Willy is home because he is extremely tired and fears he might crash because he cannot concentrate on the road. Linda is alarmed because the last time Willy was home early he had actually crashed and was scared it might have happened again. Willy is annoyed at Biff because he does not have a steady job to provide him with money at the age of 34. He describes Biff as lazy and moody, but then contradicts himself by claiming Biff is a happy, hardworking man. This contradiction demonstrates Willy’s unstable state of mind. The neighborhood has changed from when Biff and Happy were kids by becoming much more crowded and urbanized. While it used to be open land, it has now become populated with houses and cars. According to Willy, the neighborhood …show more content…
He imagines that Biff will ask for a loan from Oliver to start up the store which will then become a huge success and will aid Willy to get the transfer job he desires. During dinner, Willy imagines Biff has already received the loan and consequently gave him, Willy, a new job. Willy tells Howard about Dave Singleman so he can know WIlly’s goals and inspirations. Dave Singleman represents the reason Willy picked the particular profession of salesman. As Willy seeks to speak to Howard about business, Howard listens to the voices of his family creating a dramatic effect. A sense of nostalgia and shame washes over the reader in regards to Willy, not only is he 63 and working in the same position for years now, but his boss is a 36 year old man who has accomplished more than Willy and his sons have. The recorder itself demonstrates the difference in income between Howard and Willy: Howard can buy a recorder in a blink of an eye, while Willy continues to struggle to pay bills. Howard tells Willy to drop of his samples and forbids him to go to Boston because he is firing him. This is a blow to Willy because being a salesman is all he has ever …show more content…
When he sees the Woman, Biff discovers the liar and cheater his father has been. Biff never went to summer school as he has given up on success after learning about his father’s lies. He can no longer believe in his father because he has lost the respect and admiration he used to have for him. Linda tells the boys to “get out” and “never come back” because she is angry they left Willy at the steak house. Every time they are in town Willy becomes more and more unstable, which causes Linda to resent her sons. The seeds Willy attempts to plant in places they have never grown before is a metaphor the dreams he refuses to let got of. Willy believes Biff will be impressed with his funeral because of the various people that will show up since Willy thinks he is very well liked. Ben says Biff will call Willy a fool because he will one day realize that popularity is not the most important quality. Willy does not want to see Linda because he is embarrassed of all his actions. Biff shows Willy the rubber hose to make him realize that success and greatness do not apply to the Loman family, and to have him admit what he was planning. Biff confronts Willy and Happy because he wants them to know he knows the truth and to realize the flaws they
It is stated by Standage that, “Sandage believes Willy Loman was a success. But the message of the play, he says, is that “if you level off, you have to give up. You might as well not live”” (Baird 25). This is quite ironic because all Willy does is push to be successful and he when he can’t he puts expects his son’s to follow through so he gives up. He constantly reminds them, “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 67). This is also ironic because Willy is the man who creates personal interest in the business world, but when everyone passes away he is left with nothing but the past to remember. This false reality that Willy creates for Biff brings on the conflicts between the father and son duo due to the fact that Biff fails as a result of the way he was raised. So by the time Biff goes to interview for his first job he thinks that his success will come with no effort
Willy pleads for Ben’s advice, and is constantly trying to get his attention, even though Ben has to ‘leave’. Ben is Willy’s older brother who has died. He, unlike Willy, has experienced a lot of success in the selling world. Willy is driven by Ben, and therefore tries to extract the keys to his success. Willy feels neglected when Ben does not speak with him, even though he is merely a hallucination.
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...
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
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.
“Texas ranks last in the nations voter participation” (Champagne). The state of Texas offers public opinion votes to be heard in all branches of government and changes to the state constitution. This sounds like a place where the public would live the multiple opportunities they have to be heard, but in reality, one part dominates election due to low turnout (Champagne). Low voting turnout could be caused by the states demographic or contemporary barriers. In response to low voter turnout, lawmakers have experimented with charging state requirements for voting.
