A very significant character who may seem to not play much of a role in this play but actually is a big driving force of the plot is Bernard; Bernard is the consciousness of Willy Loman, and he manifests in his flashbacks of joyous times to bring Willy back to reality and to face the crime he committed against his whole family. Bernard is the essential part of the battle Willy is having with himself, whether he can stick to his fault or place the fault on others, and this influences Willy and others around him greatly. Bernard is the consciousness of Willy trying to get him to come back to reality and face the affair he had with the Woman. This is easily seen when Linda is seen mending stockings, minding her own business, when Willy notices and goes on a rampage; he grabs the stockings out of her hands and takes them away, saying he won’t have any stockings in his house. Bernard comes in right after this scene, which represents how Bernard is the consciousness of Willy reacting to this event which was similar to what occurred in that hotel that one day. Bernard comes in to remind how Willy had a huge role in ruining Biff’s life by having an affair with the Woman, and of course …show more content…
giving Linda’s stocking away to the Woman. Another instance of this occurring is later in the play when we have reached the climax of the story, and Biff is starting to talk about the Woman. Willy, always trying to get rid of that thought, tries to ignore Biff and slip into his own reality, but true reality is seeping in when a Young Bernard comes into action. Willy is fighting with his reality and his own version of it with Bernard. Bernard is the consciousness of Willy trying to connect back with reality. This is first scene corresponds to Willy’s past, but Willy has changed most likely changed to be all cheery and joyful, with nothing but gaiety. But suddenly Bernard appears, clad in geeky clothes, and says, “...if you don’t start studying math he’s going to flunk you, and you won’t graduate.” (pg. 32). This represents Willy’s consciousness trying to pull him out of the scene Willy has created in order to forget about the present, as can be seen when Willy reacts scornfully to Bernards and shoos him away. This is also seen when Bernard ask Willy, “What happened in Boston, Willy.”(pg. 94) Willy reacts most angrily to this scene of Bernard because it shows Willy is directly asking himself about his unfaithfulness and what he did to Biff. Bernard has influenced many characters of the play to act as they do, especially with Willy.
Willy and Biff never got along due to Biff finding out that his father had an affair, and Willy tries to forget the event. Willy also constantly tries to make Biff out as the greatest thing ever, even when one could easily see Biff is a loser. He wants to distort another reality, and believe Biff can make it. But he a lingering thought in his head that goes against this, and that is Bernard. In another of Will’s flashbacks, Bernard comes up and says, “Mr. Birnhaum says he’s stuck up.” This is in reference to Biff, and this shows that Willy really did know he was making Biff out to be something he could never be, but he tries very hard to go against this thought and dwell in his own
place. Willy throughout the play has a war going on in his mind; the participants are Willy trying to forget what he did to Biff in order to place all the blame on him, and Bernard coming in in order to dispel that and bring Willy back to reality. Bernard influences Willy to treat Biff with the out-most awe, and to also be extremely mad to him, due to his doublethink thoughts. The war is never won by either opponent, but did influence Willy to be the character he was, a crazy hallucinating man on the outside, but on the inside, a spectre of his mind trying to pick a side.
Willy and Biff were so close that no matter what Biff did Willy ignored it. For instance, in one of Willy’s Flashbacks for Act 1 there is a conversation between Willy and his sons about the football that Biff got. Biff tells Willy that he borrowed a football from the locker room and Willy tells him to return it back. However, when Happy
What is Willy’s impression of Bernard when he sees him in his father’s office? Why does Willy exaggerate Biff’s importance? - He has contradicting feelings of envy and pride for him. He exaggerates Biff because he wants to look like a success to
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
Loss of respect can ruin a relationship. Biff left town for many reasons, but one important one had to do with Willy cheating on his wife. During a flashback in the play, Willy is in a room with a woman when Biff knocks on the door. The woman was actually in the washroom as Biff came in, but came out before Biff left. Biff saw the woman and knew that his father was not being loyal to his mother.
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.
His presence clearly shows how differently Biff and Happy have been brought up to Bernard. ????? All of these three characters affect Willy greatly, whether it be his dreams, parenting or morals. The function of these characters is to enhance our background knowledge of willy which means we gain an improved understanding of him and what has influenced him. They add other outside opinions and views to a play very focused on one family with all the same disillusions.
...s personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional, spiritual understanding of himself as a literal “loman” or “low man.” Willy is too driven by his own “willy”-ness or perverse “willfulness” to recognize the slanted reality that his desperate mind has forged. Still, many critics, focusing on Willy’s entrenchment in a quagmire of lies, delusions, and self-deceptions, ignore the significant accomplishment of his partial self-realization. Willy’s failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to the climax of his torturous day, and the play presents this incapacity as the real tragedy. Despite this failure, Willy makes the extreme sacrifice in his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream.
Willy also has very poor parenting skills. He has two children Biff and Happy. Willy excuses Biff for a lot of events when he was younger. If Biff stole something, Willy just brushes it off and says that is was no big deal. He didn’t even care when Biff failed math and did not graduate from high school. He measured success in how many people you knew not what your grades are. In one breath Willy would say that Biff is lazy and then in the next say he’s not.
Willy just thinks that no matter what Biff does he is doing it right. He can’t escape his dream world.
In fact, it is Willy's emphasis on likeability that leads Biff to brush aside his education in the first place. Bernard, the friend next-door who begs Biff to study for the Reagents, is described by Willy as a...
...before something happens?” (Miller 133). Biff is getting frustrated with Willy because he is trying to turn his son into somebody that he does not want to be. Willy’s tragedy is due to the fact that the truth for him is far fetched, since he is always seeing life in a flashback, which leads to his demise.
... good enough and trying to get a more successful job in Florida. Willy, like Clive cannot accept Biff for the person he really is, so is forced to pretend he cares about what his father wants. However, Willy mentions that his own father died when he was “three or four years old” leaving almost all of his life without a masculine figure to look up to. This leads me to agree with Neil Carson, in his book “Arthur Miller”. He says that, “Willy’s determination to give such a strong guidance to his son is a result in lack of such guidance in his own life.”
Willy just wants to be successful at the end of all of it but fails to do that leading him to the decisions that he makes for himself. Willy Loman see’s himself as a failure at what he does. He wanted to teach his sons what he believed was his wisdom. He is a man trying to live the American Dream. Willy is someone that is not very self-awareness or has good qualities.
To make his stories more realistic, Willy’s had couple delusions within two-day-long play. In his delusions he has had hope from Biff and Happy, role models from Ben, and the woman as a road to success. Neglecting the realism of his delusions, Biff was an attractive well-built young man who is the leader among his friends. Biff friends were “lost” without Biff leading them, and therefore, Biff is able to demand them to help his family with their laundry. A leader, similar to a manager, they tell people who to do.