I believe that Hap and Biff were taught that they need to do anythng in their power to succeed, even if that means thievery. In this flashback scene, Willy is trying very hard to impress Ben with his life. Ben had offered Willy to take a job opportunity in Alaska, but Linda appears to inform Ben that Willy will not be able to take it. Ben becomes witty with Willy and asks him if he can reach his success. Willy backfires at Ben and brags about Biff who is a football player about to start college. Willy does not believe that it is important what you do, but being liked by people. It seems as if Willy screwed it into Biff and Hap that you have to do what you can to impress people. Whether it is having the best looking girlfriend or the best
...came a door to door salesman. Throughout the whole play Willy is kicking himself for not going along with his brother, and it tears him up inside knowing the fortune that he missed out on. This ties in with Hap, because at the funeral, Biff announces that he is going off to work away from evil corporate America, and Hap decides to stay and "beat this racket". Biff will make a fortune, and Hap will be stuck working the depressing job till he goes mad and kills 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
Since Biff was away from home for quite some time, Willy wanted his son to desperately succeed when he returned home to New York. He suggested that he would “get him a job selling he could be big in no time” (Miller, 16). Although Biff came home to find out who he truly was, his father got in his way and tried to persuade him to become a salesman just like himself. However, Biff knew that he wanted nothing to do with corporate America which created conflict
In the onset of the play, Willy told Linda that you “work a lifetime to pay of a house. You finally own it, and there is nobody to live in it” (Cohn 56). This quote shows how Willy strives his whole life to make a home for his family and by the time he sees the realization of that one dream, his family has drifted apart and he is alone with his haunting thoughts and his ghosts. Willy has such high expectations for himself and his sons, and when they all failed to accomplish their dreams, they were unable to accept each other for what they truly were. Willy raised Biff with the idea that success depends on whether or not a person can sell himself and not how smart a person is. Biff’s tragic flaw is his acceptance of Willy’s values and not creating any of his own. When Biff realizes his father is a fake, he becomes a lost individual and he does not speak to his father for 14 years. In Willy’s family it is always Biff who receives recognition, however, Happy strives for attention too...
Willy’s idea that success comes from popularity and wealth is something he just can’t achieve, and he has been lying to himself for so long that he has become delusional. Willy’s dreams of success are inspired by the life of his deceased brother Ben who quickly became a very wealthy man in life. Ben being his hero, bringing Willy to build his own twisted definition to success that is closely related to the classic “American dream”. To Willy, success means wealth, a happy family, big house, popularity, and to be praised. For example, Willy tells his sons “Be liked and you will never want.”-pg 33. It shows that Willy has an obsession with popularity and being considered superior. This shows up in his perception of success. Though despite his best efforts, Willy’s dream has not brought him any good nor happiness, in fact it has made him a monster. He no longer has any sense of reality, and essentially lies his ways through life. In the scene where Happy and Biff take Willy out to dinner, Willy tells them “I was fired, and I’m looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited and the woman has suffered. The gist of it is that I haven’t got a story left in my head Biff. So don’t give me a lecture about facts and aspects. I am not interested. Now what’ve you got to say to me?”-pg 107. This clearly shows that Willy is not only lying to his wife, but also to himself. It seems that despite all the bad experiences he has while trying to chase his dreams,...
On the other hand, for Willy being well-liked by others and personality, not hard work and innovation, were the main keys to having success and accomplishing the dream. He wanted to be sure that his sons, Happy and specially Biff were popular. For instance, when Biff confessed that he was making fun of the math teacher, Willy was worried only about the reaction of the classmates and not about what the teacher did. “Biff: I crossed my eyes and talked with a lithp. Willy: (laughing.) You did? The kids like it? Biff: They nearly died laughing!” (Miller, p.118...
Throughout the play, Willy has hallucinations of his brother Ben, who left Willy when he was young, “Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old,” (Miller 47), and the man later offered to take Willy with him, but Willy had a dream “There’s a man eighty-four years old-” (Miller 86) and he felt that he was going to accomplish that dream. “Willy retreats into a dream world consisting of his roseate recollections of the past and of fantasies,” (Hadomi), he hallucinates often, and this is a better way of saying he’s delusional. He did not, he failed miserably, he had to borrow money from Charley “If you can manage it-- I need a hundred and ten dollars,” (Miller 96), then he pretended it was a loan from him “I’m keeping an account of everything, remember,” (Miller 96), that he would pay back “I’ll pay every penny back,” (Miller 96), but Linda and Charley knew he was not going to pay any of it back. Willy had a hard time accepting defeat, and he wanted his boys to succeed where he failed, but Biff was always better with physical labor “when all you really desi...
