Death of a Salesman – Monty's Flying Players' Cut

Final Script

Act 1 WILLY: He was sitting in the hotel lobby.

SCENE: CHARLEY, BIFF, HAPPY, and LINDA stand at the BIFF: Gee, I'd love to go with you sometime, Dad.
funeral of WILLY LOMAN. A tableau, mourning as they WILLY: Soon as summer comes.
surround the coffin. WILLY behind a screen. A flute is heard. HAPPY: Promise?
In time, the guests go offstage. The lighting changes to move WILLY: You, Hap and I, and I'll show you all the towns.
the scene into the past; the Loman's back garden. America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding
people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and
WILLY: I got a surprise for you, boys. down New England. The finest people. And when I bring
BIFF: What is it, dad? Tell me, what'd you buy? you fellas up, there'll be open sesame for all of us, 'cause
WILLY: (laughing, cuffs him). Never mind, something I want you one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any
to have. street in New England, and the cops protect it like their
BIFF: (turns and starts off). What is it, Hap? own. This summer, heh?
HAPPY: (offstage). It's a punching bag! BIFF and HAPPY: (together). Yeah! You bet!
BIFF: Oh, Pop! WILLY: We'll take our bathing suits.
WILLY: It's got Gene Turney's signature on it! (enter HAPPY) HAPPY: We'll carry your bags, Pop!
BIFF: Gee, how'd you know we wanted a punching bag? WILLY: Oh, won't that be something! Me comin' into the
WILLY: Well, it's the finest thing for the timing. Boston stores with you boys carryin' my bags. What a
HAPPY: (lies down on his back and pedals with his feet). I'm sensation!
losing weight, you notice, Pop?
WILLY: (to Happy). Jumping rope is good too. Act 2
BIFF: Did you see the new football I got? SCENE: A hotel room in Boston. WILLY's alone, but seemingly
WILLY: (Examining the ball). Where'd you get a new ball? concerned. An incessant knocking is heard offstage. WILLY
BIFF: The coach told me to practice my passing. goes to the knocking. The light follows him, and now he is
WILLY: That so? And he gave you the ball, heh? facing a young BIFF, older than the child who just left him;
BIFF: Well, I borrowed it from the locker room (He laughs he carries a suitcase and steps forward.
confidently).
WILLY: (laughing with him at the theft). I want you to return BIFF: Why didn't you answer?
that. WILLY: Biff! What are you doing in Boston?
HAPPY: I told you he wouldn't like it! BIFF: Why didn't you answer? I've been knocking for five
BIFF: (angrily). Well, I'm bringing it back! minutes, I called you on the phone...
WILLY: (stopping the incipient argument, to HAPPY). Sure, he's WILLY: I just heard you. I was in the bathroom and had the
gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn't he? (To BIFF). door shut. Did anything happen home?
Coach'll probably congratulate you on your initiative! BIFF: Dad – I let you down.
BIFF: Oh, he keeps congratulating my initiative all the time, Pop. WILLY: What do you mean?
WILLY: That's because he likes you. If somebody else took that BIFF: Dad...
ball, there'd be an uproar. So what's the report, boys, what's WILLY: Biffo, what's this about? (puts his arm around BIFF).
the report? Come on, let's go downstairs and get you a malted.
BIFF: Where'd you go this time, Dad? Gee we were lonesome for BIFF: Dad, I flunked math.
you. WILLY: Not for the term?
WILLY: (pleased, puts an arm around each boy and the come BIFF: The term. I haven't got enough credits to graduate.
down to the apron). Lonesome, heh? WILLY: You mean to say Bernard wouldn't give you the
BIFF: Missed you every minute. answers?
WILLY: Don't say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don't breathe it to a BIFF: He did, he tried, but I only got a sixty-one.
soul. Someday I'll have my own business, and I'll never have WILLY: And they wouldn't give you four points?
to leave home any more. BIFF: Birnbaum refused absolutely. I begged him, Pop, but he
HAPPY: Like uncle Charley, heh? won't give me those points. You gotta talk to him before they
WILLY: Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not – close the school. Because if he saw the kind of man you are,
liked. He's liked, but he's not – well liked. and you just talked to him in your way, I'm sure he'd come
BIFF: Where'd you go this time, Dad? through for me.
WILLY: Well, I got on the road, and I went to North Providence. WILLY: You're on. We'll drive right back.
Met the Mayor. BIFF: Oh, Dad, good work! I'm sure he'll change it for you!
BIFF: The Mayor of Providence! WILLY: Go downstairs and tell the clerk I'm checkin' out. Go
 Death of a Salesman – Monty's Flying Players' Cut
Final Script

