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Compare And Contrast Biff And Willy Loman

1120 Words5 Pages

Many people live their lives without meaning. Some have a firm grasp on reality and realize that their hard work and efforts will be rewarded. Others prefer a more laid back approach and think that if they deserve it, then they will receive it. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the characters, Willy and Biff live an unhappy life because of their similar character traits, beliefs, and situations. They are both idealists, prideful, and they both lack “parental” figures. The combination of these things eventually drives Willy to his death, and Biff to his growth and transcendence. Willy Loman is a salesman; he is someone who thinks that success should come to those who are popular and attractive. This ideology shows when he is talking to Linda about Biff, “Biff Loman is lost. […] a young man with such—personal attractiveness gets lost.” (Miller 16). …show more content…

This figure affects Willy on a subconscious level. Throughout the play, the music of the flute is being heard, “A melody is heard, played upon a flute.” (1). The flute represents Willy’s father, always with him in the back of Willy’s head, but never able to help Willy. Moreover, Willy is unable to comprehend what the flute means. He hears the music it plays, but that is all he knows. Likewise, with his father, Willy only hears [or thinks] that he is a successful salesman, but never understands him in a close and personal way. Similarly, Ben who chases after his father and abandons Willy is another parental figure that Willy loses. “Can’t you stay for a few days? You’re just what I need, Ben […] Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel –kind of temporary about myself.” (51). The pleading tone to what Willy is saying represents how he desperately wants someone [father figure] to guide him. Being abandoned by his brother and father, Willy’s life is unstable, and he is constantly reliving the past to escape from the

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Willy's logical inconsistencies brings confusion towards the audience itself toward the start of the play; in any case, they soon turn into a characteristic of himself. Willy's conflicting conduct is the after effect of his powerlessness to acknowledge reality and his propensity to control or re-make the past trying to get away from the present. For instance, Willy can't leave himself to the way that Biff never again regards him on account of Willy's affair with another woman. As opposed to concede that their relationship is irreparable, Willy retreats to a past time when Biff appreciated and regarded him. As the play goes on, Willy disassociates himself more from the present as his issues turn out to be excessively too much, making them impossible to manage.

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“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his children producing even more failures. ¬¬¬¬Both Charley and Willy work as salesmen, however Charley represents what Willy desired to become – successful.

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Willy Loman was a troubled man who didn't have respect for his wife and degraded his children every chance he got when it came to their failures, especially with his son Biff. He only cared about achieving the American dream which he did not succeed because of all his problems that stood in his way. His constant obsession with achieving the American dream only made his family distance themselves from him more only due to the fact that he believed that achieving this would lead him to happiness and success. This also leads to the other major theme which is resilience. Willy came from a poor socioeconomic background and he is making all the efforts to pull himself out of his current situation through whatever he can do in hopes for something better that will make him feel like he's achieved his

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Although Willy’s talents are unappreciated by himself, they are still noticed by others. In fact, during Willy’s funeral

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We learn that Willy is a salesman, who is has only had minor success. Willy blames this on the fact that he is not well liked. In the beginning of the play Willy has had a car accident and his wife Linda wants him to ask his boss if he can work only in New York instead of having to travel. When we see Willy in a flashback he appears to be happy and affectionate with his sons, who seem to return the affection.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

While Linda enabled him, Willy could not help himself too keep ruining the good opportunities he had and turning them into some factious reality. At Willy`s funeral Biff comes to the realization that his father had all the wrong dreams and visions of success. Willy`s only dream was the fake “American Dream” that people believe will happen overnight. Willy`s failed attempts and happiness bonded into one and played a part into him creating this false reality and persona that he was the best salesman and that he was well loved by everyone around him.

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Willy tries to make himself feel better by lying to himself. Although Willy’s death is unfortunate, if one closely examines his pride, bad temper, and his lies, one can see that these flaws will eventually bring him to his demise. Throughout the play, Willy demonstrates his sense of pride while talking to his family and friends. In this quote one can

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so he instead fools himself with excuses. Willy Loman behaves similarly with his perception that he is well liked. Willy insists that being well liked is the key to success and he is very proud of being liked. He also teaches his sons that being well liked is more important than getting good grades. This leads Biff to fail math in high school.

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Often individuals are prevented from achieving satisfaction due to a fundamental flaw in their character. In the case of Willy Loman, this flaw is his excessive pride and ambition. For the majority of his life, Willy has been primarily influenced by his brother Ben’s success. This has caused him to develop a sense of ambition that is both unrestrained and idealistic. Over the course of his lifetime, both Willy and his sons fall short of the impossible standards of this dream.

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In doing so, they show the audience how each and everyone of them was slightly to blame for Willy’s tragic fate. Of Willy’s two sons, Happy is still infatuated with Willy’s dream. As he says, it’s the dream of being number one. Willy was never number one, nor did he ever really get close to being number one. In fact, for someone in Willy’s position this goal was quite impossible.

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From Father to Tragic Hero A tragic hero is someone who experiences successes and failures that eventually lead to their downfall. In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, Miller uses Willy Loman as a depressed and confused main character. He also leaves the question of whether or not Willy Loman a tragic hero up in the air. Miller uses the hopes and dreams of Willy Loman and turns them into failures to portray him as a tragic hero.

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Dustin uses his voice to portray Willy’s emotions throughout the play. Willy talks to himself a lot in the play Dustin makes it sound like he is talking to someone even though he has no other actor to assist him in providing the emotion for the scene. Dustin uses his body language to express Willy’s emotions and character. Willy is a tired, worn out old man and Dustin plays his part believably by walking around like Willy would and mumbling through some of his lines. Dustin’s best scene must be when Willy gets fired from his job.

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