Death of a Salesman and its Wordplay

copyright 2004, Richard Stoney, Orleans, CA.
Beggar's Opera and it's Sanskrit Wordplay: John Gay's hidden wordplay.

Sanskrit wordplay in Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible'

Instances of wordplay in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, based on various character's names, have been well-documented. However, it appears that the title of the play itself is also the source of additional wordplay. Consider the folowing English words as an example:
--de-, a preix meaning "opposite of";
--eath, earlier form of ease, "freedom from hard work and financial problems". It is akin to easy, "socially at ease";
--of a say-less man, i.e., Charley.
This wordplay manifests itself in the passage wherein Willy says that people do not seem to take to him and are either laughing at him or avoiding him when he walks into a place--an uncomfortable position. Linda then attempts to change the subject to a positive one by pointing out that Willy makes seventy to one hundred dollars a week, but he laments that he has to work ten to twelve hours a day to obtain that much and that other men do it more easily. He blames it on the fact that he talks and jokes too much, in contrast to the quieter Charley.

At another time in the play, Linda comments how terrible Willy looks. Then he states that he had problems paying attention to driving the car, forgetful of periods of time, and simply unable to keep his mind on getting things done. First he attributes it to some coffee he had drunk, then to his mind itself. At the same time, Linda blames it on the car's steering mechanism, then to his glasses. Neither one of them can decide the cause of his problems. And all of this turmoil takes place after leaving Yonkers. Here is the wordplay:
--dither, "a mental state of agitated indecision";
--of, "coming from";
--a sailsman. Cf. yonkers, earlier form of younkers, "junior seaman on board ship".


Linda makes Willy a cheese sandwich made of American cheese instead of his usual favorite, Swiss cheese. This perturbs him a bit. Here's the pun: Dearth of a Salesman. Cf. dearth, "a lack of [a particular] food".

There is also wordplay based on an old phrase, low man on the totem pole. At the start of the play, Willy is seen entering his house--very distraught and tired from his recent sales trip because he has had to lug his sample bags to far-flung cities. He remarks that he wishes he could get a sales route closer to home so the job would not be so tough on him, but his boss has no respect for him. Life is tough on Willy.
--Cf. Loman on/up the tote-'em pole
--"up the pole, "in trouble or difficulty".

Charley's name is the target for much word play in various passages. For example, Willy and Charley are sitting around, when Uncle Ben enters. We soon find out that Willy was informed a few weeks earlier that Ben had died, so it appears that this is Ben's spirit, to whom only Willy is talking in a state of confusion.
Willy: "I'm getting awfully tired. Ben".
Charley: "...Did you call me Ben?"
Willy: "That's funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben".
Cf. slang charley, "general term for someone whose name has been forgotten"; Eng. forget, "to overlook or neglect due to inattention".
The same passage continues:
Ben: "I have only a few minutes". [He strolls around, inspecting the place. Willy and Charley continue playing.]
Charley: "You never heard from him again, heh? Since that time?"
Willy: "Didn't Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his wife in Africa. He died."
Charley: "That so".
Ben: So this is Brooklyn, heh?"....
Ben: "I must make a train, William. There are several properties I am looking at in Alaska".
Willy: "Sure, sure! If I'd gone with him to Alaska that time, everthing would have been different".
Charley: "Go on, you'd froze to death up there".
Willy: "What're you talking about?"
Ben: Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, William. Surprised you're not up there".
Willy: Sure, tremendous".
Charley: "Heh?"
Willy: "That was the only man I ever met who knew the answers".
Charley:"Who?"
Ben: How are you all?"
Willy: "Fine, fine".
Charley: "Pretty sharp tonight".
Ben: "Is Mother living with you?"
Willy: "No, she died a long time ago".
Charley: "Who?"
Ben: "That too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, Mother".
Willy [to Charley]: "Heh?"
Ben: "I'd hoped to see the old girl".
Charley: "Who died?"
Ben: "Heard anything from Father, have you?"
Willy: "What do you mean, who died?"
Charley: "What're you talking about?"
This appears to be a corruption of the phrase charley horse: Charley + slang horse, "a vocative to a man [Willy] [about] whose name is not known"

