Ana Oceguera 12. 19. 16 AP English Death of a Salesman Character Compare and Contrast In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the audience follows the dynamic between the members of the Loman family. The father of the family, Willy Loman is a self-deluded traveling salesman whose dreams of success do not match his reality. Prompted by his frustration due to the discrepancy between his unrealistically ambitious expectations and his reality, we watch as his mental health takes a turn for the worse, and his story eventually ends in suicide. Biff, a consequence of Willy, attempts to bring Willy out of his fantasies and his see the realities of his life, but in the end fails to. The two are different in their ideas, demeanors and personas, yet have some akin characteristics. Willy and Biff’s physical traits are different. At what point, Willy tells his wife Linda, “I’m fat. I’m very foolish to look at, Linda.” In contrast, Biff’s father constantly states that his sons are built like Adonises. Willy’s ambitions contrast Biff’s determination. Willy’s …show more content…
In one scene, Biff admits to his father that “he is a dime a dozen”. This proves that Biff is aware of the fact that he has wasted his life chasing something that will never be. In his final conversation with his father, he attempts to make him see that he is a failure as well by saying “You were never anything put hard-working drummer who landed in the ash van lieke all the rest of thgem! I’m one dollar an hour, Willy!”. Willy, however, never admits the fact that his son and him are both losers. He refuses to see the concrete facts; he gets fired, has been a poor father figure and husband, and has had an unsuccessful career as a salesman. He not only fails to recognize the failure within him but the failure within his son. He never loses the grand, rich ambitions he has for his son despite the fact that Biff is a normal human