Requiem

After Willy’s suicide, the Loman family is returning from visiting his grave. Charley is supportive and gentle towards Linda, who is quiet. Happy is upset that his father has killed himself and he expresses his mourning with anger.

Linda is surprised that it was a quiet funeral and none of Willy’s business friends came by. Biff tries to cheer her up, reminding her of the good times she has had with Willy. They agree that Willy was good with his hands but not with his dreams. Biff thinks that Willy did not know his own self but Charley explains that a salesman has to dream, has to have expectations to be able to be good at his job.

Happy vows to make a name for himself in the city, to prove that his father did not die in vain. Linda requests for a quiet, private moment at Willy’s grave and the three men walk away. Linda is unable to cry because she keeps convincing herself that Willy is just away on another sales trip. She says that she made the last mortgage payment on their house this very day and now that they finally own it, she has no one to return to in the house anymore. She begins to sob, while uttering that they are finally free.

A weeping Linda is taken away by Biff as Charley and Happy follow behind. The play ends here.

Analysis

Willy’s funeral is not attended by the hordes he expected in his lifetime—a sign of the corporate greed of the present world where if you’re not wealthy or famous, you’re a nobody. Happy finds it difficult to accept that his father was a nobody and his death affected no one apart from his own family.

A forlorn Linda is further crushed by the fact that she finally owns the house that Willy worked his whole life to pay for. But now, she has no one to share it with, when finally, their financial burdens are gone.

The play ends on a stoic yet deeply melancholic note, with the death of a sincere man who was not recognized for his personality.