Further on in another passage, Willy and Charley are playing cards, and money is involved.
Willy [as though to dispel his confusion he angrily stops Charley's hand]: "That's my build!" [a card term]
Charley: "I put the ace--"
Willy: "If you don't know how to play the game I'm not gonna throw my money away on you!"
Charley: "It was my ace, for God's sake!"
Willy: I'm through! I'm through!".....
Willy: "....Since the beginning you never knew how to play cards".
Charley [picks up the cards and goes to the door.]: "All right! The next time I'll bring a deck with five aces". Cf. Eng. slang charley pitcher, "a cheating gambler".
Yet another corruption of charley horse is also be involved. Cf. Charley + slang horse, "to cheat".

Here is another corruption of charley horse:
Willy calls Charley an ignorant and disgusting person and does not treat him with respect. Cf. charly + slang horse, "a stupid or contemptible person".

Charley: "You going for a ride? I wanted to shoot some casino".
Willy [furiously]: Casino? [incredulously] Don't you realize what today is?"
Linda: "Oh, he knows, Willy. He's just kidding you".
Then Charley makes a comment about Ebbets Field having been blown up and questions, mockingly, who Red Grange was. This is another distortion of charley horse: Cf. Charley + Eng. horse, "fool around", which is synonymous with to kid.
It is during this same passage that Charley says, "Knock a homer, Biff, knock a homer!" Such talk is known in baseball as chatter, which is designed to encourage a ballplayer. Cf. It. ciarlio (pronounced "charl-ee-o"), which means "chatter". Chatter can also refer to fast, trivial talk, which is what Charley has just done--a string of jokes not appreciated by Willy.

Willy is about to go from his house, when Linda suddenly remembers to inform him that his two boys plan on treating him to dinner that night at Frank's Chop House:
frank, "enable someone to go easily";
house (Willy's);
chop, "to change directions suddenly", i.e., change his plans and go to dinner.

After he has just been fired by his boss Howard, Willy says, "That snotnose. Imagine that? I named him. I named him Howard".
--Cf. Eng. how, "grief, sorrow, trouble";
-- Eng. -ard, a suffix, often used to form personal names (Reynard, Everard); a formative of common nouns, usually pejorative, (bastard, coward, laggard, drunkard, sluggard); used with the sense of 'one who goes to excess, or who does what is discreditable'. When Biff admits to having taken Bill Oliver's pen, both Happy and Willy repeatedly berate and question him about having done so--he is being grilled like a crime suspect.
Then, for no logical reason, the voice of an operator is heard, saying "Standish Arms, good evening!" Cf. Eng. standish, "a stand containing ink, pens and other writing materials"; arms, the things which, along with the hands, grasp or take things.
So Biff stole Bill Oliver's pen and was questioned about it. Consider the following:
== Eng. bill, (noun) "a writing circulated to reflect upon someone"; (verb) to make someone the object of a bill," i.e., "indict, charge";
-- Eng. Oliver/oliver: "to put the Oliver on it is to handle or work something dishonestly;....Short for Oliver Twist, 'the Twist' (a dishonest practice)".

At he very end of Act Two, Willie is imagining Ben's presence, only to find out he is actually alone. A sense of fear whirls around him as sounds, faces and voices swarm around him. The music rises in intensity, almost to an unbearable scream. He rushes around the house in a state of anxiety. Cf. slang the willies, "feelings of uneasiness".
Linda calls to him but gets no reply. Then with real fear she calls again. There is the sound of a starting car which then moves away at high speed. Now the house is a beehive of activity as Linda and Biff yell to him. The music reaches a high-pitched intensity then develops into a dead march. Biff, Happy, Bernard and Charley appear, somberly dressed followed by Linda in mourning clothes. Act Two ends as they all look down at a grave.
Willie has finally managed to kill himself using the car. A memorial service follows in a short passage titled Requiem.

