Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

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Recommended: Major themes and dramatic techniques in the death of a salesman

Many families suffer from dysfunctions. In the Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, you have a dysfunctional family, Willy thinks he is an advanced salesmen getting cheated out of an amazing opportunity in New York, Linda believes her husband Willy is mentally sane and that he just has bad luck, Happy says he’s a salesmen when he has been keeping his real work hidden from his family, and Biff has been bouncing around from job to job down west. Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the reality of their lives. Biff is the only character who becomes self-aware by the end of the play.

Biff is the only one who realizes that he and his family have been living a huge lie and when he tries to get everyone to realize what he has, they don’t believe him. “Oh maybe it was the steering wheel again. I don’t think Angelo knows the Studebaker.” (Miller 91) This shows that Linda isn’t acknowledging the problem with Willy. She is hiding and pretending that Willy is fine and nothing is wrong with him. “Well, he’s been doing very big things in the west. But he decided to establish himself here. Very Big. We’re having dinner. Did I hear your wife had a boy?” (Miller, 91) Biff isn’t or hasn’t been doing anything big in the west. He was in jail. He hasn’t been able to hold a job. This shows how Willy will make his own reality to make him and his family sound successful. “The man doesn’t know who we are! The man is going to know! To Willy: We never told the truth for ten minutes in that house!” (Miller, 131) Biff tells everyone that they have been living in lies but Happy and Willy think Biff is nuts when in fact Biff is the most logical person there.

The Loman family lives in a make believe world a...

... middle of paper ...

... and living with his family. Happy Loman, a complete and utter womanizer. He craves attention and lies about where he works. In the play Biff Loman is the only one to realize who he was and what his actual impact on the earth was. He realized he was nothing. Willy had buffed Biff’s image so high that Biff couldn’t even keep a job because he had such high standards of himself.

Works Cited

"Brother Man Reflections." blogspot. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.

"What are some examples that show Biff as a morally ambiguous character in Death of a Salesman? - Homework Help - eNotes.com." enotes.com. enotes.com, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 May 2014.

Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Clifford Weales. Death of a salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. Print.

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