Essay on Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

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

If Willy was as liked and successful as he puts on to be, it is very likely the family would not have to stress that much about money. This false perception that Willy has of his life begins to affect his relationship with people in his family, especially his eldest son Biff. When Biff was younger he and Willy had a strong relationship. Willy was very proud of his son in regards to his athletics and believed that he would one day become very successful. Biff, as an adult, did not fully meet his father's expectations as he remained jobless for an extended period of time. Willy is very disappointed in Biff and resents him for not meeting his expectations, becoming one of the things, including Biff knowing about his father's affairs, that caused a large strain in their relationship. Willy knows deep down that he did not achieve the american dream and he is disappointed because he believes Biff is following in his footsteps and will not achieve it either.

Willy sees Biff as perfection. He is a young man who is supposed to be following his father’s footsteps. This makes his father proud. However this doesn’t matter because Willy dies. So his opinion is

They no longer desire to have a relationship with their father, which is an unhealthy way to live. Furthermore, Willy has delusions that keep him from realizing the reality in his life because he is constantly creating a whole new world in his head. Biff is held to such high expectations from his father that he wants to break free: “Will you let me go for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?”

Biff exclaims: “Dad, you’re never going to see what I am, so what’s the use of arguing” (Miller 103). Biff’s discontent tone reinforces the concept of resentment. The fact that Willy never puts time into getting to know his son makes Biff bitter, contrasting to his carefree attitude when he was younger. Also, Willy never properly punishes his son for his wrongdoings.

Willy essentially believed that he and his sons could do anything and achieve the American Dream. His beliefs were strong and he placed enormous expectations on Biff to have a successful future. Willy’s pride got in the way of his acceptance of the truth. In reality Willy was actually unsuccessful and was not as well-liked as he thought he was. He also refused to accept Biff’s failures in getting a good job.

During the story the bond of Willy and Biff tends to be unbalanced. At the beginning of the story Willy has high expectations for his son Biff. However, that soon changed during the middle of the story. At one-point Willy and his son Biff were close, but that slowly changed. As Biff grows in age Willy has a hard time accepting his son Biff due to Biff’s actions.

This then leads Biff to give up on Willy’s ambitions for him. Willy then feels betrayed as Biff walks out on him. Throughout most of the book Willy feels betrayed by Biff until Hap introduces the idea of starting a business with Biff. This is where Willy felt the most proud of his son, that is until Biff reveals Bill didn’t even recognize him and he couldn’t even talk to him. There is also the theme of being abandoned.

In Arthur Miller’s critical play “Death of a Salesman,” Miller constructs the play's storyline through the psychological actions of Willy Loman. In addition, Miller incorporates massive literary techniques such as symbolism, irony, and juxtaposition to reveal the truth behind Willy’s disoriented past. Although Willy hopes to gain the marvelous American Dream, his tragic life, and death, prevents Willy from bringing his family into grace. Furthermore, Willy’s contradictory, angry, and obsessive behavior drastically affects Biff, Happy, and Linda Loman emotionally and physically throughout the dramatic play of “Death of a Salesman.”

Willy’s disappointment with his son Biff is his own frustrations in his opinion that his son never made something of his life. He feels that Biff never lived up to his potential in school or football. Biff’s let down with his father stems from the affair that crushed the illusions he had of his father and how he idolized Willy. Biff and his father share many arguments throughout the play, and Biff even has the maturity to tell his father to give up the lost expectations: “Willy you let me go for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?”

Biff was an opportunity for Willy to live the dream he had always hoped for, and through Biff he could be fulfilled, he showed tremendous promise and was the talk of the town. But after Biff learns of the cheating, he abandons the idea of succeeding in the business industry, thus abandoning Willy

Arthur Miller writes a play, Death of a Salesman, about a man named Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, who is on a quest to live out a dream, one that many Americans had; to live a happy and affluent life without having to worry about day to day expenses and to not have any financial struggle. Willy worked hard at his job and has done so ever since he started working thirty plus years ago. As a salesman, he made a commission on the profits of which he was responsible, so his paycheck was largely dependent on the amount of sales he made each month. Mr. Loman was in his late sixties and had been working for the same company since he was a teenager. Still, after many years, Willy is trying to fulfill that childhood dream of his and is optimistic that it will soon come true.

In this scene I grew angry and upset for the characters as I knew what was about to happen with Willy. I also was happy for Biff and Willy as this was point in the play were they put everything aside and just expressed their love for eachother. Biff expressed the truth he had been feeling inside his whole life. Willy starts to becomes emotional when when Biff decided to to leave and go chase his dreams. Biff tells him he doesn't blame him for the things he has done and tells his father truth about selling himself out. Biff had grown an ego and didn't want to work for anyone above him. Once he come to realise this he fell into his father's arms and cried. I feel that it this single moment their relationship was content. They now knew how much

This is the beginning of the downfall of their relationship, as Biff goes to meet his father on a business trip in Boston, Biff finds Willy cheating on his mother, Linda Loman “Willy looks at Biff, who is staring open-mouthed and horrified at The Woman” (Miller 119). This event leads Biff to get kicked out of the house by Willy and ending up in a lot of bad situations throughout the year landing him in jail a couple of time, as he could never take orders from anyone since the one man he respected betrayed his trust. Near the end of the book, Biff attempts to amend the damaged relationship, this proves to be futile as Willy has gone into a state of mental instability and can only perceive things as very good, or utterly horrible. Near the end Biff and Willy get into a large argument, well Biff is trying to shove reality into Willy, Willy wants none of it and is attempting to hide being confronted with reality, until the end when Biff says “crying, broken: Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” (Miller

I do empathize with Willy, he has this sad idea that achieving success and wealth is measured by popularity, charm and charisma. At his funeral the Linda comments “Why didn’t anybody come?” At this point you have a sad relation that he worried about this his whole life, about being liked and known by people wherever he went, but in the end it didn’t matter. Biff becomes Willy’s ego feeder: he