Relationships that you make with one person can greatly affect you and other people that you interact with whether it be your family or just acquaintances. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the main character, Willy Loman, is a salesman, husband, and a father of two sons. Throughout this tragedy, Mr. Loman is not the nicest man, and he does not make the best impression to the people that he has daily interactions with. Willy’s relationships with others and his intolerable attitude affect not only the Loman family but himself too. Although simplistically put, it is true to say that Mr. Loman is not a very nice individual. He is mean to his wife by always telling her to be quiet when she tries to incorporate her input into their family conversations. For …show more content…
Willy: A man who cannot handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting. Charley: Don’t call me disgusting, Willy. (Miller 2126). Willy manages to hurt everyone’s feelings in some way by being rude to them and saying hurtful things. These relationships that he develops between his wife and his so-called friend, Charley, leaves a bad example to his children, and it makes Willy lonely in the end because he pushes away Charley and almost loses him as a friend by doing and saying the things that he does. Alongside these previous examples, when the kids were younger, Mr. Loman also has a closer relationship with his son Biff than that with Happy. He favors his son Biff more and has a stronger relationship with him than he does with his other son, Happy, who strives for his father’s attention and affection. Happy wants his father’s approval like he has for his brother, but Willy always harps on how wonderful Biff is: Willy: What do they say about you in school, now that they made you captain? Happy: There’s a crowd of girls behind him every time the classes change. Biff: [Taking Willy’s hand.] This Saturday, Pop, this Saturday – just for you, I’m going to break through for a
In a flashback Willy has, it is shown that Willy jokes about Charley’s son, Bernard, a “nerd” who helps Biff with his math so he doesn’t fail, by claiming that despite Bernard being smart, he will not get far in life because he is not as “liked: as Biff, who at the time was a football star. After Biff saw his father with is mistress, he began viewing his father more negatively, rejecting all of Willy’s future plans for him, calling him a “phony little fake”. Biff’s rejection of Willy’ future plans for him sends Willy into a downward spiral, making him more and more delusional. Ironically, Willy failed to sell his plans to his own son, when his main profession is selling products to people, as he is a
Both sons live with the same concern for Willy as Linda, especially after she explains to them that Willy’s crashes were not accidents. Biff is particularly affected by Willy’s actions as Biff discovered Willy’s affair with one of his coworkers, an action which enraged Biff and caused Biff to refuse to fix his math grade and finish high school. Additionally, Willy’s affair also caused Biff to grow distant from his father, setting the two up for many future arguments such as one in which Willy tells Biff, “stops him with: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” (129). Not to forget that Willy’s suicide was originally meant to spite Biff as Willy believed his funeral would be grand, claiming “He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!” (126)--this being a tragic twist of dramatic irony. This trauma and strife brought upon Biff leads him into a great deal of hardship, never having had a job or settled down. Willy causes Biff to believe himself a failure, and Biff is dragged into Willy’s world of suffering where Biff cannot attain success in the face of his father’s high
In the play Death Of A Salesman written by playwright Author Miller, his main character Willy Loman was illustrated as a sympathetic character. In the beginning of the play Willy Loman dedicated his time and money to assist both his sons and help them become successful in their lives for the reason to brag about their achievements. Willy Loman was admired and loved by his sons Biff and Happy, however there was an incident that made Biff loose all hope and admirations towards his father. As Willy starts recalling the past, his son Biff discovers that his father had an affair with another woman and that he gave that woman his wife’s stocking. Biff is devastated and disappointed in his father to the point where he no longer peruses football or
In the book Death of A Salesman, author Arthur Miller shows how cruel life can be through the life of Willy Loman, the main character. His feelings of guilt, failure, and sadness result in his demise.
...’m no genius but I know when I’m being insulted.”, Charley is trying to show Willy the truth about society, but Willy will not listen to him, he is too blinded by the American Dream and that he has to be a salesmen or else he will not be successful in life.