Wreck-quiem?


Ben: "I have many enterprises, William. I have never kept books".........
Ben: "At that age I had a very faulty view of geography, William. I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska, I ended up in Africa."
Linda: "Africa!"
Willy: "The Gold Coast!"
Ben: "Principally diamond mines....Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich."
Cf. Uncle Ben's rise, wherein rise means "an upward advance in prosperity". By the way, rise is also an archaic form of rice, according to OED.

Charley: "Listen, if that watchman--"
Cf. Eng. slang charley", "watchman".

This passage appears later:
Happy: [tauntingly, spinning Bernard around] "Let's box, Bernard!"
Bernard: "Biff!".....
[A few pages later]:
Willy: "That's just the way I'm bringing them up, Ben--rugged, well-liked, all-around".
Ben: "Yeah? [to Biff] Hit that, boy--hard as you can." [he pounds his chest.]
Biff: "Oh, no, sir!"
Ben: [taking boxing stance] "Come on, get to me!" [he laughs.]
Willy: "Go to it, Biff! Go ahead, show him!"
Biff: "Okay!" [he cocks his fists and starts in]
Linda: [to Willy] "Why must he fight, dear?"
Willy: "How's that, Ben, heh?"
Happy: "Give him the left, Biff!"
Cf. Eng. biff, "to strike or punch; a blow or punch; an interjection associated with hitting something".

Ben brings an end to the punching mentioned above when he trips Biff, to whom he gives friendly advice about fighting with strangers. He then says farewell to Linda, who coolly says, "Have a nice--trip".

Linda: "Well, it seems she [a female witness] was walking down the road and saw his [Willy's] car. She says that he wasn't driving fast at all, and that he didn't skid. She says he came to that little bridge, and then deliberately smashed into the railing, and it was only the shallowness of the water that saved him".
Cf. Ditch of a Salesman; (verb) ditch, "to drive (a vehicle) into a ditch" (American Heritiage Dictionary); (noun) ditch, "any watercourse, including a natural one".

Act Two

Charley: "You going for a ride? I wanted to shoot some casino".
Willy [furiously]: Casino? [incredulously] Don't you realize what today is?"
Linda: "Oh, he knows, Willy. He's just kidding you".
Another distortion of charley horse: Cf. Charley + Eng. horse, "fool around", which is synonymous with to kid.

Willy: "Charley, look.... [with difficulty] I got my insurance to pay. If you can manage it--I need a hundred and ten dollars."
[Charley doesn't reply for a moment, merely stops moving]
Willy: "I'd draw it from my bank but Linda would know, and I..."
Charley: "Sit down, Willy".
Willy: [moving toward the chair] I'm keeping an account of everything, remember. I'll pay every penny back." [he sits.]
Charley: "Now listen to me, Willy".............
Charley: [kindly, going to him] "How much do you need, Willy?"
Willy: "Charley, I'm strapped, 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". [See Howard, below.]
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"............
Charley: [angered, takes out more bills] "You've 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".
Cf. Debt of a Salesman.
Wordplay on the name Howard:
1) Eng. how, "grief, sorrow, trouble";
2) Eng. -ard, a suffix, often used to form personal names (Reynard, Everard); a formative of common nouns, usually pejorative, (bastard, coward, laggard, drunkard, sluggard); used with the sense of 'one who goes to excess, or who does what is discreditable'. See Oxford English Dictionary.

