Essay on Death of a Salesman - Father-Son Relationships

Unfortunately, he goes to his grave without knowing that, maybe he was not fit to be a salesman. After Willy's death, Charley says about Willy, "A salesman is got to dream" (Brown, 306), but one must wonder, did Willy Loman dream the wrong dream (Brown, 306)? Although Willy realizes in his visions that he was not the greatest salesman, he does not realize why Biff is not successful with his "expert advice."

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman silently questions his ability to fulfill his father’s wishes. His father, Willie Loman, holds high expectations for Biff’s future and constantly brags to others about how successful Biff will be. Out of respect for his father, Biff conforms to the path that Willie has planned for him. In the beginning, Willie lives vicariously through his son, Biff, who has no choice but to conform in order to preserve father-son respect. However, when the mutual respect that his father holds so dear dissolves, Biff’s concealed questions expand their influence from his thoughts to his actions as Biff becomes his own man.

While the play primarily focuses on Willy’s dream, Death of a Salesman also observes Biff and his American Dream, which may be construed as the “right” one. Compared to his father’s, Biff’s dream is a simple one: own a ranch and labor in the countryside close to nature, happy and content. And yet as his father increasingly pressures him to pursue a dream more aligned to his own, Biff experiences an identity crisis of sorts, desperately seeking to please Willy by taking a job in business but always failing in his efforts. Eventually, he realizes that he cannot be his father, and, at Willy’s funeral, contrasts his earlier statement regarding Willy’s state of mind with one regarding his own person: “I know who I am, kid” (Miller 111). Though at the start of the play it was Willy who thought Biff lost, it is now the reverse. Willy, with his aspirations for renown and major success, found himself perpetually adrift in the world, struggling to make ends meet and maintain his family ties. And yet while Willy suffered at the hands of his American Dream, Biff prospered (although not monetarily) in his “proper” American Dream, experiencing true contentment in his craft. While Willy faced constant confusion and an almost bipolar personality disorder owing to his erroneous endeavors, Biff’s main insecurities and difficulties were those brought on by his father’s notion of success. In other words, Willy’s American Dream caused nothing but suffering for him and those he loved, while Biff’s American Dream would have allowed him peace of mind had it not been for his

Biff Loman is portrayed as the root of Willy’s mental illness and instability. He is also the only member of his family who acknowledges his own failures in life. On the whole, Biff Loman stands out as the most intriguing and strong character in “Death of a Salesman. He is not a successful man and never will be, he is however able to admit this, even in a harsh society as the one of the 1960s America. Biff knows he is a “nothing” and tries to make his father see that he is “no good. I am a dime a dozen, Pop, and so are you.” He begs for Willy to communicate with him and accept him for who he is. Although Willy is forced by Biff to see some of his own failures, he never

The relationship between Willy and Biff is complicated. Actually, Biff is everything for Willy. He doesn’t do well as a salesman anymore, so this situation makes him depressed but at least there is Biff. So Willy believes that Biff will reach the success and his dreams will become true. That makes him want Biff to take some responsibility, in other words this is a big pressure on Biff. “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!” says Willy and then Linda says “He is finding himself Willy.” Then Willy answers again “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” This shows how Willy mad at him because he thinks they couldn’t reach their dreams because of Biff. Willy says “Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. I’ll put my money

Willy’s biggest issue with his son is that he let him down by not being any more successful than him. He feels like Biff is failing on purpose just to make him look bad. Although, he has no decent job and is single; Biff has become disoriented about life. Earlier in the play Biff tells Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don't know what the future is. I don't know - what I'm supposed to want” (Miller266). Biff once looked up to his father as a role model, but lost all faith in him once finding out that he was having an affair. Ever since he has rejected Willy’s commitment of being a husband and also a father. To add to his ruins are Willy’s ideas of how Biff should get ahead in life. Willy taught Biff that popularity was the right way to get to the top, rather than hard-work and dedication. Trying to live by his dad’s standards caused Biff to fail high school and become unable to put forth the effort to become

