Compare And Contrast Biff And Happy Loman

Every person has a different interpretation of his or hers own morals. In the play Death of a Salesman, father Willy Loman raises his two sons with idea that being well-liked is more important than being hard working. Throughout the lives of Willy’s sons Biff and Happy Loman, they struggled with finding their place in society, due to the fact that they thought of themselves , but in reality they are not successful in the least. It is difficult to identify morally ambiguous characters such as Willy, Biff, and Happy Loman as purely good or purely evil, because each character has the potential for both.

Willy Loman wants to be good and do good, but sometimes his good intentions lead him to make bad decisions for not only himself but as a parent also. Willy truly believe he was a good husband, father, and salesman, but in reality he failed at all

of those things. When Biff discovers Willy’s adultery, Biff’s view on his father was crushed, “Willy [looked] at Biff [as he stared] open-mouthed and horrified at The Woman” (Miller 119). Willy lost the one person who idolized him most after being caught being adulterous. The image he created to be seen in, in the eyes of his sons, as a caring, supportive, loving father and husband, were all put into question. Willy so badly wants to approval of somebody, that he is willing to kill himself for the money in his life insurance, “Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in [BIff’s] pocket” (Miller 135). Willy had one dream for Biff and it was for him to be successful, and that dream literally killed him. But with his sacrifice in order to get that money, he is leaving his family with the idea that he was a caring, loving, and supportive father and he did what he thought was right in order for the rest of his family to be successful.

Biff Loman allows other people to influence his decisions and never takes responsibility. Biff was raised to believe that all his success will come from him being well-liked and that was the reason for most of his failures “ The trouble with [Biff] in business was [he] never tried to please people” (Miller 60). Biff is self involved and never takes other people's feeling into consideration. He allowed for people to label him as difficult and not teachable, led him to be unsuccessful in business. Biff was the only who really knew that reality of his family dynamic but, “[Biff] [knows] who [he is], kid” (Miller 138) and his father’s death made him able to finally break out and start a life for himself. Biff tried to be a man that his father could be proud of but the man his father wanted him to be wasn’t really who Biff was.

Happy Loman is a young version of Willy Loman, he alters reality in order for situations in his life to go in his favor.

Happy has relations with the wives of the men he works for and he know that he has just ruined those women but he indulges in it but he also despises himself for it, “[Happy] hates [himself] for it. Because [he] doesn’t want the girl, and, still [he] [takes] it- [he] [loves]” (Miller 25). He is very similar to his father in this way, because his father spent a majority of his life trying to forget his affair, however Happy is continuously pursuing these affairs. Happy so much wants to be a man his father can be proud of “[Happy wants to show] everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. “[Willy] had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have—to come out number one man. [Willy] fought it out here, and this is where [Happy] gonna win it for him” (Miller 139). Happy so much wanted his father’s approval and even after his father’s death he strives for it. He is trying to continue a dream that has been buried along with his father and this will lead him to encounter the same failures as his

father.

A person morals are for themselves to understand and live by, and no one person's morals are exactly the same. To define any characters moral ambiguity is difficult because all have the potential to be good or evil.