Biff Loman’s Role in Death of a Salesman

pummel Loman may not be the Salesman in Arthur Millers masterpiece, The Death of a Salesman, but he is the chief(prenominal) character of the black market. The character known as Biff Loman is at the answer of his immediate familys internal dilemmas and inner conflicts. Biffs gist is what motivates the men in his family to choose the path that they take in lifetime. For this rea word of honor, eve when Biff is not present in a particular scene, he is still omnipresent because of his invisible pull on the military actions and feelings of his family members whom he had force throughout the eld.The play finds Biff Loman at age 34, while his junior brother felicitous is 32. Growing up, Happy was influenced greatly by his quondam(a) brother. This is common in most young boys, especially when they are this finis in age. Happy was eyewitness to the arrogant and womanizing behaviors of his elder brother, Biff during their youth. Happy proverb the way Biff behaved during high school and witnessed the positive feedback that he received from both his peers and his father as a result of his behavior, which was little than exemplary.Happy saw Biff skate through his teenage years living in this manner. Biff got the attention from their father that Happy had yearned for. The full point was set for Happy to attempt to emulate Biffs womanizing, unscrupulous actions during his own life. Happy became a womanizer on a direct which counterbalance exceeded Biffs promiscuous behavior during his youth. Happy very much found himself sleeping with his bosss wives, girlfriends and fiances. He couldnt even understand why he did it.It was simply an instinct which was engrained in him afterwards spending his impressionable years so close to Biff, even share a bedroom with him during this time. Willy Loman, himself, was obsessed with his eldest son. During Biffs set up of life, Willy found happiness by living vicariously though his son. piteous Happy was hardly notic ed by his father who was so cloaked up in Biff. Willy believed that he would find all his dreams that were never cognise finally seen through by Biff. He thought Biff would watch in college and find the successful career that Willy himself was never fortunate comme il faut to have.All of Willys hopes and dreams were wrapped up in this one boy and when Biff failed to live up to them, Willy felt that failure just as deeply as he felt the let-down of his own unfulfilled life. To polish off matters worse, even though Willy did not admit it, he knew that he, himself was to blame for Biffs downfall. Willy never pushed Biff to do the right thing in life. He chuckled when Biff stole from his football coach and was proud of his son when Biff made his friends clean the familys basement. Biff said to his father, I think Ill have them sweep out the furnace room to which Willy replied, untroubled work, Biff. (Miller 1192) Willys wife, Linda, had warned him about Biff being rough with the g irls and this, too, was shrugged off . Linda said, Hes too rough with the girls, Willy. All the mothers are afraid of him. Willy replied, leave out upTheres nothing the matter with him . Hes got spirit, personality. (Miller 1195) Willy felt that Biff already possessed all the qualities indispensable in order to be successful in life, so at that place was no need to offer guidance to his son or punish his missteps along the way.This was a parenting strategy that Willy would later live to regret. The paramount of Willys guilt was the concomitant that Biff caught him in a hotel room with a woman with whom he was having an affair. Willy made up ridiculous excuses to cover the fact that this woman was in his hotel room naked. He tells his son, Biff, shes a buyer. Theyre painting her room. She lives down the hall theyre painting. (Miller 1240) Biff saw through to the truth of the matter, though. He yells at his father, saying Dont touch me, you liar (Miller 1241) Biff was so cru shed by the identification that his father was not the family man whom he had idolized that he did not even bother to make up the math course that he had to complete that Summer in order to graduate. This one small action threw away his chances at attending college. The immense guilt that Willy felt as a result of his son discovering his infidelity is at the core of plays plot. This guilt and attempted absolution is what ultimately conduces to the death of Willy Loman. Willy is attempting self-destruction in order to finally make things right with Biff.He wants his initial born son to collect twenty thousand dollars from a life insurance policy. Willy, who has his own identity so wrapped up in Biff, feels that Biff will become successful with this money and therefore Willys legacy will be one of achievement and success in life. Willy is so convinced of this idea being a reality, that he is automatic to throw his earthly life away for a chance at an afterlife view of his own drea ms being carried through his son, Biff. This makes Biff the lead character in the play. Bibliography Only the actual play is refererenced in this report.