Biff is destined to no greatness, but he no longer has to struggle to understand what he wants to do with his life. Willy shouts, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!"Īt the end of the play, Biff realizes the illusions that Willy lived on. This conflict is the main material of the play.Įventually, Biff finally sees the truth and realizes that he is a "dime a dozen" and "no great leader of men." He tells this to Willy who is outraged. Through the illusions that Willy believes, he cannot see that Biff is a nobody and not bound to be successful as defined by Willy. An aging traveling salesman recognizes the emptiness of his life and tries to fix it. Adultery will never escape one's memory, and will always be there. In Death of A Salesman, when Linda was mending her stockings, Willy became angered because it reminded him of the stockings he gave The Woman. Although this occurred years back, the effects of infidelity are never forgotten. With Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang. Biff is one of the most troubled characters in Death of a Salesman, along with his father Willy. Biff was in a state of shock and felt defeated by life. Biff wants to be outside on a cattle ranch, and Willy wants him behind a corporate desk. Death of a Salesman: Directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Willy wants dearly for Biff to become a business success, although Biff has an internal struggle between pleasing his father and doing what he feels is right. But now, he has come home and the problems begin. He was even jail for stealing a suit once. Biff then became a drifter and was lost for fifteen years. This era was characterized by America’s climb out of the Great Depression in addition to its recognition as a world superpower following World War II. This shock changed Biff's view of his father and everything that Biff believed in. In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is an individual who strives to achieve the American Dream in the 1940’s. He was going to make the credit up during the summer but caught Willy being unfaithful to Linda. He flunked math his senior year and was not allowed to graduate. Biff was a star football player in high school, with scholarships to two major universities. Biff Loman is Willy's son and it is the conflict between the two that the story of the play revolves around.