.

  LINDA: Where’ve you been all these years? Willy’s always wondered why you—

  WILLY [pulling BEN away from her impatiently]: Where is Dad? Didn’t you follow him? How did you get started?

  BEN: Well, I don’t know how much you remember.

  WILLY: Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old—

  BEN: Three years and eleven months.

  WILLY: What a memory, Ben!

  BEN: I have many enterprises, William, and I have never kept books.

  WILLY: I remember I was sitting under the wagon in—was it Nebraska?

  BEN: It was South Dakota, and I gave you a bunch of wildflowers.

  WILLY: I remember you walking away down some open road.

  BEN [laughing]: I was going to find Father in Alaska.

  WILLY: Where is he?

  BEN: At that age I had a very faulty view of geography, William. I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska
, I ended up in Africa.

  LINDA: Africa!

  WILLY: The Gold Coast!

  BEN: Principally diamond mines.

  LINDA: Diamond mines!

  BEN: Yes, my dear. But I’ve only a few minutes—

  WILLY: No! Boys! Boys! [YOUNG BIFF and HAPPY appear.] Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben!

  BEN: Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs.] And by God I was rich.

  WILLY [to the boys]: You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen!

  BEN [glancing at his watch]: I have an appointment in Ketchikan Tuesday week.

  WILLY: No, Ben! Please tell about Dad. I want my boys to hear. I want them to know the kind of stock they spring from. All I remember is a man with a big beard, and I was in Mamma’s lap, sitting around a fire, and some kind of high music.

  BEN: His flute. He played the flute.

  WILLY: Sure, the flute, that’s right!

  [New music is heard, a high, rollicking tune.]

  BEN: Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston, and he’d toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he’d drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Western states. And we’d stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he’d made on the way. Great inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime.

  WILLY: That’s just the way I’m bringing them up, Ben—rugged, well liked, all-around.

  BEN: Yeah? [To BIFF] Hit that, boy—hard as you can. [He pounds his stomach.]

  BIFF: Oh, no, sir!

  BEN [taking boxing stance]: Come on, get to me! [He laughs.]

  WILLY: Go to it, Biff! Go ahead, show him!

  BIFF: Okay! [He cocks his fists and starts in.]

  LINDA [to WILLY]: Why must he fight, dear?

  BEN [sparring with BIFF]: Good boy! Good boy!

  WILLY: How’s that, Ben, heh?

  HAPPY: Give him the left, Biff!

  LINDA: Why are you fighting?

  BEN: Good boy! [Suddenly comes in, trips BIFF, and stands over him, the point of his umbrella poised over BIFF’S eye.]

  LINDA: Look out, Biff!

  BIFF: Gee!

  BEN [patting BIFF’S knee]: Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way. [Taking LINDA’S hand and bowing] It was an honor and a pleasure to meet you, Linda.

  LINDA [withdrawing her hand coldly, frightened]: Have a nice—trip.

  BEN [to WILLY]: And good luck with your—what do you do?

  WILLY: Selling.

  BEN: Yes. Well . . . [He raises his hand in farewell to all.]

  WILLY: No, Ben, I don’t want you to think . . . [He takes BEN’S arm to show him.] It’s Brooklyn, I know, but we hunt too.

  BEN: Really, now.

  WILLY: Oh, sure, there’s snakes and rabbits and—that’s why I moved out here. Why, Biff can fell any one of these trees in no time! Boys! Go right over to where they’re building the apartment house and get some sand. We’re gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now! Watch this, Ben!

  BIFF: Yes, sir! On the double, Hap!

  HAPPY [as he and BIFF run off ]: I lost weight, Pop, you notice?

  [CHARLEY enters in knickers, even before the boys are gone.]

  CHARLEY: Listen, if they steal any more from that building the watchman’ll put the cops on them!

  LINDA [to WILLY]: Don’t let Biff . . .

  [BEN laughs lustily.]

  WILLY: You shoulda seen the lumber they brought home last week. At least a dozen six-by-tens worth all kinds a money.

  CHARLEY: Listen, if that watchman—

  WILLY: I gave them hell, understand. But I got a couple of fearless characters there.

  CHARLEY: Willy, the jails are full of fearless characters.

  BEN [clapping WILLY on the back, with a laugh at CHARLEY]: And the stock exchange, friend!

  WILLY [ joining in BEN’S laughter]: Where are the rest of your pants?

  CHARLEY: My wife bought them.

  WILLY: Now all you need is a golf club and you can go upstairs and go to sleep. [To BEN] Great athlete! Between him and his son Bernard they can’t hammer a nail!

  BERNARD [rushing in]: The watchman’s chasing Biff!

  WILLY [angrily]: Shut up! He’s not stealing anything!

  LINDA [alarmed, hurrying off left]: Where is he? Biff, dear! [She exits.]

  WILLY [moving toward the left, away from BEN]: There’s nothing wrong. What’s the matter with you?

  BEN: Nervy boy. Good!

  WILLY [laughing]: Oh, nerves of iron, that Biff!

  CHARLEY: Don’t know what it is. My New England man comes back and he’s bleedin’, they murdered him up there.

