Death of a Salesman Betrayal Quotes

Biff finding himself

WILLY: How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!
LINDA: He’s finding himself, Willy.
WILLY: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy is bitterly disappointed at son Biff when he returns home from the West after working as a farmhand for a few dollars a week. He views Biff’s failure to achieve financial success as a kind of betrayal of his own expectations for his 34-year-old elder and favorite son. He feels Biff is wasting away his life working on a Texas farm. The irony is that Willy himself often yearns for the simpler life away from the city and close to nature, the one his son has been living. Linda defends Biff saying he is still trying to find himself.

From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman. Willy doesn’t turn to it, but it continues through Linda’s lines.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. The first time we are introduced to The Woman – the person Willy has an affair with – is through her laughter. Linda is comforting her husband because he feels people are laughing at him and making fun of him at work. The Woman’s laugh can be heard through Linda’s words of support, emphasizing all the more Willy’s betrayal of his loyal and loving wife.

(Music is heard as behind a scrim, to the left of the house; The Woman, dimly seen, is dressing.)
WILLY (with great feeling): You’re the best there is, Linda, you’re a pal, you know that? On the road – on the road I want to grab you sometimes and just kiss the life outa you.
(The laughter is loud now, and he moves into a brightening area at the left, where The Woman has come from behind the scrim and is standing, putting on her hat, looking into a "mirror" and laughing.)

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy’s deceitful ways are shown here. While he assures Linda how he misses and longs for her while on the road, The Woman he’s been having an affair with is seen laughing and dressing. Willy’s hallucination of her is an expression of his guilty conscience over his betrayal of Linda.

Cause I get so lonely – especially when business is bad and there’s nobody to talk to. I get the feeling that I’ll never sell anything again, that I won’t make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys. (He talks through The Woman’s subsiding laughter; The Woman primps at the "mirror".) There’s so much I want to make for…

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. The Woman is part of a memory and hallucination that torments Willy. She appears while he is recalling a conversation with his wife Linda some years before. While he assures Linda that he wants to work hard to provide for his family, the stage directions remind us that he is betraying Linda with The Woman.

THE WOMAN: Me? You didn’t make me, Willy. I picked you.
WILLY (pleased): You picked me?
THE WOMAN: (who is quite proper-looking, Willy’s age): I did. I’ve been sitting at that desk watching all the salesmen go by, day in, day out. But you’ve got such a sense of humor, and we do have such a good time together, don’t we?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. In this scene we have the first encounter between Willy and The Woman he has an illicit affair with. Miller doesn’t give her a name, not provide much information about her character, but she plays a significant role in Biff’s disillusionment with his father. She massages Willy’s ego, telling him she "picked" him for his likability and sense of humor. She represent Willy’s betrayal of his marriage to Linda.

Thanks for the stockings. I love a lot of stockings.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. The Woman says this to Willy after he slaps her on the bottom and grabs and roughly kisses her. She sells herself to him for the price of a pair of stockings, which are a symbol of Willy’s infidelity and betrayal of his wife in the play.

LINDA: Just mending my stockings. They’re so expensive.
WILLY (angrily, taking them from her): I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out! (Linda puts the stockings in her pocket.)

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy returns to reality after hallucinating about the The Woman he has been having an affair with. He has gifted The Woman a pair of brand new and expensive stockings, when he cannot even provide for his own wife Linda and family. He lashes out angrily at Linda when he sees her mending her torn stockings. This is Willy being haunted by his own guilty conscience, because the stocking are a reminder of his betrayal of his wife.

I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. In one of the play’s most famous speeches, Linda makes this impassioned appeal for the ordinary human being to be respected and afforded their dignity. Accepting her husband’s weaknesses, she strongly defends him to her two sons after Biff calls him crazy and says he has no character. Her soliloquy admonishes and pleads with them not to abandon him. It is her cry of insistance on the dignity of the weak, those cast aside by the system, and not just the strong. The life and death of the little man is of as much importance as that of the great man, she believes. The message of her speech is that every human being matters and no one is disposable. This includes an insignificant person like Willy, betrayed and abandoned by a capitalist system that has no further use for him. Miller uses pathos throughout the play but here it is heightened as Linda, who is devoted to Willy, asks for respect to be shown to her flawed husband. During this key moment we hear in Linda’s voice the rage of Miller as he questions the morality of a society that uses people as tools for profit and then discards them. Employing a graphic simile, Linda pleads with Biff to reconcile with his father and not abandon him so that he dies "like an old dog." Linda appears to accept the inevitability of Willy’s imminent death, which is foreshadowed here. The passage shows her deep devotion to Willy.