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
Charley is Willy's closest friend and he displays the failure of Willy Loman's ideals. He is a very realistic character who attempts to convince Willy that his ...
He seems to believe that having an office job and earning your own money is the best way to be masculine, and he constantly enforces this view onto his sons, especially onto Biff who doesn’t actually want this kind of job at all; he would much rather work on a farm. Enforcing his beliefs onto his sons, especially Biff, like this has a detrimental effect on his relationship with them. Happy has a desk job, but still isn’t happy at all. He doesn’t know what he wants, and perhaps if he had been left to choose his own career path without this input from his father, then he would have been a lot happier. And with Biff not wanting a desk job, his job working on a farm seems like nothing to his father and means that he puts Biff down for it a lot. Willy constantly tells him things such as “You never grew up. Bernard does not whistle in the elevator, I assure you.” And manages to put Biff down a lot of the time. This makes Biff feel bad about his job, and even makes him consider getting a desk job just to make his father happy; even if it means missing out on his own happiness. The fact that Willy wants Biff to have a desk job also emphasises how uncertain he is about masculinity because before this time period most people worked on ranches and it was seen as an incredibly manly job. The way Willy treats him and pressures him affects their already damaged relationship with one another as there is always some kind
Throughout the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, family serves as a constant reminder of the responsibility felt by the main character, Willy Loman, to succeed. This theme is picked apart in the essay, “Family and History in Death of a Salesman,” by James Hurt, which states that the Loman family is held together through a system of emotional bonds and familial expectations. In turn, each character’s actions are motivated directly by a desire to protect that familial system even though the characters keep their concerns hidden from each other. Though Hurt argues soundly, his essay does not fully explore the more extensive truth that Willy’s fate is ironically sealed by his family in their efforts to save him from himself. Linda’s
A major part of the reader's animosity towards Willy stems from his responsibility for the ruin of his sons. Willy's affair ends up being the reason that Biff ends up a high-school failure and a football has-been. This blunder both disheartens and destroys his eldest son. It becomes the reason Biff refuses to go to summer school; it becomes the reason that Biff leaves home. Yet, this is all a result of Willy's need to be likeable. He cheats on his doting wife simply because it makes him feel special, because it gives him proof that women other that Linda are interested in him, because it makes him feel well liked. A woman "picked [him]"; a woman laughs when he makes jokes about keeping pores open; a woman pays him some attention (38).
Like countless characters in a play, Willy struggles to find who he is. Willy’s expectations for his sons and The Woman become too high for him to handle. Under the pressure to succeed in business, the appearance of things is always more important than the reality, including Willy’s death. The internal and external conflicts aid in developing the character Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,Willy Loman, an unsuccessful business man 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 showed 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.
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.
In literature and in life, people endure events which are the effects from the relationships between a parent and their child. In Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller it is evident how the relationship between Willy and his sons creates the downfall of the dysfunctional Loman family. Miller depicts the possessiveness that exists in humans through Willy Loman. In the 1949 era to preserve a healthy household it was important for the father-son relationship to be strong. If conflicts were to arise in their relationship the entire family would collapse and fail. Biff and Happy constantly idolize and praise their father, however, they realize that he is flawed and how as a father he failed to prepare them for the real world. Willy Loman is a man that is happy and proud in one moment and suddenly angry in another, which exhibits how the inconsistencies in his character make it difficult for anyone to have a strong relationship with him. In the play it is evident that the tension between the father and son relationship is the factor that causes the protagonist’s tragedy. The dispute between the father and
Growing up, Willy doted on Biff the most, which reflects the way his own father doted on his older brother Ben. Their father-son relationship was strong until the incident with The Woman caused a rift to grow between them. Willy feared seeing his son due to the chance of being exposed, and Biff did not want to be reminded of his father’s betrayal. However, near the end of the play, Biff and Willy had a heart to heart which seemingly did some repair work on their relationship. Biff grew to forgive his father and confessed that he loved him despite their past. He experienced growth through the events of the story, making him another candidate for the