In the play, The Death of a Salesman, the character that is often confused for both the protagonist and the antagonist, Biff Loman, sacrifices his own contentment while struggling to conform to his father’s ideals of success. To break through the restriction on happiness caused by conforming to someone else’s expectations one has to pursue their own personal desires. Biff continually attempts to please Willy, which leads to self-loathing and the belief that he is nothing. When he was in high school, he was well-liked, captain of the football team, and class clown. All of which his father believed was an essential aspect for success. Unfortunately, his popularity ended when high school ended. Although he was accepted into three universities on a football scholarship, because he focused solely on being liked rather than applying his energy towards his studies, he flunked math and was unable to graduate. This leads to his recurring cycle of failure and incapability of maintaining a …show more content…
He sits for six hours waiting for a meeting. During that time he realizes details about his past that were falsely remembered, like how he was never a salesman for Oliver, he was actually a shipping clerk. This small detail, which seems irrelevant, unravels a web of lies that have been told primarily to please Willy. Such as Happy’s salesman career that he enjoyed discussing, was false advertisement, and he truthfully pursued an assistant position within the same firm. Everyone was so caught up into conforming with Willy’s idea of success that they sold lies when they came up short. Even Willy lied to himself. He has this image of himself, being well-liked and successful, but in reality, he is barely able to cover expenses. After Biff recognizes these things, he starts to see how corrupt trying to please someone, who isn’t pleased with themselves, can be of his
Have you ever felt compelled to reconcile your past uncertainties because of the desire of attaining acceptance? In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman, the protagonist, is a salesman blinded by his own delusion. This self delusion affects him and the people around him. The delusion also affects the standards of success that he created throughout his life to make sure his ambiguity is not transferred to individuals around him. These standards guide him towards his emphasised view of who he is and what he wants to achieve, causing pressure to both himself and Biff Loman, another main character. In this modern play, the differences between Biff and Willy and their dissimilar sense
The play "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller, follows the life of Willy Loman, a self-deluded salesman who lives in utter denial, always seeking the "American Dream," and constantly falling grossly short of his mark. The member’s of his immediate family, Linda, his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy, support his role. Of these supportive figures, Biff’s character holds the most importance, as Biff lies at the center of Willy’s internal conflicts and dreams, and Biff is the only one in the play who seems to achieve any growth.
One problem Willy has is that he does not take responsibility for his actions; this problem only gets worse because of his lies. Biff looks up to Willy, so when he finds out that Willy has an affair in Boston, Biff is petrified. Biff realizes his hero, dad, the one he wants to impress, is a phony and a liar. Willy destroys Biff's dream of playing football by saying he does not have to study for the math regents, he also Willy telling Bernard to give Biff the answers. When Biff fails the regents, he does not want to retake the test because he is so disgusted with his hero and does not want to succeed. Not only did Willy destroy Biff's dream, he also broke his vows and refused to admit it. Biff is a failure, in Willy's eye, in most part due to Willy and what happened in Boston. Willy refuses to take responsibility for what he did, so he lies about Biff. Willy tells Bernard that Biff has been doing great things out west, but decided to come back home to work on a "big deal". Willy knows that Biff is a bum who has not amounted to anything, but he refuses to take responsibility for what happened in Boston, so he changes the story of Biff's success. Throughout Willy's life he continued to lie. It might have stopped if Linda did not act the way as she did. Linda is afraid to confront Willy, so she goes along with his outlandish lies.
Willy doesn’t want to accept that he is not successful anymore, he still recognize his son as handsome heroes. Biff as the football star when he was at high school and Happy an...
Biff never kept a steady job during his young adult life, and did not possess a healthy relationship with anyone that was in his life. As the play progresses the reader sees how much Biff becomes more self- aware. An online source states, “Unlike the other members of his family, Biff grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the vicious cycles of lies.” When Biff returns home it becomes a struggle to keep a healthy relationship with his parents. Once Willy and Biff decide together that Biff will go and ask Bill Oliver for a loan is when the differences between the two characters are truly seen. Biff accepts reality for the first time in his life, and realizes how ridiculous it is to ask Bill Oliver for a loan, when he barely knows the man and worked for him about ten years ago. When Biff meets up with Willy after the ‘meeting’ Biff is talking to his Father and says, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” This quote reveals that Biff recently has just experienced an epiphany, and realizes that what he was doing was making no sense. Biff is escaping the self- deception he was caught in with the rest of his
In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the conflicts that formulate between Biff and Willy Loman build up to the death of Willy. Biff’s delusional perception of being liked in the world leads to a successful life which was an idea brought onto him by his father, Biff’s discovery of his father's affair, and Biff’s lack of business success all accumulate to the heavy conflicting relationship between Biff and his father, Willy. These contribute immensely to the idea that personal dreams and desire to reach success in life can negatively impact life with personal relationships, which causes people to lose sight of what is important. This ultimately leads to the Willy committing suicide from the build up of problems with his son.
