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Arthur miller death of a salesman critical analysis
Discuss Miller's concept of tragedy with reference to the death of a salesman
Arthur miller death of a salesman critical analysis
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Irresponsibile Biff in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Have you ever felt as if you do not know what to do with your life?
Everyone does sometimes, but certain people are like that their whole life.
These people are irresponsible and depend on others to survive. In "Death of a
Salesman", Biff is one of these people. He is irresponsible because he depends
on Happy, depends on Willy, and does not know what to do for a living.
Biff looks up on Happy as an example of good life. It seems to him that
Happy's life is stable and successful. Even though this is not true, Biff lets
it bother him. He wants Happy to get him a job in New York so they could work
together. This shows some of his dependency and irresponsibility. Biff does
not seem as if he could live on his own successfully. This disappoints both
Happy and Willy. But this is not the only problem Biff has.
Biff also depends on Willy to get him through life. Willy's low morals
cause Biff to think it's all right to concentrate on football when he was in
high school. Biff does not think he has to work in school. When he flunks math,
he does not know what to do and once again turns to Willy. Now Biff cannot go
to college and since he has been concentrating on football, he has little or no
skills at anything else. He depends on Willy's support to help him. But since
Willy's expectations of Biff are not met, Biff does not receive the help he
needs and moves off on his own. This leaves Biff to find a goal in life and
reach it.
Finally, Biff does not know what to do for a living. He is constantly
moving around, unsure of what to do next. This may be because of his
uncertainty of a future. Biff has never held a steady job. Because of this, he
has never held a steady home. This shows a lot of irresponsibility. Until he
knows what he wants to do, Biff cannot settle down and become an adult. This
inconsistency in employment makes Biff irresponsible.
„« The admission price for the first year should be $6 in order to cover the total cost.
Biff Loman is flawed, he cannot hold down a job, he steals from all of his employers, and he even went to jail for three mouths. The deal with Biff is that he is Willy 's oldest son and the one whom Willy seems to be more concerned with than Happy. Biff caught his dad cheating on his mom this seems to be the thing that cause him to become a wonder working on ranches in the West. Happy Loman is Biff’s younger brother who is almost an exact copy of his father Willy Loman. Though Happy is relatively successful in his job, he has his dad 's very unrealistic self-confidence and his imposing dreams about getting rich quick. Happy always-felt second best has more of a desire to please his father. Despite his respectable accomplishments in business and the numerous women, he had slept with in his life like his bosses’ wife he did it three times to other people that are above him. Happy is extremely lonely because he wants to settle down with a good woman. . Just as the melancholiest
...ating “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be… when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am” (Miller 1842.) Biff is accepting of who he is and that he does not have to follow in family traditions. Work provides as a building block for family values and expectations, and shapes the community around it.
...nsidering he was popular and favored in high school. Due to the lack of communication between the son and father, Biff mostly sides with his mother Linda, “Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you” (Miller 39). It is difficult for Biff as well, because of the colliding dreams that he obtains, from Willy’s dreams. Rather than cherishing a family relationship, relationships are being broken apart due to different expectations and pressures of success.
Biff never kept a steady job during his young adult life, and did not possess a healthy relationship with anyone that was in his life. As the play progresses the reader sees how much Biff becomes more self- aware. An online source states, “Unlike the other members of his family, Biff grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the vicious cycles of lies.” When Biff returns home it becomes a struggle to keep a healthy relationship with his parents. Once Willy and Biff decide together that Biff will go and ask Bill Oliver for a loan is when the differences between the two characters are truly seen. Biff accepts reality for the first time in his life, and realizes how ridiculous it is to ask Bill Oliver for a loan, when he barely knows the man and worked for him about ten years ago. When Biff meets up with Willy after the ‘meeting’ Biff is talking to his Father and says, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” This quote reveals that Biff recently has just experienced an epiphany, and realizes that what he was doing was making no sense. Biff is escaping the self- deception he was caught in with the rest of his
Linda does not lose respect for Willy for his actions as much as Biff does. Biff cares about his mother dearly and does not like to see her being yelled at. He grinds his teeth when he sees his father yell at his mother, because he knows that if he argues, there will be that much more tension between him and his father. However, Biff cannot take it much longer because he is losing respect for his father. He knows his father should never get physical with his mother, and he finally takes action before it gets violent. He grabs Willy by the arm and screams at him not to yell at her. Willy gets angry at first, but then goes to bed guilt-ridden.
Biff's epiphany, though crucial for him to start living a fulfilling life, was also the catalyst for his father's death. Despite the growing pains, Biff is now free to seek out who he really is and what he really wants. No longer will he feel obligated to follow in his father's footsteps because he now knows that he is his own man. He has overcome the animal instinct that change is bad and that sticking to the path set out for him is the only way.
Biff’s confusion about his wants in life hinders his success because he is not able to live his life to its fullest potential.
Biff is a perfect symbol for society in the play. Biff knows his father has problems, but even as a son, "can't get near him. " Even though he accepts his father as a fake later in life, Biff tries over and over again to reach his father and to help him, but an unseen barrier prevents Biff from doing so. Happy is the type that knows what's going on with his father but won't try to help him.
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.
job, and is hoping that Biff has some good news for him so that Linda
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...
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
Later, in Act II, Biff is pulverized by the acknowledgment that his father is taking part in an extramarital entanglement. He is crushed and chooses to abandon his own particular future. At the end of the play, Biff at last goes up against ...
marriage and sets guidelines for property division in the event of the dissolution of the marriage.