Death of a Salesman: The Relationships Father and Son Essay example

While Biff is in some ways desperate to impress his father, he is also conscious about the fact that Willy has failed his attempt to be successful in his career. He considers his dad’s dreams materialistic and unreachable. As a matter of fact, in the Requiem, even after his father’s death, Biff says: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.” Unlike Happy and Willy, Biff is self-aware and values facts; Willy never was a successful salesman and he never wanted to face the truth. On the other hand, Biff is conscious about his failures and the weaknesses of his personality. During an argument with his father, Biff admits that his dad made him “so arrogant as a boy” that now he just can’t handle taking

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

The father-son conflict between Willy and Biff is complex. First of all, there is a strong personal attachment. He wants Biff to love him. He remembers the fondness shown for him by Biff as a boy, and he still craves this. At this point, however, relations are strained. Although Willy shies away from remembering so painful an episode, he knows in his heart that his affair with the Boston woman left the boy bitterly disillusioned. Feeling some sense of guilt, Willy fears that all of Biff’s later difficulties may have been really attempts to get revenge. In other words, Biff failed to spite Willy. Although outwardly resenting such alleged vindictiveness, Willy still wants to get back the old comradeship, even if he has to buy it dearly. For instance consider when he asked Ben, “Why can’t I give him something and not have him hate me?” and his final moment of joy and triumph occurs when he exclaims, “Isn’t that remarkable? Biff… he likes me!”

While Biff was in Boston, his discoveries manipulated the course of his life. Willy’s affair damaged the trust Biff had for him. Boys look up to their father. Once Biff saw The Woman, he no longer knew how to act. He had the intention of getting help to pass math. Willy’s affair shattered it all. Bernard explains to Willy that once Biff returned from Boston, things weren’t the same. “…I knew he’d given up his life. What happened in Boston, Willy?”

     Benard, son of Charley, is the bookworm neighbor and childhood friend of Biff whose caring nature is shown through out the play. Never deviating from his helping sprit, Benard is always there to help out Biff and Willy whenever possible. In high school, Benard constantly reminds Biff that he needs to study with him so he doesn’t fail math and not graduate high school. “Biff, where are you? You’re supposed to study with me today. He’s gotta study, Uncle Willy. He’s got Regents next week,” Benard states (1807). Here Benard is looking out for the well being of Biff. Even when everyone thinks he is being a nuisance, Benard still shows his helping hand and acting in accordance with his nature. Even as years past, Benard never loses track of what his nature is. All his studying and hard work lands him a high position as an attorney and he never let anyone’s criticisms stop him from being successful. Also, Willy comes to see Charley at his office with surprise to see Benard is there visiting his father. Benard and Willy get into a serious conversation discussing what happened to Biff after high school. Here Benard tells Willy how much he loves Biff and cares for him even though he takes advantage of him. “Well, just that when he came back – I’ll never forget this, it always mystifies me. Because I’d thought so well of Biff, even though he’d always taken advantage of me. I loved him, Willy, y’know? And he came back after that

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

Because of Willy' incapability to accept Biff for who he is, Willy's failure increases. Willy wants Biff to be the best because he might be a failure as a salesman but he does not want to be a failure as a father. But in some ways he is a failure as a father because he never lets Biff be his own person. It is always about what Willy wants, a "his way or the highway" sort of deal. His not accepting Biff for who he is causes Biff not succeed and because of this Biff and Willy failure becomes one in the same .

Willy’s unreasonable expectations of Biff creates a hostile relationship between Biff and Willy. Ever since Biff was in highschool, Willy always expected Biff to be very successful without instilling the tools

As a result of these lies, as the months past, his debt grew bigger because he had to get loans to cover up his lie. To the damage of his son’s moral, Biff knew about his father’s deceit to his mother and therefore saw dishonesty as a good thing. In the footsteps of his father, Biff went ahead to lie to his mother that he was ready to sire a family with a woman. He only lied to please Linda, his mother just as his father did. Willy should have taught his sons that dishonesty was against social norms and ethically incorrect and unacceptable.

