Biff's Changing Perception in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
In Death of a Salesman, Biff's perception of society is altered through a chain of events throughout the play. His unrealistic expectations about how to succeed, learned from his father, eventually caused the destruction of his fantasies. His concept of an ideal society, where being liked is what is needed to succeed, is harshly changed to a reality where he must realize that hard work and devotion are necessary to prosper.
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.
Thus, it is clear that in the novel Death of a
The original story by Washington Irving starts out in a small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving paints an image of bountiful crops, beautiful scenery, and prosperous landowners. Ichabod Crane was a local pedagogue, who taught at the local schoolhouse. He was known for his strict ways and yet he was very popular amongst the families of his students- especially the ones who had ?pretty sisters.? Ichabod enjoyed spending fall evenings with the old widows as they sat by a fire and told stories of ghosts and demons and other supernatural beings. One story that was always told was one of the legendary Headless Horsemen. The tale tells of a soldier who had his head shot off with a cannon ball. His ghost now roamed Sleepy Hollow on his horse, looking for his lost head. In place of his head, sits a jack-o-lantern, which had a fiery glow.
Over time the language of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Irving has been reworked to accommodate the change in audience. The Heath Anthology of American Literature has an unabridged version of the original wording (1354-1373). A complete copy of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found in the young adolescent classic section of a bookstore or the juvenile section in the library. A juvenile edition of the text adapted by Arthur Rackham from 1928 was a replicate of the original it is filled with seven colored illustrations and numerous sketching. A young adolescent version adapted by Bryan Brown from 2001 has been abridged to accommodate the current young reader. The format is changed in Brownâs edition. The yo...
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving is a tale that has many different interpretations. One interpretation, in particular, is that of the supernatural and the headless horseman. The history of the town is peculiar, there is also a history of ghosts and mischief going on in the woods. This story mainly focuses on Ichabod Crane and what really happens to him at the end of the story when he is gone suddenly one night. Through the history and setting, chaos is ensured through people leaving suddenly, which gives Sleepy Hollow a haunted essence. Irving uses the character, Ichabod Crane, to show how the supernatural and history of the town are involved with Ichabod leaving town.
Benoit, Raymond. Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Explicator. Washington: Heldref Publications, 1996. "
on a street in Verona where members from the two families, the Montagues and the
Springer, Haskell. “Introduction to Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” (1974). Rpt. in A Century of Commentary on the works on Washington Irving. Ed. Andrew B. Myers. Tarrytown: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1976. 480-486.
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.
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.
Irving does this to help readers realize how caught up the society of Sleepy Hollow is with their past. Irving frequently brings up the Revolutionary war and how the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier from the war. When he writes, “The dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War… The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” (Irving 2). This is an allusion to the Revolutionary war because the headless horseman was a hessian soldier. This explains the theme of supernatural because the Headless Horseman haunts their town and the main character, Ichabod Crane, comes across the ghost of him. Another major allusion in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is Ichabod's belief in witches. The author supports this when saying, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft” (Irving 4). Ichabod also believes in the supernatural past. His belief in witches supports the theme of supernatural within the book. Referring to the past using allusion develops different themes within the
Throughout Death of a Salesman, the characters, especially Willy, seem unable to know the difference between right and wrong. Biff and Happy are always stealing which Willy doesn’t put an end to so the son’s choices in their business life lead to their failure in life. Willy convinces them to make bad choices to keep them successful like Biff borrowing thousands of dollars to start a business that he will likely never pay back. Possibly the worst decision in the book is when Willy decides to take his own life in a car accident. This decision impacts all around him including his wife who stuck by his side when he disrespected her, and his sons who will no longer have a father.
In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,Willy Loman, an unsuccessful businessman struggling to support his family is completely out of touch with reality throughout the plot line. Many characters throughout this play and their interactions with Willy have shown the audience his true colors and what he thinks is important in life. His constant lying and overwhelming ego certainly does not portray his life in factual terms, but rather in the false reality that he has convinced himself he lives in. Being raised by Willy, Biff and Happy are becoming failures and have no motivation to work hard to achieve anything in life. Throughout this novel, Biff has a few recurrences with stealing.
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
In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses all of the tools at his disposal as a storyteller to illustrate his criticism of Enlightenment ideals. First of all, he creates an atmosphere and a setting where reason is at a loss. Also, he uses the character of Ichabod Crane to embody Enlightenment principles, and then has this character become a figure of ridicule. Additionally, Irving uses his conclusion to poke fun at the Enlightenment idea of literature as being necessarily didactic. All of these elements come together to provide a thorough indictment of the Enlightenment.
Throughout the novel and the movie of Sleepy Hollow, both has its own uniqueness. The biggest change in narrative from the movie by Tim Burton of Sleepy Hollow from the short story by Washington Irving was the fact that Crane was presented as a skeptic who relies on scientific methods to solve the murders happened in town. In the movie, he was being sent from New York who goes to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders. This alter the meaning of the story because he wasn’t as superstitious as he was supposed to be. According to the book, Crane is an extremely superstitious man who often believe in supernatural and led to him being scared at night. He was supposed to be afraid of the Headless Horseman and hope he won’t be beheaded by him.
Hello. I’m Ichabod Crane. I am a schoolteacher in the town of Sleepy Hollow. My story was written by Washington Irving. I listen very closely to ghost stories told about the Headless Horseman, an evil spirit who supposedly roams Sleepy Hollow at night, looking for his missing head. I reckoned I knew quite a bit about ghosts. One night, a farmer told me that the spot we stood on talking was haunted. The folks in town thought a German doctor or Indian sorcerer had put a spell on that spot to haunt Sleepy Hollow. I read about witchcraft all the time. I always liked my pupils and did not like to beat them. When I had to, I told them that I lashed them for their own good. I cower at the thought of being attacked by a ghost. I could never convince