Analysis of Biff Loman in Death of A Salesman

Identity Loss

Death of a Salesman describes a man, Biff Loman, who had lost his identity and he lacks the ability to accept change within himself and the society. His thinking and behaviour was the outcome of his fatherโ€™s mental illness and instability.

Biff was Willyโ€™s oldest son and Willy was really crazy about him. Biff was a star football player in his high school. However, he never paid attention to his schoolwork and failed in math. And Willy was responsible for all these since he never encouraged Biff to do well in school.

Dislike for Father

When he was a teenager he discovered that his father, Willy Loman had an extramarital affair, the incident created a bad impact on Biffโ€™s mind. He was the only member of the family who knew about Willyโ€™s affair and started disliking his father badly.

He realized that Willy was unfaithful to his mother and it changed the whole of his perception about Willy, whom he used to adore and considered all his stories to be true, he even followed his fatherโ€™s philosophy that anything is possible as long as a person is โ€œwell-likedโ€.

And then Biff starts deteriorating in his life. Biff never raised questions at Willy, even though he could see that Willy was going against the rules.

It is not surprising that Biffโ€™s tendency to steal things continued throughout his adult life since Willy used to encourage Biffโ€™s thefts during childhood and teenage, while he was growing up.

When Biff was in school he stole a football and instead of scolding Biff for his act of stealing the football, his initiative was praised by Willy.

Willy โ€“ fake

Biff finally realizes that Willy has created his fake image in front of his family, society and for himself as well. He considers Willy to be a โ€œfake,โ€ and stops believing him, or following Willyโ€™s grand fantasies of success. Instead, Biff hates his father and all his ideas or philosophies.

Willy regarded Biff as an underachiever, while Biff thinks that he is trapped in Willyโ€™s ambitious fantasies. After the incident of Bill Oliverโ€™s office, Biff determined to cut the web of lies which was surrounding the Loman family and wanted to live in realism.

Acceptance of Truth

Unlike his father, he accepts the truth of life and realizes his failure. After Willy committed suicide Biff said that โ€œdidnโ€™t know who he was.โ€ There was a discord between Biff and Willy for over 15 years, and during that time he was not able to hold any job steadily.

He made his father believe that he is good for nothing, โ€œI am a dime a dozen, Pop, and so are youโ€. It is believed that the character of Biff was inspired by his own life.

Arthur Millerโ€™s conflicted relationship with his uncle, Manny Newman who was also a salesman, is considered to be the basis of dramatic confliction in Death of a Salesman.

Newman also refused to accept his failure. Itโ€™s been half a century since it was written; Death of a Salesman still remains a powerful drama.