Preview

Examples Of Biff And Happy In Death Of A Salesman

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
253 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Biff And Happy In Death Of A Salesman
In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the husband of Linda Loman and the father of Biff and Happy, is portrayed as irascible, contradictory, and suicidal. Willy in the beginning of the play becomes very irascible at Biff because he is still working on the ranch out west. For example, while talking to Linda Willy says “when the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is that a criticism?”(pg 15) Willy also yells at Linda “ How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? ... But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!”(pg 15-16). Willy throughout the play is also very contradictory especially when it comes to Biff in the beginning. For example in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One of the many reasons that I feel a connection with Biff and his relationship with his father, Willy, is in the play there are many moments when Willy contradicts himself. At the beginning of Act I, Willy is back home to find out that his sons are back living at home and he is really upset about this at first. Then he mentions, “‘...work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it’” (15). Later, he starts a fight with his wife Linda, saying that Biff is a lazy bum. Linda is fighting against Willy, saying that Biff is just trying to find himself and that Willy should not criticize him so much and Willy ends up changing his mind very easily and agreeing with Linda that Biff is not lazy, but even hardworking (16). Willy says many times in the play that…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy's reversal of fortune comes right after Biff's last year of high school. It seems as if all of Willy's family and other problems develop then, and the reason being he has denied his sons fate. Willy salary is cut, and then loses his job. Willy then realizes his flaw. He experiences flashbacks, imaginary ghosts of people in his life…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Biff (Willy’s eldest son) was growing up, he did everything he could to be like his father - he idolised and respected him always. However, as much as his son Biff tried to be like his father, he is, in actuality quite the different to him. Biff’s overall nature is an opposition of what a normal model for the American dream is; he has understood that it is just a myth and a pointless dream- and has acknowledged that reality. Biff’s character is stronger than that of his father, just because of that realisation. The acceptance of that reality can be seen on page 18 when he…

