Death of a Salesman: Requiem Summary & Analysis

The only people at Willy's funeral are his family, Charley and Bernard. Linda is bewildered by the absence of all Willy's business associates, and wonders if everyone else Willy knew blamed him for having committed suicide. Charley comforts her, saying that everyone knows "it's a rough world."

Happy, upset, says that Willy's death was unnecessary. Linda wonders why Willy would kill himself now, when they had nearly paid off all their debts. Biff brings up the memory of Willy doing craftsman's work around the house, and maintains that more of him went into that work than into his life's work of sales. "He had the wrong dreams," Biff says, and adds that his father didn't know who he was in the way that Biff now knows himself.

Charley delivers an eulogy in Willy's defense. He says that a salesman doesn't do anything concrete like bolting a nut or prescribing medicine, but that all a salesman has is his smile and the trust that people will smile back. When a salesman loses his dreams, Charley says, he is finished.

Biff again says that that their father didn't know who he was, angering Happy. When Biff invites Happy to come out west with him, Happy responds that he refuses to be beaten that easily, and promises to stay in the city and fulfill his father's dream by becoming a top businessman. Biff gives him a hopeless look.

Linda asks for some privacy to say goodbye to Willy, and she is left alone at the grave. She can't cry yet, she confesses, because it seems to her as if Willy is just gone on another sales trip. Emotionally, she keeps expecting him to come back. She tells him that she made the last payment on the house that day, and now there will be nobody home. "We're free," she tells him, and begins to cry.

Biff enters, and supporting Linda, leads her away. All the characters exit the stage as flute music plays, and the final image is of the apartment buildings that surround the Loman house.