right down. WILLY (getting down beside BIFF). Never mind! He's going to
BIFF: Yes, sir! See, the reason he hates me, Pop – one day he give you those points, I'll see to it.
was late for class, so I got up at the blackboard and imitated BIFF: He wouldn't listen to you.
him. I crossed my eyes and talked with a lithp. WILLY: He certainly will listen to me. You need those points for
WILLY: (laughing). You did? The kids like it? the University of Virginia.
BIFF: They nearly died laughing! BIFF: I'm not going there.
WILLY: Yeah? What's you do? WILLY: Heh? If I can't get him to change that mark you'll make it
BIFF: The thquare root of thixty thwee is... (WILLY bursts out up in summer school. You've got all summer to...
laughing; BIFF joins.) And in the middle of it, he walked in! BIFF: (his weeping breaking from him). Dad...
WILLY: (infected by it). Oh, my boy...
WILLY laughs and THE WOMAN joins in offstage. BIFF: Dad...
WILLY: She's nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely. Terribly lonely.
WILLY: (without hesitation) Hurry downstairs and... BIFF: You – you gave her Mama's stockings! (his tears break
BIFF: Somebody in there? through as he rises to go)
WILLY: No, that was next door. WILLY: (Grabbing for BIFF). I gave you an order!
BIFF: Don't touch me, you – liar!
THE WOMAN laughs offstage. WILLY: Apologise for that!
BIFF: Somebody in your bathroom!
WILLY: No, it's the next room, there's a party... Act 3
THE WOMAN: (enters, laughing; she lisps this). Can I come in? SCENE: Lights, and Linda's entrance signal scene change to
There's something in the bathtub, Willy, and it's moving! future. Interior of Lomans' house. BIFF enters, attempting to
avoid confrontation with WILLY. BIFF is much older.
WILLY looks at Biff; who is staring open-mouthed and horrified at
THE WOMAN. WILLY: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!
BIFF: (turning). Exactly what is it that you want from me?
WILLY: Ah – you better go back to your room. They must be WILLY: I want you to know, on the train, in the mountains, in the
finished painting her room so I let her take a shower here. Go valleys, wherever you go; you cut down your life for spite!
back, go back... (He pushes her.) BIFF: No, no.
THE WOMAN: (resisting). But I've got to dress, Willy, I can't... WILLY: Spite, spite, is the word of your undoing! And when
WILLY: Get out of here! Go back, go back... (suddenly striving you're down and out, remember what did it. When you're
for the ordinary) This is miss Francis, Biff, she's a buyer. rotting somewhere beside the railroad tracks, remember, and
They're painting her room. Go back, Miss Francis, go back... don't you dare blame it on me!
THE WOMAN: But my clothes, I can't go out naked in the hall! BIFF: I'm not blaming it on you!
WILLY: (pushing her offstage). Get outa here! Go back, go back! WILLY: I won't take the rap for this, you hear?

BIFF slowly sits on his case as the argument continues offstage. HAPPY enters and stands on the bottom of the stairs, watching.