    • 109 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Death of A Salesman, we’re immediately introduced to Willy Loman, an old salesman who after twenty-odd years on the job admits being burned out. Returning home from his latest trip to Boston, Willy tells his wife Linda that he can’t make any more trips because he’s “tired to death” (Miller 13). Linda responds with, you’re sixty years old. They can’t expect you to keep traveling every week,” and we see that Willy is an overworked, underpaid, salesman struggling to provide for his family (Miller 14). However, it’s not long before we see what caused Willy to reach this state. Throughout the novel, Willy had a warped view of how to be successful in society. This is illustrated in a flashback where Willy talks about his sons’ friend Bernard; “Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him…Be liked…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a young boy, Biff, Willy’s oldest son showed athletic promise and charming personality that made him proud. Willy instilled in Biff and Happy; that in order to be successful in life all you needed was personality and great looks. He put little emphasis on hard work and repeatedly throughout the play applauds his boys for their popularity. For example, when a neighbor boy, Bernard attempts to get a young Biff to study for his Math regents, Willy…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Death of a Salesman the character named Willy Loman is an insecure self diluted traveling salesman who wants to achieve one thing in life, what he calls the American dream. Willy has deluded himself all his life about being a big success in the business world. Willy has a loving loyal wife, Linda, and two sons, Biff and Happy. Biff is his oldest son who is thirty four years old, and the one who Willy puts the most pressure on to do well in life. Willy is constantly pressuring Biff to become something important, to go to university and get a well respected job, just so he will be accepted and “be somebody” in society. While Biff just wants to do what he loves, and could care less about being accepted in the materialistic world. . “I saw the things that I love in this world. The work, and the food, and the time to sit and smoke, and I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: 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. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people go through life without a purpose or doing a job they hate. In Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman thinks this isn’t the case for him. He is working the best job in the world, being a salesman, like his hero Dave Singleman. Dave Singleman still sells from his bed and Willy admirably thinks this is because he loves it. The real reason is because Dave never made enough to retire. However, Willy doesn’t know he is gravely mistaken and has failed to realize who he really is. This has caused him to instill these mistaken qualities in his sons, Biff and Happy. Willy’s lack of a father figure plays into his flaws such as obsession with money and hubris. He has had some virtues as well like putting his family first and working…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The characterisation of Willy is but one of Miller’s strengths in the play, for he cleverly uses time to show how Willy’s mind has been manipulated by the stress of his failings. Willy experiences flashbacks which his mind perhaps uses in order to protect him from the harsh truth of his present life. Willy’s two sons, Biff and Happy are fully grown, with Biff having turned sour towards his father and rejected the vision his father had for him. Still, Willy in his vulnerable state transports himself back to the time when Biff was a young, promising high school athlete who idolised his father and his ideals. Instead of encouraging academic achievement, Willy ensures his sons that if they are ‘liked’ they will ‘never want’. Sadly for both Willy and Biff, this was a delusion which saw Biff become the very…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, has a powerful father role in the lives of his two sons, Biff and Happy.Willy, a man in his mid sixties, has not only strived to become a successful salesman, but also acts the successful father role, something that was lacked in his own childhood. Willy’s own actions and mistakes in his everyday lifestyle, influence Biff to believe that he has become a failure at the age of thirty-four. Happy, the younger of the two siblings has found that he has a growing obsession with women, similar to his father’s own affair. The diminishing level of confidence the boys have towards their father has created a terrible fate for the two sons. Willy Loman being unable to realize his mistakes and correct them as well as not changing his morals has set up his sons’ for failure.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What would it be like to have no personal identity? Human nature is fundamentally oriented toward self-acceptatance and self-understanding. Without these, one feels inadequate and lost. This is certainly the case for poor Biff Loman in “Death of a Salesman,” because Biff’s father Willy simply cannot accept him. Biff is forced to be someone he is not for so long that he loses his true self altogether. As a result, he falls into a despair he cannot understand the genesis of. Additionally, Willy ruins Biff’s future and character. Beyond all the other characters of the play, Willy hurts Biff the most because Willy attacks Biff’s fundamental identity.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Willy’s outward indifference toward Biff’s discovery of his affair initiates Biff’s discontent with his father. When Biff is failing in school, the first person he relies on for help is his father. He has the utmost respect for Willy and thinks high enough of his power that he seeks him out on a business trip instead of just asking Linda or Charley for help. His attitude toward Willy quickly changes once he sees that he is with another woman. After Willy kicks her out of the room, he just replies, “Well, we better get going” (1617). He is so oblivious to Biff’s reaction that he does not even take the time to feel shameful for his actions. While his concern for Biff’s grades shows that Willy cares for him, it is contradictory of the actions he has just partaken in. By sleeping with the woman, he betrays not only Linda but also the rest of his family. In a twist of reality, he regains his focus on his family by making his priority handling Biff’s situation by immediately driving back home to ask Biff’s teacher for leniency. However, his detachment from the current situation is the breaking point for Biff as he “is horrified to see the face behind the mask that Willy wears” (Centola). All of his life, Biff looks up to Willy and does not notice a single flaw with his character. When he discovers his father’s true identity, his foundation of everything that is real in life disintegrates into a pile of meaninglessness. Finally confronting the situation at hand, Willy only responds that “she’s nothing to [him]” and that he is just “terribly lonely”(1618). Willy’s excuses are…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    With failure comes consequences, unfortunately Willy fails to acknowledge severity of his. Near the end of the play Willy’s advice seems unreliable in Biff’s eyes due to Willy’s failure to acknowledge his defeat in life and many of his past mistakes that only Biff knew about. Willy chased his American Dream for far too long leading to the destruction of him and his…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman suffers through his daily life, feeling that he is a failure, for having not met society’s unrealistic portrayal of a success. At one point in the play Willy’s friend Charley says to him “When the hell are you going to grow up?” He states this because Willy allows himself to lie to everyone in his life so much that he himself believes that they are the truth. He never wanted to admit to his failures in life. He did not want his family to know the truth that he is not really as popular or successful as he claimed he was. Continuously Willy highlighted his supposed importance, to his sons and instilled in them the idea that they should grow up to be just like him. Sadly part is Willy was never what he claimed he was. He continued to teach those values and ideals of life that he never actually had himself. Willy wanted Biff and Happy to grow up and become a more successful…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    While “Death of a Salesman” has unfortunate events written into its plot, Willy Loman creates most of his issues, himself. For a start, is could be argued that Willy is a tragic figure because of the fact that he is in his golden years, and does not have the means to rake in the cash to pay his bills because of his poor performance as a business man. This can be shown somewhat early on in the play in a scene when Linda and Willy discuss his gross income for the week, along with the debts they owe. At first, he greatly exaggerates, “I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston (Miller, Portable).” When Linda hears this she is ecstatic, quickly deciphering the figure of the family’s revenue; “No!…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays