Death of a Salesman Close Reading of Willy Lohman’s monologue from Act II

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Willy Loman

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Juicy Sentence

Read the sentence to the left.

1. Break the long sentence into smaller simple sentences for each idea.

2. Why are each of the details included in this sentence?

3. How does each part of the sentence function within the whole?

4. What questions do you have about the whole play based on this sentence?

Willy (talking about Dave

Singleman): When he died—

and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston—when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral.

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Now read the entire monologue on your own.

Annotate as you read with

** – Main idea or central to the author’s purpose * – Author’s craft or use of style elements ! – I love this part! Great writing or idea ?

– Raises a questions, possible discussion point for class ??

– Something is unclear or confusing to me. I need to ask about this in class

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Text Dependent Questions

• •

Questions of Key Ideas and Details

Why did Willy Loman become a salesman? Cite evidence from the text.

What do we learn about Willy’s character in this scene? Show what words lead you to make that conclusion.

•

Questions of Craft and Style

How does the use of multiple conjunctions (known as

polysyndeton

) affect your understanding of Willy’s character? What do you think the author’s purpose was using “and” 20 times in this short passage?

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Breaking it up

• •

You will now be performing ONE line from the monologue.

In groups of 2-3, read your line several times. Select one or two key words that seem to convey the meaning or purpose of that line of dialogue. Chart the word(s) and explain next to each why you selected it based upon what you know from reading the entire monologue.

Then, rehearse and perform your line with your partners in a way that will show at least 2 different purposes or emotions in mind (angry/explanatory, questioning/afraid, etc.) Be ready to share one interpretation with the class as a whole.

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

Final Assessment

• Students compare three recorded productions of

Death of a Salesman

to the written text, evaluating how each version interprets the source text and debating which aspects of the enacted interpretations of the play capture a particular character, scene, or theme.

Superior Standards Supportive School Climate Successful Students

3 interpretations of Willy Loman

http://youtu.be/TX pGQCvtrUo

Superior Standards

http://youtu.be/GTkR-YUITFE

Supportive School Climate http://youtu.be/tOG0kiPJMtE

Links given to YouTube performances— files too large to include

Successful Students