middle of paper ... ...giving him the answers to a maths test, so he fails and can't get in. to the university of the United States. Biff and Willy argue a lot in this game. After graduating from high school, Biff lost a lot of his respect for his father.
He wants to become a farmer, but Willy insists that business is the most successful and worthwhile career. Willy tries so hard to make Biff be exactly like him that Biff wastes much of his life doing things he did not want to do, like working in business. Willy is guilty, and rations out that if he kills himself, Biff will earn his inheritance and can afford to carry himself wherever and however he pleases. Willy finally realizes that he just could not give his son the life that he wanted and did not try to help him figure out what he wanted.
In The Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s sense of false pride and expectations severely impacted both of his sons ability to succeed. As young men, Biff and Happy Loman were under the illusion that their father was a well liked successful businessman although this was far from the truth. Willy taught the boys that the only thing necessary to make it big in the real world was popularity and he dismissed those who encouraged them to work hard such as Bernard. Throughout the play, Willy and Happy continued with their false ideas while Biff was the only one to mature even though it was at such a late age. In spite of the fact that Willy is a very loving and hardworking father, his poor parenting skills tragically impacted his children's potential.
Through a series of events, Biff gradually comes to a realization of what is necessary for success. First, we are shown a part of his childhood where Biff is told that "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead." This idea appears in direct contrast to Bernard, one of Biff's childhood friends, who works and studies hard. Biff decides that Bernard will not succeed because he is "only liked, not well-liked," and being well-liked is the cornerstone of success. Nonetheless, later in the play we see that Bernard has become very successful, underscoring one of the messages in the play, that success is not just a result of popularity. Second, we are shown a scene in Boston soon after Biff has just failed math for the year. He discovers his "heroic" father having an affair. Biff comes to the painful realization that his father's values, his views, and everything that Biff had made the foundation of his life, are all completely "fake" and "phony." Unfortunately, he has nothing with which to replace it. Lastly, Biff decides to leave to try and find himself, but an argument develops between Biff and Willy. Biff begins to see himself as like his father, "nothing," just an average man trying to make a living, and quite possibly failing. Biff's earlier image of his father's greatness has crumbled entirely, leaving a lost young man trying to find his way. Biff realized that he now needs to find his own values in life. He has finally tasted reality and now must dive head first into the pot, without any real preparation.
Biff discovers who he is and is determined to become true to himself. Happy, unfortunately is destined for living in the same delusion that Willy lived in.
In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,Willy Loman, an unsuccessful businessman struggling to support his family is completely out of touch with reality throughout the plot line. Many characters throughout this play and their interactions with Willy have shown the audience his true colors and what he thinks is important in life. His constant lying and overwhelming ego certainly does not portray his life in factual terms, but rather in the false reality that he has convinced himself he lives in. Being raised by Willy, Biff and Happy are becoming failures and have no motivation to work hard to achieve anything in life. Throughout this novel, Biff has a few recurrences with stealing.
You phony little fake! You fake!" During his adult life, Biff drifted from job to job. Willy sees Biff as an underachiever, whereas Biff sees himself trapped by Willy's flamboyant fantasies. After his moment of realization while waiting in Bill Oliver's office, Biff begins to realize that his life up till now has been a complete sham; he no longer wants to pretend to be something he`s not.
Arthur Miller's, "Death of a Salesman," shows the development and structure that leads up to the suicide of a tragic hero, Willy Loman. The author describes how an American dreamer can lose his self-worth by many negative situations that occur throughout his life. The structure and complications are essential because it describes how a man can lose his way when depression takes over.
This thought coupled with a conviction that the smallest unusual and most unpretentious can move to the best statures is the main structure the point of convergence of Willy's influence. Obviously, Willy's form of the American Dream never works out. In spite of his child's notoriety in secondary school, Biff grows up to be a stray and a farm hand. Willy's own particular profession vacillates as his deals capability level lines. When he tries to utilize "identity" to approach his supervisor for a raise, he gets terminated.