Willy is deceived by his and his sons ' identities. He believes that they are smart and strong men who have what it takes to be successful and beat the business world. A theory of Willy’s include’s that if a person is well liked and has a great deal of personal attractiveness, then all the doors will automatically be opened for them. Which means that hard work is not the way to achieve success. For example, Willy unlike Charlie believed that appearances and popularity were the fundamental characteristics of success. He failed to teach his sons about ambition and determination which resulted in failure for Biff and Happy and created success for Bernard, since he was taught the realities of success. Biff is Willy’s eldest son. Growing up he would dwarf others with his personal attractiveness. Because Biff was good looking, he didn 't have to work hard for anything. Biff was a popular man growing up, he was a high school football star who had a scholarship to college, but before he could make it to college, he failed a math test and that was the end of his college dream. Despite the fact that Biff is 34 years old, Willy still believes that Biff is going to find success around the next corner. He wants him to be the successful salesman that he was not. Biff’s dedication to keeping up his appearance suggests his remaining desire to impress his father. Willy contributes Biff 's former popularity and success to his
To begin with, Willy's strongly believed that if an individual had lots of money and a high paying job he or she was successful. Willy this idea so much to the point that both Happy and Biff caught themselves embodying it. Biff and Happy embodied this idea mostly in his early adulthood, by believing that if they united and took on the selling business together they could maybe be successful
Willy is apparently suffering from some sort of mental or emotional issues. These issues are causing him to conversations with his brother Ben, who has already passed away, and re-play past events in his mind. At times, Willy speaks aloud to his brother and even when re-living moments with Biff. Biff and Willy are obviously harboring ill feelings towards one another, but neither are willing to bring the reason into light. In Act II we discover Biff had discovered his father was having an extra-marital affair. Biff, already distraught over not graduating, was crushed. He idolized his father and could not believe he would do this to his mother. To spite his father, Biff did not finish school and Willy took this as spitting on him. Through the years the resentment grew to the point they had a non-existent relationship.
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.
Biff is a popular kid, who has been taught by Willy to do whatever it takes to be successful, even if that involves cheating. Meanwhile, Bernard is a nerd and a hard working boy, who has been taught by Charley to work hard and have integrity. When Bernard encourages Biff to study, Willy says, “Hey, looka Bernard. What’re you lookin’ so anemic about, Bernard”(32). Willy only cares about being liked and assumes Bernard will give Biff the answers. Willy views Bernard’s focus on his academics as loser like. Willy values popularity and athletics over academics and hard work. While Bernard cares about getting good grades and setting up his path for success in life. Biff believes in a false dream that Willy has put into his mind. Furthermore, in the flashback when Biff is going to play football in Ebbets field, Charley and Biff have a brief interaction. Willy
Willy's search to find his mistakes of his life failed because, even though he found out what happened to Biff, he did not search for the right thing: his identity. Willy found out that his affair made Biff envision his father as a fake and phony, but he did not realize that a salesman was not the right job for him. When Willy died, no one came to his funeral (Act II. Scene I). This just showed that Willy was not the man he thought he was. He thought he was a great salesman with an unlimited amount of friends, but, when he died, no one was at his funeral but his family (Act II. Scene I). It showed that Willy was just a simple craftsman, who only needed attention and love from his family, and did not need fame or to be well-known ("Arthur Miller and Others," 311-314)
His distorted perceptions of the American Dream ultimately ruined his life and the lives of his family. Sadly, Willy definitely failed as a father. He obviously favored his eldest son Biff over his youngest son Happy, and this constant neglect drove Happy to become more like his older brother as an adult in order to win his father’s approval. We can see this through his philandering behavior, something Biff was known for in high school, the golden years. Biff, on the other hand, had it worse because his father sold him lies about his importance in the business industry, which forced Biff to admire Willy and strive to be like him one day. Willy’s consistent stroking of Biff’s ego misled Biff into thinking that he could get away with anything simply because he was “popular” and “well-liked”. However, when Biff accidentally stumbles upon his father’s adultery, his world crashes in on itself as he loses his sense of identity. He quotes, “I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been” (Act II). Willy wasn’t much better with his “friends”. He hated Charley for being more affluent than him and expressed this anger when he bullies Charley over a game of cards. Charley only tolerates Willy because he pities his fate. And attempting to use his “personality” to get a job from his boss’s son Howard only gets Willy
Throughout his life, Willy has been telling other people and himself lies about his success at his job and about his and his son´s achievements. He tells everyone that he is well liked and that all his customers would recognize him when he came into a store but in fact he is not earning any money at all and he even has to borrow it from a friend. Linda knows that her husband is not earning any money and that he is borrowing 50 $ from a friend so that it at least seems like he had success in the past week. In my opinion this is the case because Willy always tries to achieve things which are unreachable for him and as said at the end of the tragedy he has different skills but none of them had anything to do with selling. Even when biff tells him that their life is a failure and that he has no success at all and when the truth is really immense, he lies, claiming that he is wrong.