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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. What implement is Willy using?

2. What does Linda try to prevent Biff from doing?

3. What does Charley say causes an earthquake?

4. What uncomfortable truth does Biff expose?

5. Why does Stanley tell off the other waiter?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why did Willy never find true happiness?

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

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

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

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

7. What is Willy's reaction to Biff's attempt to tell the day's events truthfully?

8. Is Death of a Salesman an uncompromising indictment of "The American Dream"?

9. What is the significance of Happy's gift of flowers?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Death of a Salesman is a savage indictment of commercial values." Discuss with close reference to the play.

Essay Topic 2

"Death of a Salesman offers a pessimistic view of the citizen's place in the social world.'" Do you agree? Regardless of how you answer regarding Willy, what of his sons? Describe the likely futures of Biff and Happy.

Essay Topic 3

"The commercial world inhabited by Willy Loman is very different from that which operates in the twenty-first century. Willy's tragedy would be impossible today." Referring to the text and to your knowledge of today's world, either agree with or refute this statement.

(see the answer keys)

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