Death of a Salesman Characters

Ben:

1. Ben is to Willy’s mind the epitome of all he desires.
2. Willy calls him ‘success incarnate’ (p.32).
3. Ben went to Africa at 17 and emerged rich at 21.
4. Willy sees Ben as proof that: ‘The greatest things can happen!’ (p.37).
5. To the audience Ben represents all that Willy is not.
6. He is self-assured, rich, adventurous and succinct.
7. Willy sees his big mistake in life as not going with Ben to Alaska.
8. Willy’s line: ‘I don’t want you to think…’ (p.39) indicates that Willy sees himself in competition with Ben.
9. Ben does not give an answer to Willy’s question about the secret of success.
10. Ben’s one moral lesson is a dubious one i.e when he trips up Biff. His message is that you will ‘never get out of the jungle’ by fighting fair with a stranger (p.38).
11. The reference to the jungle recalls to the mind the phrase ‘the law of the jungle’ – suggesting the need to be ruthless in a ruthless world. However this ‘jungle’ also promises diamonds. Ben is an example of how to succeed in a capitalist society – by being competitive (note that this is what Biff ultimately rejects). Ben remarks on p.39 that the stock exchange is also full of fearless characters.
12. Ben appears after Willy has been rejected by Howard and he again uses fighting metaphors to explain how to succeed (p.66).
13. His speech on p.66 echoes Biff and Happy’s dreams of a farm in the country and sees wealth as a reward for adventure.
14. Ben questions Willy’s search for reputation and to be ‘well-liked’ as these are not commodities that can be cashed in (p.25)
15. Ben fulfils his role as a tempter in the scene where Willy explains that he wants to commit suicide in order to help Biff. He calls it a ‘cowardly thing’ (p.100) but he does agree that twenty thousand dollars is a tempting argument and in keeping with his businesslike approach to life he cannot deny that the idea has its attractions.
16. Ultimately Ben’s view is that the suicide is ‘A perfect proposition all around’ (p.107).

Bernard:

1. Bernard is cautious, studious, altruistic and law-abiding (a contrast to Biff).
2. Bernard partially fulfils the role of Biff’s father by reminding him to study and to not drive without a licence.
3. He is described as ‘anaemic’ and is not as sporty or strong as either of the Loman brothers.
4. Bernard accepts the realities of school life but Willy rejects him as being ‘not well liked’ and tells his boys how Bernard will not succeed in the business world (p.25).
5. Bernard represents what Biff might have become without Willy’s influence.
6. The adult Bernard has matured into a very successful lawyer with influential friends.
7. Bernard had a very close relationship with biff. He is upset that Biff did not retake his maths exam to qualify for university. Bernard has a prolonged fist fight with Biff after Biff burns his sneakers because he can see that this action is symbolic of Biff wasting his talent (p.74).
8. Bernard is philosophical about success and advises Willy that sometimes giving up may be the best option (p.75).
9. Bernard and Biff’s relationship parallels Charley and Willy’s – Bernard helps Biff academically as Charley helps Willy financially.
10. It is Bernard who tells Mrs Loman that Biff has failed maths, he seems to represent Willy’s nemesis, and by this time we realise that he is living evidence that Willy’s advice to Biff was wrong.

Biff and Happy:

Miller states that he is sorry that ‘Biff is not a weightier counterbalance to Willy’s disaster in the audience’s mind’.

1. Biff should offer the basis for optimism to balance Willy’s despair
2. Happy is more like his father than Biff
3. Happy is competitive and inspired by the American dream. He wants to ‘win it’ for Willy after his father’s death
4. Biff believes his father never really ‘knew who he was’; Biff will reject competitiveness.
5. Biff changes from ‘a lost boy’ to a man of insight and responsibility.
6. Happy oozes confidence and refuses to give in
7. Biff has little confidence, Willy belittles his farm work.
8. Biff doesn’t know ‘what I’m supposed to want’; he tried at school but failed.
9. Biff is a ‘boy’, engaged in hobbies rather than a career.
10. Happy has a good job and plenty of sexual power.
11. Biff has lost sexual confidence; Happy has gained it.
12. All the males need to grow up.
13. Happy knows that Biff despises his choice of career.
14. Happy uses his sexuality to seduce the wives of senior colleagues.
15. Happy is sexually competitive, he won’t take bribes but he will seduce other men’s wives – ‘it gets like bowling’. (confused morality).
16. Happy wants to create a Loman Brothers enterprise in farming.
17. Happy prefers a physical challenge to the psychological one involved in office politics.
18. Both boys have absorbed their father’s ideas: boxing, competition, capitalism.
19. Biff boxes to please his father
20. Biff is a thief; he becomes a petty criminal; Willy condones this.
21. Biff is defensive of his mother; he accuses Willy of never having ‘an ounce of respect’ for Linda; Charley, unlike his father, would never ‘spew out vomit from his mind’.
22. Biff has known about Willy’s affair since he was 17; he regards his father as a fake.
23. For Happy, success means an apartment and lots of women (shallow?)
24. Happy uses Biff (‘one of the greatest football players in the country’) to try and seduce the woman in the restaurant.
25. Biff sees through the American dream, ‘We’ve been talking in a dream for fifteen years’; Happy doesn’t: he’ll still continue to construct myths and illusions.
26. Biff has discovered ‘bad faith: we live to the expectations of others and not our own (existentialism).
27. Biff tries hard not to expose/destroy his father’s illusions, but in the end he has to be cruel to be kind.
28. Biff realises that competitiveness and status are illusions and, ultimately, are worthless.
29. Biff tells Willy that there will be no sympathy for him if he commits suicide.
30. It is the realisation that Biff and Happy are a ‘dime a dozen’ that shatters Willy’s illusions.
31. Willy, now, has nothing to live for as he realises that Biff is not a ‘leader of men’.
32. The illusions and false consciousness that have been established in Biff’s thinking are not easily eradicated: he knows that they are wrong but he isn’t sure how to extricate himself from them. He does, however, offer us a kind of hope.

