death of a salesman
Biff the Hero? In Arthur Miller’s, dramatic play, Death of a Salesman the Loman family presents its self as being the perfect nuclear family as opposed to their dysfunctional nature. Even though Miller portrays Willy Loman as the main character of the story, his lack of praise worthy traits make it necessary for another to be the hero. This other character comes in the form of Willy’s son, Biff Loman, who may not succeed in regards to Willy’s dreams, but still deserves the honor of being called the hero of the play. Biff shows qualities describing a hero because he grows up with false ideals but later rejects them searching for his true identity. To analyze Biff Loman the most important aspect comes from his change in self-realization that represents his dynamic nature. This dynamic nature shows with his interaction in regards to other characters and with respects to underlying themes in the play. Even though many people have influenced Biff over his life, only his family has left a significant impact on it. Their presence and importance in his life make it necessary to view the motivating aspects of his interaction with them, whether it is positive or negative. The first character that we must analyze comes in the form of the overbearing but idolized father, who sets the foundation for Biff’s beliefs and way of life. Many different aspects of this relationship can be portrayed in reference to Biff’s ultimate and final realization at the end of the play. In Biff’s youth, he accepts and adores everything that pertains to Willy because that is the nature of a small child. Even though we later realize the err in Willy’s ideology, his initial instincts to teach his son success held no faults. Willy’s hopes and goals were pure (Onger 154). On the other hand, Willy’s excessive need to promote vanity and unfulfilling popularity, sets the stage for Biff’s eventual letdown. Willy provides Biff with an ego because of the high praise given to Biff that makes him conceited. Such great praise prompts Biff’s pride of himself and his family, which leads Biff to feel contentment and fulfillment in his younger years before his dreams come to an end. But, his flaw comes in the form of hubris or arrogance that goes hand in hand with his father's belief in his own greatness. Biff so readily believes his father’s assumptions that he will not work at any ...
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...With this in mind Biff forces himself to break the barriers of his fathers confining concepts and to evaluate his own life. Biff’s understanding of Willy’s inability to realize his [Willy’s] identity, proved vital to Biff’s own search for self identification. Willy further proved his inability to understand by finally committing suicide and thinking that it would bring happiness to Biff. Biff shows his dynamic nature in the rejection of false ideals and in the search for true identity. One last proof of his change shows up in a strong symbolic element of the play. When Biff stole footballs in his youth, he felt no shame or sorrow, but that does not hold true in the case of the fountain pen he stole from Oliver. "I took those balls years ago, now I walk in with his fountain pen? That clinches it, don’t you see? I can’t face him like that!" (Miller 88). By regret for his actions, Biff proves the maturity he gains, which no other character can attest for. Because of such amazing development, "…Biff, having completed his search for self-identity in the face of the odds which had driven his father crazy, emerges as the true protagonist of this play" (Sharma 79).
“BIFF [crying, broken]: Will you let me go for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” By saying this Biff tries to address his family on the giant rift between Willy’s dreams for him and reality. He tries to explain that all he wants is for Willy to let go of those dreams and high standards he has set for him so he can create his own reality rather than fulfill his father's dream. Willy's dreams for Biff were very unrealistic for the reality of his situation,which caused him to fill unsuccessful and push himself away from his father. The reason Willy wanted his children to do so well and had such big dreams for them was because he wasn't able to achieve the dream and had a fear he had failed and so he wanted to force his dream to be fulfilled by his children. Therefore, due to Willy’s wildly unrealistic amount of pride, causing him to make poor decisions, betray his family by having a mistress and finally his unrealistic dreams for his sons, he paved his way towards his failure and his deep fear of isolation and
What is Willy’s impression of Bernard when he sees him in his father’s office? Why does Willy exaggerate Biff’s importance? - He has contradicting feelings of envy and pride for him. He exaggerates Biff because he wants to look like a success to
Both sons live with the same concern for Willy as Linda, especially after she explains to them that Willy’s crashes were not accidents. Biff is particularly affected by Willy’s actions as Biff discovered Willy’s affair with one of his coworkers, an action which enraged Biff and caused Biff to refuse to fix his math grade and finish high school. Additionally, Willy’s affair also caused Biff to grow distant from his father, setting the two up for many future arguments such as one in which Willy tells Biff, “stops him with: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” (129). Not to forget that Willy’s suicide was originally meant to spite Biff as Willy believed his funeral would be grand, claiming “He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!” (126)--this being a tragic twist of dramatic irony. This trauma and strife brought upon Biff leads him into a great deal of hardship, never having had a job or settled down. Willy causes Biff to believe himself a failure, and Biff is dragged into Willy’s world of suffering where Biff cannot attain success in the face of his father’s high
Willy doesn’t want to accept that he is not successful anymore, he still recognize his son as handsome heroes. Biff as the football star when he was at high school and Happy an...
