Happiness In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

The author could possibly be implying that Willy is actually envious of Bernard and even though he doesn’t want to admit it, his is just jealousy when he shows aversion towards him. Willy has different ambitions for his sons’ futures than most people had for theirs at the time; he believes that sport will be enough to help Biff succeed in the business world, make him rich and notorious; “That’s just what I mean, Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you’re going to be five times ahead of him.” Arthur Miller provides us with a lot of evidence that Willy has been a bad influence on Biff.

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

On the other hand, Willy is also emotionally involved with Biff because his son’s success of failure is his own. By becoming rich and influential, the handsome, personable Biff was slated to provide his own modest advancement. By making his fortune in the business world, Biff would prove that Willy had been right in turning down

Willy wants dearly for Biff to become a business success, although Biff has an internal struggle between pleasing his father and doing what he feels is

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

Ever since Biff walked into the affair between Willy and “The Woman”, Biff hasn’t been able to speak and look at his father the same; this causes Willy to think that Biff hates him. Also, Willy could still be upset about how he may ruined Biff’s chance of going to summer school for his failing subject. From there, Biff could’ve gone to college and become more successful than his father. Willy becomes happier when Biff attempts to talk to Bill Oliver because he wants him to be the successful man that he could’ve been before.

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’s clear-cut expectations of his son can be evidently seen even in the early stages Biff’s life, which end up creating a lot of tension between Willy and Biff when Biff doesn’t meet his father’s expectations. Even when Biff is an adult and still hasn’t become successful in his father’s eyes, Willy’s expectations persist, as in a heated argument between the two Willy tells grown-up Biff that “the door of [Biff’s] life is wide open!” (132). Even though Biff will clearly never become successful in his father’s eyes, Willy still forces his unreasonable expectations on Biff, creating hostility between the two. Although Biff initially attempts to fulfill his father’s definition of success by working as a shipping clerk, Biff realizes that he will never fulfill his father’s unrealistic expectations: “Pop, I’m nothing!

When Biff returned home, he had some conflict with Willy. He and Happy built a plan to become rich. For instance, they want to “form a basketball team” (63) and it will be worth “a million dollars.” (63) This shows that Biff was forced to go into the business world to make Willy proud of him.

He gives up on his dreams of being rich and prepares to return to a simple life he enjoys. Also being back home and building a stronger relationship with his father,makes him realize how he wants to help Willy. While Biff is speaking, he mentions why he gives up the idea of being successful.“BIFF: He walked away. I saw him for one minute. I got so mad I could’ve torn the walls down! How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there? I even believed myself that I’d been a salesman for him! And then he gave me one look and — I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! We’ve been talking in a dream for fifteen years. I was a shipping clerk.” (page 76). He believed this was his only chance of being rich so when his old boss didn’t recognize him , he knew he wasn’t gonna get anywhere . This is when he dumped the idea of being successful. Throughout most of the play, he procrastinates for a simpler life. So the acceptance of the thought of the American Dream not happening, works out well for Biff. A very important aspect through this play is the relationship between Biff and Willy. Biff saving Willy from suicide shows just how much he want to help his father. In act 1 page 51 :Willy [staring through the window into the moonlight]: “Gee, look at the moon moving between the buildings!” [biff wraps the tubing around his hand and quickly goes up the stairs.]This shows biff wanting to protect Willy because he removed the tubing willy was using to try and kill himself, something Linda was telling him about in the beginning of the book. While helping his father Biff also realizes that he is ready to return to a simple life he enjoys. In act 1 pages 13 and 14, Biff even invites his brother Happy to live with him out West to start up a ranch and speaks about it with enthusiasm.Biff says to Happy, “ Why don't you come out West with me?... mabe we could buy a ranch.Raise cattle, use our

Biff tells his father that he is going to see a former employer about a job the next day and Willy gets overjoyed at the thought of this as well as the thought of he, himself, getting a local job. The next day does not go as planned, Willy is fired from his job and Biff does not end up getting the job. Willy can not handle the disappointment and tries telling himself that what is happening is not true. That night when everyone returns home, the whole family gets into an argument and Biff points out that their whole life has been a lie. Willy, later on, realizes that Biff really does love him and decides to commit suicide by crashing his car

Rather than seeking money and success, Biff wants a more basic life. He wants to be seen and loved for who he is. While Biff is, in some ways, desperate to impress and please his dad, he also realizes that Willy has imperfect, greedy dreams that Biff is neither able, nor desires, to achieve. Willy does a horrible job of paying attention to the fact that Happy, and especially Biff, hate the competitive world of business, and they want to move to the West and open up a ranch. Willy abandons the ideas and dreams that his sons have for their own

Biff has always wanted to have a successful future, and have his dad look up to him, but knowing that he has worked over 20 jobs and sees himself going nowhere, he has just given up.“I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life”(22). Biff throughout the story reminds us that the American Dream is not what everyone wants in life. Rather than him seeking money and success, he wants to live a regular peaceful life. He wants to be seen and loved for who he is. Willy on the other hand would rather take his own life instead of changing his mindset on what can and can’t be accomplished in one's life. With the tragic death of Willy later on in the story, Happy speaks of how his father impact his life and how the American Dream affected him,”He had a good dream, the only dream a man can have - to come out number one

Although Biff held resentment towards Willy he would often still seek for approval from his father. He reveals this when talking about Oliver and says, “He often did say he’d stake me. I’d like to go into business, so maybe I can take him up on it. ”(Page 1239). Despite Happy’s skepticism towards business, he shows interest towards the sales job.

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