THE WOMAN: Where's my stockings? You promised me BIFF: That's just what I'm telling you!
stockings, Willy! WILLY: (sinking into a chair at a table, with full accusation).
WILLY: I have no stocking here! You're trying to put a knife in me – don't think I don't know
THE WOMAN: You had two boxes of size nine sheers for me, and what you're doing!
I want them! BIFF: All right, phony! Then let's lay it on the line. (He whips the
WILLY: Here, for God's sake, will you get outa here! rubber tube out of his pocket and put it on the table.)
THE WOMAN: (enters holding a box of stockings). I just hope HAPPY: You crazy...
there's nobody in the hall. That's all I hope (To BIFF.) Are LINDA: Biff! (moves to grab the hose, but BIFF holds it down.)
you football or baseball? BIFF: Leave it there! Don't move it!
BIFF: Football. WILLY: (not looking at it). What is that?
THE WOMAN: (angry, humiliated). That's me too. G'night. (She BIFF: You know goddam well what that is.
snatches her clothes from WILLY, and walks out.) WILLY: (caged, wanting to escape) I never saw that.
WILLY: (after a pause). Well, better get going. I want to get to theBIFF: You saw it. The mice didn't bring it into the cellar!
school first thing in the morning. What is this supposed to do, make a hero out of you?
BIFF: Never mind. This is supposed to make me sorry for you?
 Death of a Salesman – Monty's Flying Players' Cut
Final Script

WILLY: Never heard of it. WILLY exits to reappear behind screen. CHARLEY enters and
BIFF: There'll be no pity for you, you hear it? No pity! everyone returns to how they were for the funeral.
WILLY: (to LINDA). You hear the spite! CHARLEY steps forward. To address the audience.
BIFF: No, you're gonna hear the truth; what you are and what I
am! CHARLEY: Nobody dast blame this man. You don't understand:
LINDA: Stop it! Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock
WILLY: Spite! bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell
HAPPY: (Coming down toward BIFF). You cut it now! you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there
BIFF (To HAPPY). The man don't know who we are! The man is in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when
gonna know! (To WILLY.) We never told the truth for ten they start not smiling back – there's an earthquake. And you
minutes in this house! get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're
HAPPY: We always told the truth! finished. Nobody dast blame this man. (turning to address
BIFF: (turning on him). You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? BIFF.) A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the
You're one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren't you? territory.
HAPPY: Well, I'm practically... HAPPY: (To BIFF) All right, boy. I'm gonna show you and
BIFF: You're practically full of it! We all are! And I'm through everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had
with it. (to WILLY.) Now hear this, Willy, this is me. a good dream. It's the only dream you can have – to come out
WILLY: I know you! number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm
BIFF: You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a gonna win it for him.
suit in Kansas City and I was in jail. (To LINDA, who is BIFF: (with a hopeless glance at Happy, bends toward his
sobbing.) Stop crying, I'm through with it. mother). Let's go, Mom.
LINDA: I'll be with you in a minute. Go on, Charely. (He
LINDA turns away from them, her hands covering her face. hesitates.) I want to, just for a minute. I never had a chance
to say good-by.
WILLY: I suppose that's my fault!
BIFF: I stole myself out of every good job since high school! CHARLEY moves away, followed by HAPPY and BIFF. LINDA
WILLY: And whose fault is that? sits there, summoning herself. The flute begins, not far
BIFF: And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of away, playing behind her speech.
hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody!
That's whose fault it is! LINDA: Forgive me, dear. I can't cry. I don't know what it is,
WILLY: I hear that! but I can't cry. I don't understand it. Why did you ever do
LINDA: Don't, Biff! that? Help me, Willy, I can’t cry. It seems to me that you're
BIFF: But it's goddam time you heard that! I had to be boss big just on another trip. I keep expecting you. Willy, dear, I
shot in two weeks, and I'm through with it! can't cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I
WILLY: Then hang yourself! For spite, hang yourself! search, and I can't understand it, Willy. I made the last
BIFF: No! Nobody's hanging himself, Willy! I ran down eleven payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there'll be
flights today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in nobody home. (A sob rises in her throat.) We're free and
the middle of that office building, do you hear this? I stopped clear. (Sobbing mournfully, released.) We're free. (BIFF
in the middle of that building and I saw – the sky. I saw the comes slowly toward her.) We're free... We're free...
things that I love in this world. The work and the food and
the time to sit and smoke. Why am I trying to become what I LINDA remains there as the lights fade. Only the music of the
don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a flute is left on the darkening stage.
contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out
there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!
Why can't I say that, Willy? (He tries to make WILLY face
him, but WILLY pulls away and moves to the left.)
WILLY: (threatening hatred). The door of your life is wide open!
BIFF: Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!
WILLY: (turning on him now in an uncontrolled outburst). I am
not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff
Loman!