KatieAikins

Funerals

"Ben, that funeral will be massive! They'll come from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire! All the old-timers with the strange license plates -- that boy will be thunderstruck, Ben, because he never realized -- I am known! Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey -- I am known, Ben, and he'll see it with his eyes once and for all."

This passage elucidates the nature of Willy's mind: he goes to his deathbed a salesman - with customers the world around, or so he thinks. It is in this instant, the reader or viewer realizes the tragic self that is Willy Loman. He is a low-man on the totem pole, replete of all supposed funeral voyeurs. However, it is in an illusion that he bases his beliefs. He has not come to terms with the truth: the truth that his career as a salesman is just as faded as Linda's need-to-be-darned silk stockings. This is probably the most poignant moment of the play.