Willy shows concerns for Biff by having his worries out for him and finances when he can. Granting that, not only did he attach to financial achievements, he also had fame among his colleagues. He notices when he walks in everyone, "seemed to laugh at me" (Hart 62) as stated in the Promised End. Many problems occurred and sometimes touched his heart in many
Willy Loman’s tragic flow leads him to purse the idea that reputation in society has more relevancies in life than knowledge and education to survive in the business. His grand error of wanting recognition drove him crazy and insane and lead to his tragic death. Willy’s hubris makes him feel extremely proud of what he has, when in reality he has no satisfaction with anything in his life. Willy Loman’s sons did not reach his expectations, as a father but he still continued to brag about Biff and Happy in front of Bernard. Willy Loman caused the reader to empathize with him because before his tragic death he did everything he could for his family. Empathy, Hubris , and Willy Loman’s tragic flow all lead him to his death that distend for him the beginning.
Biff is home for a visit and is talking with his brother, Happy in their room just as they did when they were young boys. Willy has come home prematurely from a business trip and is downstairs when the boys overhear him talking to himself in a sort of quasi-reality. In the meantime, the two boys discuss the past. It is interesting here that the roles of the two boys with respect to each other seem to have reversed. Happy was the shy one growing up and Biff had all the courage and self-confidence. Now, Biff appears to have been beaten down by life and is on the brink of the se...
A major part of the reader's animosity towards Willy stems from his responsibility for the ruin of his sons. Willy's affair ends up being the reason that Biff ends up a high-school failure and a football has-been. This blunder both disheartens and destroys his eldest son. It becomes the reason Biff refuses to go to summer school; it becomes the reason that Biff leaves home. Yet, this is all a result of Willy's need to be likeable. He cheats on his doting wife simply because it makes him feel special, because it gives him proof that women other that Linda are interested in him, because it makes him feel well liked. A woman "picked [him]"; a woman laughs when he makes jokes about keeping pores open; a woman pays him some attention (38).
Willy still struggles to find out why his son, Biff, has not made anything of himself yet. Instead of a stable job, Biff has been a farmhand across the country earning only $35 a week (Act I. Scene I). Willy does not know where he has gone wrong with raising his kids, with his job, and overall with his life (Krutch, 308-309). To find the solutions to the problems driving him insane, Willy looks to his past. While he is day-dreaming he actually talks to himself and makes his family worried about his health and sanity. He daydreams and feels as if he is actually encountering the past once again in his journey. Willy is desperately trying to find out what has gone wrong in his life, why no one responds to him in the positive way that he used to, and why Biff does not have a stable job or a family. Through his trek to finding his mistakes in life, Willy finds r...
Linda, Willy’s dutiful wife, submissively admires her husband. She allows Willy to be himself instead of challenging his beliefs. Happy Loman is completely fooled by Willy’s exaggerations. Of everyone, Willy conflicts with his eldest son. In high school, Biff had a promising career playing professional football but ruined his opportunity when he failed math and became lazy.
Willy thinks that being well-liked and a hard worker will put you on top of the world and give you a wonderful life. After the exchange, Linda retires to bed and Willy begins talking to himself. He reminisces about his past as if he had nothing positive to look forward to. We are given a glimpse of this at a very early stage in the play, when he daydreams about a conversation that he had years ago with his two boys, Biff and Happy. In the daydream, one of the boys’ neighborhood friends named Bernard, a hardworking student who idolizes Biff, comes in and urges Biff to study for a test because he does not want him to fail. Willy tells Bernard, “Don’t be a pest” (Act 1), and explains to his boys that the key to success is not getting...
Willy is a salesman. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked and popular and has tried desperately to instill his notions to his two boys Happy and Biff, Willy's biggest aspirations in life. His wife Linda is extremely supportive and is Willy's only connection to reality. While raising his boys and trying to instill his "American Dream", he fails to teach them any sense of morality, leading them down to what he feels is the wrong path. At one point, he defended Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player.
Biff along with Happy invite Willy to dinner with some lady friends during this scene Willy decides to use the restroom. In the restroom Willy starts having a flashback about the time he had an affair with another woman. Miller in this scene reveals how this woman he is having an affair makes Willy feel young again in addition she gives him confidence that makes him feel like a great salesman. Miller depicts in this scene how Willy tries to hide from the truth that he cheated on Linda. Willy's affair is a let-down because his sons along with his wife have devoted their lives towards him.