BIFF: He threw me out of this house, remember that…Because I know he’s a fake and he doesn’t like anybody around who knows!
LINDA: Why a fake? In what way? What do you mean?
BIFF: Just don’t lay it all at my feet. It’s between me and him – that’s all I have to say.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. When Biff calls Willy a fraud he is alluding to the secret between him and his father. Biff was a student when he walked in on his father in a hotel room with another woman. The young Loman feels betrayed by the father he admired and trusted as a boy. Willy’s cheating marked the start of the conflict between father and son. But Biff decides not to tell his mother about his father’s deception, probably to protect her from the hurtful truth.

BIFF (starting left for the stairs.): Oh, Jesus, I’m going to sleep!
WILLY (calling after him): Don’t curse in this house!
BIFF (turning): Since when did you get so clean?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Biff has lost complete respect for his father, as evidenced by this exchange between son and father. Willy admonishes Biff for cursing and Biff responds by suggesting that his father is far from lily white. He is referring to Willy’s betrayal of Linda by his affair with The Woman.

WILLY: Your father came to me the day you were born and asked me what I thought of the name of Howard, may he rest in peace.
HOWARD: I appreciate that, Willy, but there just is no spot here for you.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Despite the fact that Willy helped Howard’s father name him when he was born, Howard tells him that he has no job for him. This must have seemed like a betrayal to Willy, having met with Howard to plead for a non-traveling position in New York on a lower salary. Willy entered the meeting with Howard optimistic, mistakingly believing that his connection to Howard’s father and his loyalty would win the day for him. But the son of the original boss remains unsentimental and unsympathetic.

You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is talking to his boss Howard about getting a non-traveling postion with the company, after spending 34 years working for it. When Howard refuses, Willy uses a fruit metaphor to describe how Howard has treated him like an orange. His boss has consumed the best years of his life and when he is of no further use he throws him away like a peel. This is symbolic of an unsentimental capitalist system that treats employees as expendable, discarding them when they are no longer needed. Themes of betrayal and abandonment, found throughout the play, are present here.

Willy, I remember it was June, and our grades came out. And he’d flunked math…Biff just got very angry, I remember, and he was ready to enroll in summer school…He wasn’t beaten by it at all. But then, Willy, he disappeared from the block for almost a month. And I got the idea that he’d gone up to New England to see you. Did he have a talk with you then?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Bernard recalls how Biff visited his father in Boston after failing math to speak to him about his future. He queries Willy on why after the visit Biff suddenly disappeared and refused to go to summer school. This is foreshadowing of the reason Biff dropped out of the education system. Later in this act we learn that a devastated Biff walked in on the father he idolized cheating on his mother with another woman in a Boston hotel room.

WILLY: Charley, I’m strapped. I don’t know what to do. I was just fired.
CHARLEY: Howard fired you?
WILLY: That snotnose. Imagine that? I named him. I named him Howard.
CHARLEY: Willy, when’re you gonna realize that them things don’t mean anything? You named him Howard, but you can’t sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy admits to Charley that he has been fired from his job by his boss Howard and has no money. Taking the dismissal personally he sees it as a form of betrayal, because he was close to Howard’s father and chose Howard’s name when he was born. Charley scolds Willy for his lack of understanding of the reality of capitalism. He tells him that being "well liked" doesn’t make you rich, as much as Willy would like believe it.

