What Happened When

Abstract

Although today’s readers do not require a glossary for Death of a Salesman, as they do for The Merry Wives of Windsor, young readers and spectators understand some of its specific references only by context, inference or specialised knowledge: Gene Tunney was a prizefighting champion, Jack Benny had a popular radio show, Spalding manufactured and sold sporting goods and all high school students in New York State were required to take examinations prepared by the State Board of Regents. More important are period assumptions that contribute to our understanding of character. Was Willy always unable to face reality? Does his statement in the remembered past that shops were closed for inventory constitute an excuse for his failure? Possibly because Willy tells Linda he imagined driving a red Chevrolet he had bought in 1928, some critics tend to think that his first hallucination about the past is set in that year, which precedes the Depression, for in it he talks to his offstage sons about cleaning this car. Yet in this scene Biff (34 in the dramatic present, he was born in 1915, the same year as Miller) is quite a ladies’ man, is captain of his high school football team and must pass mathematics to be graduated and enter the University of Virginia in the Fall.