“You’re a success, aren’t you? Are you content?”, is the question Biff asks his brother, Happy and he heedlessly responds with, “Hell, no!”. Throughout the Death of a Salesman, Happy Loman is seen as this tall and powerful man but, on the inside he is very unhappy with himself. It would seem elusive if he was happy with himself when he responded to Biff with a “no”, unless he is truly unhappy. From the first few pages of this play, it foreshadows the struggles Happy goes through in order to be happy. He is unsatisfied and lonely, seeks the approval/attention from his father, Willy Loman, and he is a mirror reflection of his father. Taking in consideration of these factors will shed light on why Happy Loman is

Next, Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman is a major character that sets up the plot for the story and also influences Willy’s death. Biff is a static character. He remains the same from the beginning of the play until the end. He does not know who is the whole time and is trying to find himself. He is always stealing even since he was

Biff Loman is the son of Linda and Willy Loman. He is both attractive and well liked, but has never been successful at any job he gets because he’s a compulisive theif. He’s never been able to meet his fathers high expections with any job he’s ever done.Biff has adabted most of his fathers traits but none of his own. “I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been” (Miller Act II: 104) Later in the play Biff begins to realize his own reality, that he is nobody just like his father, and that he was not meant to fufill the American Dream. No matter how hard Biff tires to get his father to see that he is ”nothing”, Willy refuses to believe it. Willy held out so much hope for him that he even kills himself so Biff could collect his life

Next, the biggest problem in this family would have to be Willy. His own insanity is tearing the family apart. During the story, “Death of a Salesman”, Biff overhears Willy Talking to himself which causes an enormous fight between his mother Linda, himself, and eventually Willy. Biff is tired of how mad his father has become and wants a way to get him treatment but Linda believes there is nothing that can be done.

Even though Willy Loman guides the tragedy of “Death of a Salesman”, Biff Loman feels like a more suitable protagonist since he changes from the beginning of the story to its end. At the very beginning of the story, Biff has a conflict with Willy which has been haunting him for years,

Great authors use characterization to further develop a character. In Arthur Miller’s play, “Death of a Salesman”, an old salesman named Willy pressures his eldest son, Biff, to become a successful businessman. Through the different father-son relationships, Willy’s character develops. In the play, Arthur Miller portrays father-son relationships as detrimental to one’s success by characterizing Willy as desperate, demanding, and difficult.

In the play, Willy puts the expectation of success upon himself and Biff. He desires to have the American dream and he convinces himself that he has achieved it despite the fact that he has to borrow money from his neighbour Charley in order to pay his bills each week. When he learns that Biff has tried to get a loan to start a business, he commits suicide so that Biff will have the money that he needs. This is the biggest example of the fact that Willy did not live in reality because if he did he would have realized that the chances of Biff actually using the money to build a business was nil. This is because Biff is the manifestation of all of Willy’s negative attributes both real and imagined. However, unlike Happy who has embraced the American Dream to his own detriment. Biff cannot allow himself to do this.

In the play “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller, the main character, Willy, is an unsuccessful salesman who wants his son, Biff, to succeed in business but Biff fails his expectations. In the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, the play begins with the recent death of the King Hamlet. After the king’s death, his brother, Claudius, was crowned as the King of Denmark. When the ghost of the king appears, he makes Hamlet understand that it was Claudius who murdered him and tells him that he wants him to take revenge. Hamlet wanted to be like his father and has become a lot like him by the end of the play. Hamlet knew that his father, King of the Denmark, was a good leader, as Hamlet mentioned: "so excellent king” (149). Hamlet does everything according to what his father’s ghost said because he is an important figure for him and in the play “Death of a Salesman”, Biff also sees his father as an idol. For both of them, their fathers represent power and moral authority but only for Biff by the end of the play father has lost his power.

Depression. Trust issues. Relationship issues. A higher chance to become criminals. These are all possible effects that a poor parent-child relationship has on the child. The main character of Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman, a travelling salesman, works throughout New England, but lives in New York. In his childhood, his father was absent and so he is attempting to provide his sons with a father. He is trying to create the best life for his sons, but still cannot do so, even in their thirties. In the play, the condition of Happy’s desire for attention, Biff’s discovery of his father’s “hobbies”, and Willy’s focus on people liking him all demonstrate that Willy’s decisions and selfishness lead to him being a failure of a father to his sons, which ultimately leads to the failure of his sons.