Characters

Abstract

Willy Each week, Willy is on the road for five days. With more than 70 per cent of his time away from his family, he focuses on his work and the values associated with it, but his infidelities disturb him profoundly (Linda seems unaware of them). Characters he remembers personify his aims. Like Ben, he wants to succeed in business. Like his father, who made flutes, he makes things with his hands, and he brags to Charley of the ceiling he put up. Like the legendary Dave Singleman, he wants to be well liked. To be well liked, he tries like the stereotypical salesman of popular mythology to amuse people with risqué jokes. In the remembered past, he slaps the Woman in Boston’s fanny and exclaims, ‘bottoms up!’ In time present, he asks Charley’s secretary, ‘How’re ya? Workin’? Or still honest?’