What are superficial qualities?

Question

im doing some questions for my summer reading "Death of a Salesman" and one of the questions askes "why is so much emphasis placed on superficial qualites?" and i dont know what superficial qualites are! please help!

thanks!

Answer 1

Qualities which are at a surface level.  So, in a person superficial qualities would be things like clothes, hairstyle, etc.  Superficial personality qualities might be things like friendliness, talkativeness, etc.  Salesmen tend to relate at a superficial level.  They don't need to go deeper to make a sale.

Answer 2

Non-essential qualities...

Answer 3

In the context of the play the "why is so much emphasis placed on superficial qualities?" refers to how the salesman presents and the impression made. It's much like the cliche "First impressions are lasting."

Salesmen have a limited time with the customer. Both are busy and have little time to form a deep, long lasting relationship. It's in; sale/no sale, then out.Therefor superficial qualities of dress, behavior, body language become important.

On trick of preparing for a job interview is to visit the business before the interview. See what the staff is wearing, then dress in s similar fashion. It's superficial but suggests that you'd be a good fit for the job. Another superficial quality is wearing a tie. Those that wear ties are assumed to be in some position of authority. This can then lead to those in authority placing value of the quality of the type of tie, how it's tied and how well it matches.