Although Willy is in reality an unsuccessful salesman he continually speaks of himself and of his two sons in his brash ways, as being part of those whom have affluence and destitution, those whom can become great leaders in the world. Linda, Willy's wife, honourably stands by him even as he start to slowly degenerate into illusion that he cannot differentiate from reality anymore. To some extent Linda is not part of the solution but rather part of the problem with the family's inability to face reality. Linda loves Willy to the extent of accepting her husband's distorted views of reality and falling herself in his world of dreams and aspirations. In doing so, she is telling her sons without a word that their father's destructive direction in life is perfectly viable. Linda also vocalises the main conflict between Biff and his father at the very beginning of the play; "You know how he admires you. I think if he finds himself, then you'll both be happier and fight no more."(p.15) This statement implies the level of control Willy wishes to have on his sons, particularly Biff, as well as his unrealistically high expectations towards them; "God Almighty, he'll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away."(p.68). However, Biff being a failure ever since he dropped out of school will desperately try to achieve a better knowledge of himself instead of one filtered by his father.

Later in a flashback, Willy and Biff are on their way to Ebbets Field for a football game when Charley appears and beings a conversation with Willy. Merely joking around, Charley makes a few comments which Willy takes great offense too and beings insulting Charley and telling him to put his hands up as if to fight. Willy's arrogance shows it's face once again when Willy is talking to Biff about his meeting with Oliver. Completly ignoring what Biff is saying, Willy goes on about how good of a kid Biff is and how impressive he is. Though not directly insulting, Willy ignores what his son has to say and goes off on his own tangents, losing the respect of the reader. Willy then ends up in another flashback in the bathroom of the restauraunt where he met Happy and Biff for dinner. The most disgusting part of Willy is revealed here. Biff walks in on Willy and his woman friend whom hes had a secret relationship with. Willy attempts to cover it up and when that doesnt work he orders Biff around and shows how bad of a person he can be.

This is what Willy has been trying to emulate his entire life. Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often makes up lies about his popularity and success. At times, Willy even believes these lies himself. At one point in the play, Willy tells his family of how well-liked he is in all of his towns and how vital he is to New England. Later, however, he tells Linda that no one remembers him and that the people laugh at him behind his back. As this demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes him to become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for example, is trying to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he had the wrong dreams."

Richard J. Foster states, "Biff, who in the play as an amplification or reflection of Willy's problems, has

The boys are clearly not at all fully functioning adults because of their upbringing throughout their life. Another major issue in the play with the father/son relationship between Willy and his sons is the amount of love shown towards them. The continuous support from growing up had molded the Lomans into men who always fled back home whenever a problem approached. Biff says to Willy, ‘I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could not stand taking orders from anybody!’ (1275). The Loman brothers were babied so much all through their

Willy’s perseverance to direct Biff into success has resulted to Biff’s desperate acts to earn praise from his father. However, Biff’s dishonest acts of stealing are often justified by Willy through disregard and excuse, even expressing that the “Coach will probably congratulate [Biff] for [his] initiative”. Instead of correcting his mistakes, Willy continuously expresses his belief of Biff’s predetermined success as a result of being attractive and well-liked. These acts effectively exemplifies Biff’s adherence to self-deception as he imagines himself as an important figure in other people’s lives. It can be seen that his belief of being destined for success prevents him from allowing himself recognize the destruction it brings. As a result, Biff has allowed how Willy views him become how he perceives himself. This self-deception has not only affected the actions in his childhood but as well as his decisions when finding his role in the workplace. As stated above, Willy’s consistent beliefs of his son’s predestined success results to Biff’s immense confidence in himself. However, this confidence have provided him a false perception of himself as he struggle to keep a stable job and even faces imprisonment. It can be seen that Biff’s lack of self-perception and compliance to ideals of Willy has only allowed him to restrain and prevent him from recognizing the difference between illusion and reality resulting in the lack of his