Happy and Stanley are discussing something, when suddenly Happy changes the subject:
Happy: [raising his head] "Sh!"
Stanley: "What?"
Happy: "You notice I wasn't lookin' right or left, was I?"
Stanley: "No".
Happy: "And my eyes are closed".
Stanley: "So what's the--?"
Happy: "Strudel's comin'". ["a sweet, beautiful woman", I assume.]
Stanley: [catching on, looks around] "Ah, no, there's no--"
[He breaks off as a furred, lavishly dressed girl enters and sits at the next table. Both follow her with their eyes.]
Stanley: "Geez, how'd you know?"
Happy: "I got radar or something. [staring directly at her profile] Oooooooo, Stanley."
Stanley: "I think that's for you, Mr. Loman".
Happy: "Look at that mouth. Oh, God. And the binoculars". ["eyes"]
Stanley: "Geez, you got a life, Mr. Loman".
Happy: "Wait on her".
Stanley: [going to the girl's table] "Would you like a menu, ma'am?"
Girl: "I'm expecting someone, but I'd like a--"
The girl, we soon discover, is Miss Forsythe.
Cf. Eng. miss, "an unmarried woman"; foresight, "the ability to forsee or foretell".

Happy: "What'd you do?"
Biff: [with great tension and wonder] Well, he left, see. And the secretary went out. I was all alone in the waiting-room. I don't know what came over me, Hap. The next thing I know I'm in his office--panelled walls, everything. I can't explain it. I--Hap I took his fountain pen".
Happy: "Geez, did he catch you?"
Biff: "I ran out. I ran down all eleven flights. I ran and ran and ran".
Happy: "That was awful dumb--what'd you do that for?"
Biff: [agonized] "I don't know, I just--wanted to take something, I don't know. You gotta help me, Hap, I'm gonna tell Pop".
Happy: "You crazy? What for?"
[A few pages later on]:
Willy: "....What pen?"
Happy: "That was awful dumb, Biff, a pen like that is worth--"
Willy: [seeing the pen for the first time] You took Oliver's pen?"
Biff: [weakening] "Dad, I just explained it to you".
Willy: "You stole Bill Oliver's pen!"
Biff: "I didn't exactly steal it! That's just what I've been explaining to you!"
Happy: "He had it in his hand and just then Oliver walked in, so he got nervous and stuck it in his pocket!"
Willy: "My God, Biff!"
Biff: "I never intended to do it, Dad!"
Operator's Voice: "Standish Arms, good evening!"
At this point, it would seem that the Standish Arms is a hotel, with the operator trying subsequently to contact Willy's room. But the wordplay revolves around the phrase itself: Cf. Eng. standish, "a stand containing ink, pens and other writing materials"; arms, the things which, along with the hands, grasp or take things.

So Biff stole Bill Oliver's pen. Consider the following:
1) Eng. bill, (noun) "a writing circulated to reflect upon someone"; (verb) to make someone the object of a bill," i.e., "indict, charge";
2) Eng. Oliver/oliver: "to put the Oliver on it is to handle or work something dishonestly;....Short for Oliver Twist, 'the Twist' (a dishonest practice)". (See Partridge 1, p. 828.)

Willie is imagining Ben's presence, only to find out he is actually alone. A sense of fear whirls around him as sounds, faces and voices swarm around him. The musinc rises in intensity, almost to an unbearable scream. He rushes around the house in a state of anxiety. Cf. slang willies, "feelings of uneasiness".
Linda calls to him but gets no reply. Then with real fear she calls again. There is the sound of a starting car which then moves away at high speed. Now the house is a beehive of activity as Linda and Biff yell to him. The music reaches a high-pitched intensity then develops into a dead march. Biff, Happy, Bernard and Charley appear, somberly dressed followed by Linda in mourning clothes. Act Two ends as they all look down at a grave.
Willie has finally managed to kill himself using the car. A memorial service follows in a short passage titled Requiem.

Wreck-quiem?

Sources:
American Heritage Dictionary, second college edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985
Green, Jonathon. Cassell Dictionary of Slang, Cassell, 1999
Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Penguin Books, 1949
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, Oxford University Press
Partridge, Eric (1). A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, eighth edition, MacMillan, 1984
Partridge, Eric (2). A Dictionary` of the Underworld, MacMillan Company, 1950
Wentworth, Harold, and Flexner, Stuart Berg. Dictionary of American Slang, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1967