1. “There were promises made across this desk! You mustn’t tell me you’ve got people to see – I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!”

2. This quote expresses Willy’s frustration at being a “cog” in the relentless machine that is profit- driven business. Because Willy is old, and no longer brings in profit, he is useless to the firm and they fire him. The quote uses metaphor – that his work & life is like a piece of fruit. The firm has “eaten” him, or made him exhausted, and now he is empty, like “a peel”. He needs a reward from the firm in the form of a job in New York with a small salary. Yet the irony is that in the eyes of the company, he is like a small fruit, and they can just dispose of him (“throw the peel away”). Indeed Willy is a “low-man”, like a tiny fruit, and the metaphor shows his position of helplessness. His anger is justified!

3. “Oh, Biff! ( staring wildly) He cried!Cried to me! ( He is choking with his love, and now cries out his promise.) That boy – that boy is going to be magnificent!” (102). This quote shows the extreme emotion that Willy experiences because Biff has shown love for his father. Hyperbole and metaphor in “choking with love” show this strength of feeling. Willy cries as well in this scene and the use of exclamation marks emphasizes the emotion. Repetition of “cried…cried” and “boy…that boy” also demonstrate strong feeling. Irony is shown in gulf between Biff’s need for honesty between them (the reality of Biff’s simple, working man character) and Willy’s inability to understand and accept that the dream of ‘greatness’ will never come true. Willy still has a father’s dreams for his “boy” – even if Biff is older and will never fulfill his father’s huge dreams.

4. “( rather angrily) Unless you brighten your ideas, you’ll never be in a position to let anybody stay or to tell anybody to go. It’s about time you learnt to face a few responsibilities. That’s something this public- school-and-Varsity-life you’ve had doesn’t seem to teach you.” (16). Birling says this to Eric (his son). Birling thinks that Eric needs to be more serious and successful – an authority, like Birling himself (a powerful factory owner). Yet Eric likes “Varsity life”, or fun partying at college.The father is angry because Birling is proud of his success and wants his son to be more than a party-boy. Birling hints that the son should be like him – a factory owner in the future. The father is powerful and dominates the son and tries to give him a tip – stop fooling around (and get rich).