  WILLY: It’s contacts, Charley, I got important contacts!

  CHARLEY [sarcastically]: Glad to hear it, Willy. Come in later, we’ll shoot a little casino. I’ll take some of your Portland money. [He laughs at WILLY and exits.]

  WILLY [turning to BEN]: Business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me, of course.

  BEN: I’ll stop by on my way back to Africa.

  WILLY [longingly]: Can’t you stay a few days? You’re just what I need, Ben, because I—I have a fine position here, but I—well, Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel—kind of temporary about myself.

  BEN: I’ll be late for my train.

  [They are at opposite ends of the stage.]

  WILLY: Ben, my boys—can’t we talk? They’d go into the jaws of hell for me, see, but I—

  BEN: William, you’re being first-rate with your boys. Outstanding, manly chaps!

  WILLY [hanging on to his words]: Oh, Ben, that’s good to hear! Because sometimes I’m afraid that I’m not teaching them the right kind of—Ben, how should I teach them?

  BEN [ giving great weight to each word, and with a certain vicious audacity]: William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich! [He goes off into darkness around the right corner of the house.]

  WILLY: . . . was rich! That’s just the spirit I want to imbue them with! To walk into a jungle! I was right! I was right! I was right!

  [BEN is gone, but WILLY is still speaking to him as LINDA, in nightgown and robe, enters the kitchen, glances around for WILLY, then goes to the door of the house, looks out and sees him. Comes down to his left. He looks at her.]

  LINDA: Willy, dear? Willy?

  WILLY: I was right!

  LINDA: Did you have some cheese? [He can’t answer.] It’s very late, darling. Come to bed, heh?

  WILLY [looking straight up]: Gotta break your neck to see a star in this yard.

  LINDA: You coming in?

  WILLY: Whatever happened to that diamond watch fob? Remember? When Ben came from Africa that time? Didn’t he give me a watch fob with a diamond in it?

  LINDA: You pawned it, dear. Twelve, thirteen years ago. For Biff’s radio correspondence course.

  WILLY: Gee, that was a beautiful thing. I’ll take a walk.

  LINDA: But you’re in your slippers.

  WILLY [starting to go around the house at the left]: I was right! I was! [Half to LINDA, as he goes, shaking his head] What a man! There was a man worth talking to. I was right!

  LINDA [calling after WILLY]: But in your slippers, Willy!

  [WILLY is almost gone when BIFF, in his pajamas, comes down the stairs and enters the kitchen.]

  BIFF: What is he doing out there?

  LINDA: Sh!

  BIFF: God Almighty, Mom, how long has he been doing this?

  LINDA: Don’t, he’ll hear you.

  BIFF: What the hell is the matter with him?

  LINDA: It’ll pass by morning.

  BIFF: Shouldn’t we do anything?

  LINDA: Oh, my dear, you should do a lot of thing
s, but there’s nothing to do, so go to sleep.

  [HAPPY comes down the stairs and sits on the steps.]

  HAPPY: I never heard him so loud, Mom.

  LINDA: Well, come around more often; you’ll hear him.

  [She sits down at the table and mends the lining of WILLY’S jacket.]

  BIFF: Why didn’t you ever write me about this, Mom?

  LINDA: How would I write to you? For over three months you had no address.

  BIFF: I was on the move. But you know I thought of you all the time. You know that, don’t you, pal?

  LINDA: I know, dear, I know. But he likes to have a letter. Just to know that there’s still a possibility for better things.

  BIFF: He’s not like this all the time, is he?

  LINDA: It’s when you come home he’s always the worst.

  BIFF: When I come home?

  LINDA: When you write you’re coming, he’s all smiles, and talks about the future, and—he’s just wonderful. And then the closer you seem to come, the more shaky he gets, and then, by the time you get here, he’s arguing, and he seems angry at you. I think it’s just that maybe he can’t bring himself to—to open up to you. Why are you so hateful to each other? Why is that?

  BIFF [evasively]: I’m not hateful, Mom.

  LINDA: But you no sooner come in the door than you’re fighting!

  BIFF: I don’t know why. I mean to change. I’m tryin’, Mom, you understand?

  LINDA: Are you home to stay now?

  BIFF: I don’t know. I want to look around, see what’s doin’.

  LINDA: Biff, you can’t look around all your life, can you?

  BIFF: I just can’t take hold, Mom. I can’t take hold of some kind of a life.

  LINDA: Biff, a man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.

  BIFF: Your hair . . . [He touches her hair.] Your hair got so gray.

  LINDA: Oh, it’s been gray since you were in high school. I just stopped dyeing it, that’s all.

  BIFF: Dye it again, will ya? I don’t want my pal looking old. [He smiles.]

  LINDA: You’re such a boy! You think you can go away for a year and . . . You’ve got to get it into your head now that one day you’ll knock on this door and there’ll be strange people here—

  BIFF: What are you talking about? You’re not even sixty, Mom.

  LINDA: But what about your father?

  BIFF [lamely]: Well, I meant him too.

  HAPPY: He admires Pop.

  LINDA: Biff, dear, if you don’t have any feeling for him, then you can’t have any feeling for me.