The Characters of Biff and Happy in Death of a Salesman
No one has a perfect life; everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these personal conflicts can differ as much as the people themselves. Some insist on ignoring the problem for as long as possible, while others face up to the problem immediately to get it out of the way.
Biff and Happy Loman are good examples of this, although both start from the same point, they end up going in different directions with Happy still living in his world of lies and Biff, being set free by the truth.
Happy Loman is Willy's youngest son and is often over shadowed by his older brother Biff and ignored
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This provides the reader with evidence that the ideas that Willy presented to his sons would make history repeat itself in the next generation.
Unlike his brother and father Biff Loman feels compelled to seek the truth about himself. He is Willy's pride and joy, being the first-born; Biff is the personification of all of Willy's dreams, he would be respected and "well liked".
As a teenager, Biff worshipped his father. He was everything Willy wanted him to be -- star athlete, popular with the girls, "well liked" by everyone, he was
"Like a young god. Hercules".
Biff's world began to collapse when he failed maths at high school and wasn't able to Graduate (This was the beginning of his adult failures). When he went to Boston to seek advice and condolence from his father, he discovered Willy's mistress. Biff's image of his wondrous, hero like, father was shattered into a million pieces. Everything in Biff's image of his father had been a lie, and the bond between them was
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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. He does not want to end up like his father; he is determined to break through the lies surrounding the Loman family in order to introduce some realism into his life.
Biff's break through comes when he returns home with his father from `Frank's Chop House'. He realises that to reclaim his own identity he must expose his father's false illusions.
Biff: " Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!"
Willy: " I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!"
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.
Happy resembles Willy, because he is still stuck in an imaginary world of his own making. An example: is when Willy meets with Howard, his
Willy Loman is not the only victim of his tragic flaw. The rest of the Loman family is also affected by Willy's problem. Willy's wife, Linda, is the only one who supports and understands Willy's tragic flaw completely. Linda supports every far-fetched claim her husband makes. She is even described as having “infinite patience” whenever she is conversing with Willy (Miller 99). Willy's two sons, Biff and Happy, are also affected by his flaw. Happy, when in the company of two ladies, claims that Willy is not even his father, and “just a guy” (Miller 91). Later in the play, Biff decides that he does not want to be in his father's life anymore. Biff's problems are simply too much for Willy to handle with his current state of being, even though Willy needs Biff in his life. After both internal and external conflict, Biff reveals to Willy that Willy had been lied to for a number of years, and that the life he lives is essentially a lie (Miller 104).
Happy Loman has grown up to be a well-adjusted man of society. He has developed from a follower to a potentially successful businessman. Throughout his childhood, Happy always had to settle for second fiddle. Willy, his father, always seems to focus all his attention on Happy's older brother Biff. The household conversation would constantly be about how Biff is going to be a phenomenal football star, how Biff will be attending the University of Virginia and be the big man on campus, how Biff is so adulated among his friends and peers, and so on. Young Happy was always in Biff's shadow, always competing for his father's attention but failing each time. Happy would resort to such antics as laying on his back and pedaling his feet backwards to capture his father's attention but to no avail. Willy would continue to not take notice of his younger son and maintain his attention on other matters that he thought were of greater importance. Growing up under these conditions is what motivated Happy to be the man he is today.
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.
Willy and Happy are very similar people. However Biff does not agree with the way Willy and Happy handle situations, which results in several conflicts between Biff and Willy throughout much of the play. Willy describes Biff as being lost saying, “Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such – personal attractiveness gets lost,” (Miller 16). Even though Willy believes Biff is the lost one, in reality, Willy is lost throughout most of the play (Eisinger 2). Willy does not really know himself. Willy always puts on a show for others and does not be his true self, which portrays the feeling of being lost within himself.