OPERATOR’S VOICE: Standish Arms, good evening!…Ringing Mr. Loman for you!
WILLY: I’m not there, stop it!
BIFF (horrified, gets down on one knee before Willy): Dad, I’ll make good, I’ll make good. (Willy tries to get to his feet. Biff holds him down.) Sit down now.
WILLY: No, you’re no good, you’re no good for anything.
BIFF: I am, Dad, I’ll find something else, you understand? Now don’t worry about anything. (He holds up Willy’s face.) Talk to me, Dad.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy Loman’s failures as a good father and husband are on full display here. He yells at an imaginary telephone operator during a flashback memory of when schoolboy Biff found him with another woman in a Boston hotel. The adult Biff moves to calm the irrational Willy down. He doesn’t want to disappoint his father after his failure to get a loan from Bill Oliver to go into business. He assures Willy that he will "make good," but Willy dismisses Biff as a "no good." The scene represents Willy’s betrayal of his wife Linda, the guilt he carries with him, and the damaged relationship he has had with Biff since he discovered the affair. Willy proves to be a terrible father, as well as a terrible husband.

WILLY: You don’t want to be anything, is that what’s behind it?…Are you spiting me?
BIFF: Don’t take it that way! Goddammit!
WILLY (strikes Biff and falters away from the table): You rotten little louse! Are you spiting me?
THE WOMAN: Someone’s at the door, Willy!…Willy are you going to answer the door!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is convinced that Biff’s business failure with Bill Oliver is a personal betrayal. He believes that it is a bid to punish him for his own betrayal of Linda through a love affair he had in Boston. Willy’s deep-rooted feelings of guilt are evident here. He is actually in a restaurant having dinner with his sons. But in his imagination he is transported back in time to Boston, where he hears the voice of his lover, The Woman, calling out when the young high school Biff appears at their hotel bedroom door and discovers the affair. Willy lashes out at the grown-up Biff and calls him a "louse."

No, that’s not my father. He’s just a guy. Come on, we’ll catch Biff, and, honey, we’re going to paint this town! Stanley, where’s the check! Hey, Stanley!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. In a shocking betrayal of Willy, Happy disowns his father and lies to a woman he has picked up in the restaurant about Willy being family. He is embarrassed by Willy’s irrational behavior. This has echoes of Peter’s denial of Jesus as told in the Bible. In Matthew 26:75 we are told – "And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly." Happy and Biff run from the restaurant with two girls they meet there and leave Willy in a distressed and confused state.

You know you ruined me, Willy? From now on, whenever you come to the office, I’ll see that you go right through to the buyers. No waiting at my desk anymore, Willy. You ruined me.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. In this flashback about The Woman Willy has an affair with, women are objectified as being there to please men and satisfy their sexual needs.

Gee, you are self-centered! Why so sad? You are the saddest, self-centeredest soul I ever did see-saw. (She laughs. He kisses her.) Come on inside, drummer boy.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. The Woman who has an affair with Willy playfully teases him. She also criticizes him for being self-centered, telling Willy an unpleasant truth about himself.

All right, stay in the bathroom here, and don’t come out. I think there’s a law in Massachusetts about it, so don’t come out.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy instructs The Woman he is having a liason with in a Boston hotel room to hide in the bathroom. He is concerned that their affair will be exposed after someone comes knocking at their bedroom door.

Dad – I let you down.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. The young Biff arrives at his father’s Boston hotel bedroom door with a suitcase in hand and says this to Willy. He feels that he has disappointed his father because he has failed math. Biff’s words are ironic, because it is Willy who has betrayed and let down Biff and the family by cheating on Linda with a woman he has in the room.

THE WOMAN (enters, laughing; she lisps this): Can I come in? There’s something in the bathtub, Willy, and it’s moving! (Willy looks at Biff, who is staring open-mouthed and horrified at The Woman.)
WILLY: Ah – you better go back to your room. They must be finished painting by now. They’re painting her room so I let her take a shower here. Go back, go back…(He pushes her.)
THE WOMAN: (resisting) But I’ve got to get dressed, Willy, I can’t – .
WILLY: Get out of here! Go back…(suddenly striving for the ordinary) This is Miss Francis, Biff, she’s a buyer. They’re painting her room. Go back Miss Francis, go back…
THE WOMAN: But my clothes, I can’t go out naked in the hall!
WILLY (pushing her offstage): Get outa here! Go back, go back!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. High school student Biff takes a train to Boston and surprises his father while he is shacked up in a hotel room with another woman. Willy predictably goes straight into lying mode. He pretends that The Woman is a buyer who has had to temporarily leave her room because it is being painted. He then displays another example of his inappropriate treatment of women when he pushes her offstage.