Linda:

1. Linda is a staunch defender of everything that Willy stands for.
2. However, she is also acutely aware of his nature (p.43).
3. According to the stage directions she is usually cheerful and has developed an ‘iron repression’ of her objections to Willy’s behaviour (p.8)
4. She is ready to excuse anything he does.
5. The opening stage directions suggest that she needs Willy to create the ideals that she can believe in (p.8).
6. Linda mediates between Biff and Willy.
7. Through this mediation she often discovers the reasons for Willy’s cruelties (which affirm his concern for his son) (p.11).
8. She tries to calm Willy through kindness but this is thrown back in her face – however, she accepts the rejection mildly.
9. The difficulty for an actress playing Linda is to portray her as more than a weak victim of Willy’s foolishness and her sons’ immaturity. Is she a character in her own right?
10. It is Willy’s ‘massive dreams’ that makes him both attractive and bearable to Linda.
11. Willy refers to her as: ‘my foundation and my support’ (p.13).
12. Like Biff, she is aware that Willy has impossible dreams, but she can’t allow herself to accept their impossibility.
13. When Willy expresses self-doubt she recognises the need to bolster his self-confidence (p.29).
14. An actress playing Linda needs to distinguish between a blind acceptance of Willy (and all his faults) and a gentle indulgence of them.
15. Linda has a clear view of things within the play – but she doesn’t seem to grasp their full implications.
16. She alone is aware of their financial situation.
17. She tries to stop Biff from stealing, but is ignored (p.39)
18. When it comes to crucial decisions she has an iron will – when she realises that the boys are not getting on with Willy she is quick to offer an ultimatum (p.43)
19. Linda’s love sustains the family unit.
20. She is determined that whatever he has done, Willy must not be allowed to fall into his grave ‘like an old dog’ (p.44).
21. When Biff reminds her that there are many people worse off than Willy she shows a both an uncompromising attitude and a recognition of what Willy’s life on the road must really be like.
22. Linda is aware that Willy intends to kill himself and has already tried.
23. She realises that Willy’s life is in Biff’s hands, as only he can restore Willy’s self respect.
24. However, Linda is vulnerable to the actions of those around her – it seems that she does not have the means to change her life independently.
25. Linda does deny the dreams that Willy has of going to Alaska. (p.67)
26. She does not subscribe to all aspects of the American Dream.
27. However, that is not to say that she does not possess strength (compare her reaction to her sons on p.10 to the way she turns on them on p.98).
28. She is powerful in her final defence of Willy (p.98).
29. Her emotions break when Willy is pathetically sowing seeds in the yard at night – then sadness overcomes her and she pleads: ‘Will you please leave him alone?’ (p.99).
30. Linda could be played as a downtrodden drudge, mending her stockings because she no longer has any self-respect, but this would ignore the sharper and more powerful sides of her character. She chooses to be passive when it seems appropriate and she is able to act decisively when it matters. She is arguably the strongest of all the characters.

Willy:

Willy: has ‘massive dreams’ but indulges in ‘little cruelties’:

1. He dreams of running the New York business, but wants his own business so that he can spend more time with his family.
2. He lives in a world of his own; doesn’t realise that his wife is trying to please him.
3. He berates Biff for working on a farm.
4. He lectures Biff on not getting too involved with women – which, of course, Willy does!
5. He delights that Biff deceives and exploits women.
6. He seems to encourage Biff to steal the football, then condemns him for it.
7. He has a tendency to reinterpret to fulfil his own dreams.
8. He believes his own hype; thinks his wealthy when the evidence is that he isn’t.
9. he appears self-confident but isn’t.
10. He is constantly reassured by Linda that his sons ‘idolise’ him, but this isn’t true.
11. he is a proud man, not one to accept charity – but he does accept money from Charley.
12. He needs to be a salesman so that he can earn ‘big’ money (to match his big dreams).
13. He belittles Happy’s secure and reasonably well-paid job; he asks Ben (his dead brother) about his father who, it turns out, made and sold flutes. His father was both successful and happy.
14. He projects his own behaviour and anxiety onto Biff.
15. He can’t understand that appearance and image are not enough for success.
16. It is difficult to be sure whether Willy refuses to face reality or is unable to do so.
17. He projects responsibility for action onto others.
18. He blames others for his failure to achieve his dreams.
19. He believes that Biff will only love him if he is successful: Biff loves him anyway!
20. Willy does, however, attack consumer society and the dross it is responsible for.
21. He believes he is going to be successful in his meeting with Howard but becomes very defensive when it is clear that he is not going to get his way.
22. He appeals to the values of a bygone era (‘respect, and comradeship and gratitude). These values are clearly absent in the America that Miller’s play describes.
23. Even his appeal to Howard’s dead father, Frank, fails to have the desired effect
24. Despite his ‘wrong dreams’ Willy does try his best for his family.