Death of a Salesman Charley Quotes

(Charley has appeared in the doorway. He is a large man, slow of speech, laconic, immovable. In all he says, despite what he says, there is pity, and, now, trepidation. He has a robe over pajamas, slippers on his feet. He enters the kitchen.)
CHARLEY: Everything all right?

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy’s friend and neighbor makes his first appearance on stage. From the stage directions, we learn that Charley is both sympathetic to and fearful for his neighbor. His first words convey his concern for Willy.

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.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 1. The kind of moral values Willy has instilled in his sons leaves a lot to be desired. Here Willy’s neighbor Charley has criticized him for sending his boys to a nearby construction site to get sand to rebuild the front porch and they return with stolen timber. Willy proudly boasts about his children’s fearlessness, actually praising and encouraging their stealing. But Charley retorts that the jails are full of fearless characters, foreshadowing that Biff will wind up going to jail for stealing a suit.

WILLY: This is the greatest day of his life.
CHARLEY: Willy, when are you going to grow up?
WILLY: Yeah, heh? When this game is over, Charley, you’ll be laughing out of the other side of your face. They’ll be calling him another Red Grange. Twenty-five thousand a year.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy shows an exaggerated feeling of pride in son Biff, the star of his high school football team. His self-deception and detachment from reality see him compare Biff to Red Grange, a famous American football player. Neighbor Charley tries to bring him back to earth by asking when is he going to grow up. Willy betrays his obsession with financial success by reminding Charley that Biff is on the road to earning big money.

CHARLEY: I offered you a job. You can make fifty dollars a week. And I won’t send you on the road.
WILLY: I’ve got a job.
CHARLEY: Without pay? What kind of a job is without pay? (He rises) Now look kid, enough is enough. I’m no genius but I know when I’m being insulted.
WILLY: Insulted!
CHARLEY: Why don’t you want to work for me?
WILLY: What’s the matter with you? I’ve got a job!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. This very important scene between Willy and his more successful and down to earth friend Charley highlights the contrast between the two characters. Willy asks Charley for money to pay for his insurance after he is fired from his job. Charley offers Willy both money and a job. However, an absurdly proud Willy thumbs his nose up to Charley’s generous offer of practical help. He prefers to indulge in the self-deception that he still has a job.

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.

WILLY: I – I just can’t work for you, Charley.
CHARLEY: What’re you, jealous of me?
WILLY: I can’t work for you, that’s all, don’t ask me why.
CHARLEY (angered, takes out more bills) You been jealous of me all your life, you damned fool. Here, pay your insurance. (He puts the money in Willy’s hand).
WILLY: I’m keeping strict accounts.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy’s pride keeps him from accepting a job offer from his friend Charley. However, it doesn’t prevent him from taking another cash bailout from his successful and generous neighbor. An angry Charley is offended and scolds Willy for turning down his offer of employment. But he goes along with the pretence that the money is a "loan" in order to save both their prides.

LINDA: Why didn’t anybody come?
CHARLEY: It was a very nice funeral.
LINDA: But where are all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. Willy Loman was the great deceiver, but most of all he deceived himself. He believed that his funeral would be massive with large numbers of friends, other salesman and customers turning up on account of him being so well liked. Yet the only people present apart from family were neighbors Charley and Bernard. Willy wasn’t anything as popular as he made himself out to be. He lived in a world of illusion and his final and one of his biggest illusions was the spectacular funeral he predicted after his death by suicide.

LINDA: I can’t understand it. First time in thirty-five years we were just about free and clear. He only needed a little salary. He was even finished with the dentist.
CHARLEY: No man only needs a little salary.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. Linda cannot understand why Willy would kill himself for financial reasons when they were so close to paying off all their debts. All Willy needed was a small salary, she says. Charley’s reply refers to the idea that people need a dream and Willy’s dream was to be a rich and successful salesman.

Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a Shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back – that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. In this graveside eulogy to Willy, neighbor Charley empathizes with his friend’s dreams and elevates them to a heroic level. Summing up Willy’s life, he speaks poetically about the spirit that drives a salesman, giving him almost a mythic quality. He uses metaphorical language "out there in the blue" to compare Willy to the heroic sailor riding the waves with only a smile and a shoeshine to carry him towards a successful sale. Charley’s funeral monologue is a fitting tribute from a sympathetic friend. He defends Willy and understands the enormity of the challenge faced by the salesman. Charley recognizes that the American Dream can be difficult, when people stop smiling back in support of that dream it’s as devastating as an earthquake, he says in a metaphor.
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