THE WOMAN: Where’s my stockings? You promised me stockings, Willy!
WILLY: I have no stockings here!
THE WOMAN: You had two boxes of size nine sheers for me, and I want them!
WILLY: Here, for God’s sake, will you get outa here!
THE WOMAN (enters holding a box of stockings).

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. The Woman Willy Loman is having an extra marital affair with demands a box of stockings from him before she leave his Boston hotel room. Stockings are symbolic of Willy’s sexual infidelity in the play and his betrayal not just of wife Linda but son Biff who walks in on Willy during the affair.

WILLY: She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terrible lonely.
BIFF: You – you gave her Mama’s stockings! (His tears break through and he rises to go.)

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy’s infidelity is exposed as Biff yells at his father about the stockings he bought for his mistress. A heartbroken Biff says that the stockings should have been for his mom. Biff is angry after discovering his father with another woman in a hotel room. It is a devastating moment of disillusionment for the boy. The stockings are a symbol of betrayal. Biff carries the image of them and resentment of the father he once looked up to throughout the play.

LINDA: Shake his hand, Willy.
…BIFF: Shake hands, Dad.
WILLY: Not my hand.
BIFF: I was hoping not to go this way.
WILLY: Well, this is the way you’re going. Good-by.
(Biff looks at him a moment, then turns sharply and goes to the stairs.)
WILLY (stops him with): May you rot in hell if you leave this house!
BIFF (turning): Exactly what is it that you want from me?
WILLY: I want you to know, on the train, in the mountains, in the valleys, wherever you go, that you cut down your life for spite!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Linda steps in as peacemaker when Biff unsuccessfully tries to get his father to shake his hand as he quits the Loman house. Willy doesn’t want his favorite son to go. He is counting on Biff to stay and make it big in business, something Willy has been unable to accomplish. Willy is a failed salesman who wants to attain vicarious success through Biff. He is convinced that his son’s decision to leave and turn his back on a career in business and sales is a betrayal of him. He feels that Biff is punishing him because of his extra marital affair. But Willy is completely wrong here.

Spite, spite, is the word of your undoing! And when you’re down and out, remember what did it. When you’re rotting somewhere beside the railroad tracks, remember, and don’t you dare blame it on me!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy believes that Biff is punishing him because of the affair he had with a woman in Boston. He sees his son’s rejection as a betrayal of the ambitions he had for Biff. That of course is not true. Willy is being unrealistic by pushing Biff to achieve his own failed dreams of making his fortune in business. His son is rebelling against his father’s obsessive pursuit of material wealth and success, because he doesn’t believe it will bring him happiness.

BIFF: There’ll be no pity for you, you hear it? No pity!
WILLY (to Linda): You hear the spite!
BIFF: No, you’re going to hear the truth – what you are and what I am!
LINDA: Stop it!
WILLY: Spite!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Linda tries to reconcile father and son and take down the temperature. But to no avail – Willy and Biff are unable to reconcile. Willy is convinced that Biff is full of spite because he feels betrayed by Willy’s extra marital affair.

Why did you ever do that? Help me Willy, I can’t cry. It seems to me that you’re just on another trip. I keep expecting you. Willy, dear, I can’t cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I search, and I can’t understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home. (A sob rises in her throat.) We’re free and clear. (Sobbing more fully, released.) We’re free. (Biff comes slowly toward her.) We’re free…We’re free.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. Linda feels abandoned by Willy after his suicide and tries to make sense of what he did. Speaking directly to him at his graveside, she begs him to help her understand. To Linda they had achieved their American Dream by owning their own house, she having made the final mortgage payment the day of his funeral. They were finally free and clear of debt, she sobbingly tells her dead husband. But it’s a hollow kind of freedom, with no Willy home to enjoy it with her. Linda feels lost and there is a bitter and tragic irony in these last words spoken in the play by her. Willy felt he was doing something good by killing himself in a car crash, because of the financial security the insurance money would provide for his family. But Willy’s final act was resented by his family, who simply wanted the father and husband they loved to be with them. By killing himself he betrayed them.