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
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.
Biff discovers who he is and is determined to become true to himself. Happy, unfortunately is destined for living in the same delusion that Willy lived in.
This motif of abandonment and betrayal is carried through to Willy’s son, Biff. Biff feels betrayed whe...
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.With each item Biff steals, Willy fails to scold him and show him wrong from right, but rather brushes it off and influences him to lie about it. After Biff steals a fountain pen, Willy’s response is, ”You give it to him and tell him it was an oversight...You were doing a crossword and accidentally used his pen!” (Miller 112). He is completely telling Biff to lie to the owner of the pen and act like he is innocent when in actuality, Biff is guilty of stealing the pen. Interactions
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the story of a man much like Miller's father, a salesman, "whose misguided notions of success result in disillusionment" (Draper 2360). The suppression of the main character, Willy Loman's, true nature is a result of his pursuit of a completely misguided dream. The fraudulent and miserable existence this generates is accentuated by the father-son relationship he shares with his son Biff.
One important event that caused friction between Biff and his father Willy was about college. Since Biff did not pass math, he had to attend summer school. However, Biff refuses to do so. This made him realize he is going nowhere in life, which prompted him to return home. On opposing ends, his father Willy only sees Biff as lazy. “Biff is a lazy bum!” (Miller 859). Biff wants a simpler life, he knows the
The play, Death of a Salesman, is a tragic drama about an aging salesman who tries to do all he can to support his family and make them lead successful lives. The struggling salesman, Willy Loman has two sons, Biff and Happy, whom he tries to drive towards success. Willy believes that being well liked and making a good and lasting impression are the keys to success and tries to teach this philosophy to his two sons. Biff, being the favorite son of Willy, has worked as a manual laborer and Willy believes that Biff can do so much more with his life. While Biff is happy, he does not meet Willy’s criteria for success. Biff is unable to fulfill Willy’s dream because Willy’s idea of success is not a life Biff wants to pursue.
Growing up, Willy doted on Biff the most, which reflects the way his own father doted on his older brother Ben. Their father-son relationship was strong until the incident with The Woman caused a rift to grow between them. Willy feared seeing his son due to the chance of being exposed, and Biff did not want to be reminded of his father’s betrayal. However, near the end of the play, Biff and Willy had a heart to heart which seemingly did some repair work on their relationship. Biff grew to forgive his father and confessed that he loved him despite their past. He experienced growth through the events of the story, making him another candidate for the
Parent and child relationships are the main point of play in many literary works. Through their relationship, the reader can understand the conflicts of the play, since the characters play different roles in each other’s lives. These people are usually connected in physical and emotional ways. They can be brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters, or fathers and sons. In “Death of A Salesman,” by Arthur Miller, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Biff and Happy, allows Miller to comment on the father-son relationship and conflicts that arise from them.
Even though it may not seem in correspondence with the reality, from the very beginnig Willy became obsessed with his image as a father and since the born of his first heir his living aim was to reach perfection in the relation with them and in his trying to mould their personality.The older one is Biff who doesn’t manage to become not even clo...