Full of Or Showing High-Spirited Merriment

Death of a Salesman Vocabulary Act I: 1. jovial full of or showing high-spirited merriment EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Most often jovial, she has developed an iron repression of her exceptions to Willy’s behavior — she more than loves him, she admires him, as though his mercurial nature, his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him, longings which she shares but lacks the temperament to utter and follow to their end.

2. mercurial liable to sudden unpredictable change EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Most often jovial, she has developed an iron repression of her exceptions to Willy’s behavior — she more than loves him, she admires him, as though his mercurial nature, his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him, longings which she shares but lacks the temperament to utter and follow to their end.

3. crestfallen brought low in spirit EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Linda: He was crestfallen, Willy.

4. pompous puffed up with vanity EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Happy: I gotta show some of those pompous, self-important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade.

5. approbation official approval EXAMPLE SENTENCE: (He pauses, then nods in approbation for a few seconds, then looks upward.)

6. incipient only partly in existence; imperfectly formed EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Happy: I told you he wouldn’t like it! Biff (angrily): Well, I’m bringing it back! Willy (stopping the incipient argument, to Happy): Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he?

7. laconic brief and to the point; effectively cut short EXAMPLE SENTENCE: He is a large man, slow of speech, laconic, immovable.

8. audacity aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Ben (giving great weight to each word, and with a certain vicious audacity): William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen.

9. imbue spread or diffuse through EXAMPLE SENTENCE: That’s just the spirit I want to imbue them with! 10. remiss failing in what duty requires EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I’ve been remiss.

11. monotonous tediously repetitious or lacking in variety EXAMPLE SENTENCE: He is horrified and turns his head toward Willy’s room, still dimly lit, from which the strains of Linda’s desperate but monotonous humming rise.

Act II: 12. raucous unpleasantly loud and harsh EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Suddenly raucous music is heard, and a red glow rises behind the screen at right.

13. ominously in an ominous manner EXAMPLE SENTENCE: She rises ominously and quietly and moves toward Happy, who backs up into the kitchen, afraid.

14. implacable incapable of being placated EXAMPLE SENTENCE: (Linda says nothing but moves toward him implacably.)

15. elegiac expressing sorrow often for something past EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Willy (elegiacally, turning to the house): Now when you kick off, boy, I want a seventy-yard boot, and get right down the field under the ball, and when you hit, hit low and hit hard, because it’s important, boy.