Death of a Salesman

A detailed Summary of Death of a Salesman

Throughout the play, "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, the characters of Willy and Biff have a complex relationship. As the play shifts from past to present time, we see an obvious difference between the relationship of Biff and Willy. We are not aware why this dramatic difference in feelings is eminent between them until the middle of the second act.

In the present, Willy and Biff argue non-stop and can't agree on anything. The first time in the play where this behavior is shown is on page 21, where a conversation between Biff and Happy takes place. Happy informs Biff that Willy talks about Biff and says how he wants Biff to get settled down and find a real job. This somewhat annoys Biff and he tells Happy that is not the only reason that Willy is unhappy, just to show that Biff isn't the only one who is not living up to Willy's expectations.

The play then shifts to the past in one of Willy's flashbacks that are seen throughout the play. In the past, Willy and Biff seem to be good friends who look out for each other and help out one another. For example, Biff steals a football from the school locker room in order to practice at home. Happy tells on Biff for stealing the ball, but Willy responds with;

This shows that Willy will condone Biff's actions, even if they involve stealing. As the conversation continues, Biff tells Willy how much he missed Willy while he was away. They seem to have a good father, son bond here.

This tells us a lot about what Willy expects from Biff and some of the reasons why Willy is mad at him every time Biff comes home. Willy had a big future planned for Biff ever since he was in high school. He thought that Biff was going to make it big in the business world and become a rich and successful man. The dream of Willy's did not come true and he is disappointed in Biff for this. He believes that being a carpenter is beneath Biff and he is wasting his time out in the West. However, Biff is happy out in the West, working with his hands and trying to find out exactly what he wants to do with his life.

This conversation between Biff and his Mom shows that there is some hostility between Biff and Willy. For some reason, Willy is initially happy when Biff is going to come home but then grows more and more panic-stricken as it comes closer to Biff actually arriving. The reader does not yet know the reason for this.

Willy walks in from the entrance of the house, at left.

Willy tries to play it off like she is from the other room and just needed to use the bathroom, but this does not fool Biff. Biff is traumatized by this experience and is not the same after this incident. It is this point in Biff and Willy's relationship where everything changes and from then on they are never the same. This puts the last piece of the puzzle together and the reader finally understands why they are so bitter at each oth

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Approximate Word count = 1113
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English