Motifs
- The Woods/jungle
- The Garden
- The Sky/Stars
- Unrealized Frontier
- Debt
- Brotherhood
Themes
- Superficiality of Society
- The False Promise of the American Dream
- Denial/Repression
- Tension between “professional” work and labor
Character Questions
Willy Loman
- Can Willy be a tragic hero?
- Is he the embodiment of the potential tragedy of every person?
- Is he more authentic than Hamlet? Creon?
Linda Loman
- The most paradoxical character in the play?
- Is she the mother or Medea archetype?
- Is she the moral center of the family or the root of its downfall?
Biff Loman
- Is he responsible for his downfall or is it, as he claims, the result of Willy’s decision to constantly inflate his self-worth?
- Does Biff experience anagnoresis at the end of the play?
- Are Hap/Biff=Ben/Willy and Cain/Abel?