50 free Death of a Salesman trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Death of a Salesman trivia quiz covers Arthur Miller's 1949 tragedy from every angle: the plot, the characters, the real salesman who inspired it, and the seventy-plus years of productions that followed. The easy questions handle the basics: who wrote it, where the Lomans live, what Biff failed, how Willy dies, and what Linda says at the funeral. From there it moves through the details students and theatre-goers remember: Frank's Chop House, the fountain pen, Miss Francis, brother Ben and the 'worth more dead than alive' line. The harder half is for drama buffs: the play's subtitle, Miller's uncle Manny, the 742-performance original run, Lee J. Cobb and Elia Kazan, Jayne Mansfield's Dallas turn, the Willys played by Scott, Hoffman, Dennehy and Pierce, the Beijing production of 1983 and the film versions from 1951 onwards. If you have played our Arthur Miller or American literature quizzes, this is the deep dive on one play. Every answer was checked against the play's encyclopaedia entry before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote Death of a Salesman?
Arthur Miller
It premiered on Broadway on 10 February 1949 and ran for 742 performances.
Q 02What is the name of the play's protagonist, the travelling salesman?
Willy Loman
He is 63, insecure and self-deluded, and the product he sells is never disclosed.
Q 03In which New York borough is the play set?
Brooklyn
The Loman home sits amid a typical row of urban apartment buildings in the late 1940s.
Q 04What is the play's subtitle?
Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem
'The Inside of His Head' was Miller's early working title concept, not the published subtitle.
Q 05How many performances did the original Broadway production run for?
742
It opened on 10 February 1949 and closed on 18 November 1950.
Q 06Which two major honours did the work win in 1949?
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best Play
It also took the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.
Q 07Whose chance encounter with the playwright in a theatre lobby in 1947 sparked the play?
His uncle Manny Newman
The uncle, a salesman, greeted Miller only with 'Buddy is doing very well', and died by suicide soon after.
Q 08Miller said he himself was the model for which character?
Bernard
He recalled feeling 'gangling and unhandsome' when visiting his salesman uncle as a youth.
Q 09Willy returns home exhausted at the start of the play after a failed business trip to which city?
Boston
His wife Linda, worried after a recent near-fatal car accident, urges him to ask for a job in town.
Q 10How old is Biff Loman during the play?
34
He has drifted around the West working odd jobs since failing maths in high school.
Q 11Which subject did Biff fail in high school, costing him his university football scholarships?
Mathematics
He was meant to make it up at summer school but gave up after what he saw in Boston.
Q 12What is the name of Willy's boss, who fires him?
Howard
He tells Willy he needs a long rest and can no longer represent the Wagner Company.
Q 13For how many years has Willy worked for the Wagner Company when he is fired?
34
Howard ignores that loyalty entirely and dismisses him.
Q 14Biff waits hours to see a former employer who does not remember him. What is the man's name?
Q 21What is the name of the receptionist with whom Willy is having an affair on the road?
Miss Francis
Biff sees her half-dressed in the hotel room and calls his father a liar and a fake.
Q 22What is the name of Willy's long-dead wealthy brother who appears in his hallucinations?
Ben
In Willy's mind, Ben approves of his plan to die so Biff can have the insurance money.
Q 23How does Willy die?
A car crash
The sound of his car blares up and fades out as Biff and Linda cry out.
Q 24Which words does Linda repeat, sobbing, at the end of the funeral scene?
Bill Oliver
Turned down, the devastated Biff impulsively steals a fountain pen.
Q 15What object does Biff impulsively steal from the office of the former employer who snubbed him?
A fountain pen
His character description says he steals because he wants evidence of success, even false evidence.
Q 16Charley's son, once dismissed by Willy as 'anemic', has become a lawyer about to argue a case where?
The Supreme Court
He is also happily married with two children, exactly the successes Willy wanted for his own sons.
Q 17What kind of job does Charley repeatedly offer Willy, which Willy always refuses?
A stable do-nothing job
Charley still lends him money to pay his life-insurance premium.
Q 18Complete Willy's remark to Charley: a man is 'worth more...'
dead than alive
The line foreshadows his plan to leave Biff the insurance money.
Q 19At which restaurant do Willy, Biff and Happy meet for dinner?
Frank's Chop House
The boys abandon Willy there and leave with two women, Miss Forsythe and Letta.
Q 20What was Biff hoping his father would do when he travelled to see him as a teenager?
Persuade his teacher to curve his failing grade
Instead he walked in on his father's affair.
We're free
She has just paid off the family's last debts with the insurance payout.
Q 25At the funeral, which son decides to follow in his father's footsteps?
Happy
Biff, by contrast, resolves to go back West.
Q 26Besides the family, who attends Willy's sparsely populated funeral?
Charley and Bernard
Bernard does not speak during the scene.
Q 27What is Happy Loman's real first name?
Harold
He is a womaniser who takes bribes at work and yearns for approval his parents rarely give.
Q 28Who played Willy in the original 1949 Broadway production?
Lee J. Cobb
He reprised the role in a 1966 CBS television film alongside Gene Wilder and George Segal.
Q 29Who directed the original Broadway production?
Elia Kazan
He won the Tony for Director; Jo Mielziner won for scenic design.
Q 30Which actress played Linda on stage and in the 1951 film, earning an Oscar nomination?
Mildred Dunnock
Fredric March and Kevin McCarthy were also nominated for the 1951 film.