At the beginning of the play it is evident that he cannot determine the realities of life, and so he repeatedly contradicts himself to establish that his conclusion is correct and opinion accepted. These numerous contradictions demonstrate that Willy is perturbed of the possibility that negative judgements may come from others. Willy strongly believes that “personality always wins” and tells his sons that they should “be liked and (they) will never want”. In one of Willy’s flashbacks he recalls the time when his sons and him were outside cleaning their Chevy. Willy informs Biff and Happy the success of his business trips and how everyone residing in Boston adores him. He mentions that due to the admiration of people he does not even have to wait in lines. He ultimately teaches his sons that being liked by others is the way to fulfilling one’s life and removing your worries. These ideals, that one does not need to work for success, demonstrate Willy’s deluded belief of achieving a prosperous life from the admiration and acceptance of others. This ultimately proves to be a false ideology during his funeral, when an insufficient amount of people arrive. Willy constantly attempts to obtain other’s acceptance through his false tales that depict him as a strong, successful man. In the past, he attempts to lie to his wife, Linda, about the amount of wealth he has attained during his
He makes unrealistic goals and turns on Biff in no time at all just like Willy. They both criticize Biff frequently then change to be a friendly “pal.” For example, Happy came up to Biff asking him “Is there any future for him out there.” Then only a few lines he compliments Biff saying how he’s an Idealist and Poet. Biff then brings up his plans of going out West and seeing if Happy would consider going along with him. Happy then says “That’s what I dream about, Biff. Sometimes I want to just rip my clothes off in the middle of the store and outbox that goddam merchandise manager. I mean I can outbox, outrun, and outlift anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from those common, petty sons-of-bitches till I can’t stand it any more.” Happy’s goals are very unrealistic. Another extreme goal Happy had throughout the play starting on page 45. Happy thinks they could realistically form two teams for basketball and waterpolo and that they would play each other. He says that it’s a million dollar idea. This is obviously an extreme idea just to pop into his head. Biff always talks about the things he’ll do in the future for example, near the end of the play, Happy says “ I’m getting married, Pop, don’t forget it. I’m changing everything. I’m gonna run that department before the year is up. You’ll see, Mom.” Finally, in his last statement in the play. He says “All right, boy. I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have — to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him.” He will most likely follow in his dad’s footsteps down into the ground. Even though Happy is all of these things, he means the best for everyone. He dreams about a better life for his family. He tries to make his parent scare more about him. He tries to make his
In the course of the play, Willy Loman is displayed as an adolescent who has not taken a grip on life. When parenting his children, Willy does not act as a father figure. He acts as if he is one of the boys who do not discipline his children. Because of this, Happy and Biff have nothing to strive for in life. Willy yearns for attention and he obtains this by bragging about how popular and athletic his sons are in comparison to his neighbor, Charley’s son, Bernard. “When this game is over, you’ll be laughing out of the other side of your face. They’ll be calling him another Red Grange. Twenty-five thousand a year” (Page 63). In this line, Willy is showing off to Charley that Biff’s athletics will get him somewhere in life, while Bernard’s classwork and lack of social skills will never give him real world experience. Willy believes that hard work and dedication will never pay off “because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead.” (Page 22) In sum, Willy Loman believes that living in the momen...
Willy’s own paranoia about life stems mostly from his unacceptance of his older son, Biff, as seen when Willy is speaking to him, “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!”(Loman 16). Willy imagined his son to be a huge success in the sales business but much to his obvious dislike that never happened. The main character continues to push his son to become what he envisions and refuses to embrace his son for who he really is. Willy’s familial relationships would be better if he surpasses his prideful stereotype of who he thinks his son, Biff, should live up to. Another example of Willy Loman’s unwillingness to change his ways is declining Charley’s offer to employ him, saying “I got a job, I told you that” (Loman 43).
The only way to become a truly happy person is to surround yourself with the things that make you happy. Setting logical goals and pursuing dreams is going to lead to a successful life. In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, 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. He realizes that his whole life has been a lie and that Willy’s standards for Biff’s achievements in life are simply unreachable. Happy is too caught up in himself throughout the play to realize that his father is in need of an escape from his dysfunctional life. Willy has lived his whole life setting these goals for himself that he simply can’t attain. Happy makes it known at the end of the play that he is planning to follow in his father’s footsteps. This foreshadows the downfall of Happy’s life to come. Linda is constantly reassuring Willy that the decisions he has made are the right choices. She finds out about his possible suicide attempts and she refuses to seek help for him. She constantly tells his that he is doing great when in reality his career is going nowhere and his relationship with his sons gets worse as the days go on. Willy was a man who claimed to have a good sense of pride. He believes that he thrived in his times of struggle. He lost the battle for his life and ended his life due to the constant disappointments and failures that he had to live with every day. Willy refused to see the truth in his life and continued to feed off the lies. He got so caught up in his lies that he lost what the truth really was.
many years. He saw them to be weak and wanted to be the ruler of a one
Biff Loman, The oldest son sees Willy as the hero of his life, the man that has done all and has succeeded at life. Biff sees his father this way because Willy deceives his family from the truth and lets them believe that he is successful when in reality he is a failure and an unsuccessful salesman. Throughout Biff’s life he follows the path of his father thinking it was the path to a perfect life when really it was the path to defeat, and somewhere on that path he discovers the truth about his father which then caused his life to achieve unfulfillment as well. In Willy’s Life Willy cheats on his wife linda and betrays her, ruins Biff’s chances of graduating high school, and fills his family with lies, secrets, and betrayal. Willy Loman in The Death of a Salesman is responsible for his own sons
The drive to conform to Willy 's ideals are present in Happy because he envies those in higher ranking than him and he feels he must do whatever it takes to surpass them. The need to surpass them, deals with Willy 's obsession about power. The more Happy advances, he will attain more power and eventually fulfill Willy 's goal of making a name for himself. "Happy 's need to be number one has another significance also, for he has never been the sole focus of his father 's attention, always a poor second to Biff" (Jacobson 253). With the amount of pressure Happy faces to meet expectations, he has to work even harder knowing that most of Willy 's attention is directed towards Biff. Since Biff was a promising football star, Willy focused on him primarily because he felt Biff has more to accomplish within life. Willy 's focus on Biff because of his football career symbolizes the monetary value Willy holds most important. Willy believes that Biff is far more important than Happy because his football career will lead Biff to a college scholarship and his college degree will bring high paying
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.