The play opens with Willy Loman, the salesman of the title, arriving home late at night from a sales trip to Portland that he has had to abandon. He explains to his wife Linda that he started ‘dreamin’’ while he was driving and that he feared causing an accident. Linda is relieved to have him home safely and tries to relax him and persuade him to go to bed, but he is very agitated. She urges Willy to try to persuade his boss Howard to find him a selling job in New York, where they live, so that he doesn't have to exhaust himself travelling so much. Encouraged by this prospect, Willy becomes calmer.

Linda tells Willy that their two grown-up boys Biff and Happy have been out for the evening and we learn that Biff, the elder brother, has just come home from Texas and that the younger Happy has moved back home for a while, so that they can enjoy time together.

Willy complains that he can't fathom the fact that Biff, 'a young man with such - personal attractiveness' is so 'lost' and moving from one low-paid, manual job to another.

The focus of the action shifts to the boys' bedroom, where Biff and Happy are discussing their adolescence, the girls they have had and their present lives. Biff reveals that he is never happier than when he is working outdoors, while Hap complains about waiting for promotion in the store where he works. Both seem dissatisfied and both talk about wanting to get married. As they talk about the future, they can hear Willy talking loudly to himself downstairs.

The focus shifts to the kitchen where Willy is completely absorbed by re-living an episode from the past. He talks aloud to the unseen Biff and Hap as if they are teenagers again. Then the actors who play the characters of Biff and Hap as adults appear on stage and assume their teenage roles. Willy praises Biff for his skill in polishing his car. In Willy's memory, the two boys idolize their father and he tells them that one day he will own his business and ‘I’ll never have to leave home any more’. The boys respond enthusiastically to the idea of joining Willy on one of his trips up to New England. Willy revels in Biff's footballing prowess and his promise to dedicate a 'touchdown' to Willy in the next game.

Still in the memory, Bernard, Biff's nerdish neighbor from school, arrives to try to get Biff to study with him for his maths exam, but neither Biff nor Willy take any notice of him. Willy dismisses Bernard as 'a pest' and

‘an anemic’, and foresees that his boys will outstrip Bernard in the end because Willy claims that ‘in the business world, the man who creates personal Interest, is the man who gets ahead’.

A younger-looking Linda enters into Willy's fevered memory and he recalls her totting up his weekly earnings and trying to balance the housekeeping money. Willy exaggerates the profits he has made from his sales but Linda manages not to dent his pride as she tells him how much money they owe, down to the last cent.

Still In the past, Linda attempts to console Willy when he has a crisis of confidence about people laughing at him. Linda declares Willy to be ‘the handsomest man in the world’, but then a disturbing sound effect of a woman's laughter is heard and this gets louder as a further, more troubling memory pushes Linda out of Willy's head and he is transported to a hotel bedroom in Boston where the Woman he has just slept with is preparing to leave.

Willy's thoughts become more turbulent as the 'the Woman disappears into the dark' and he is overcome by recollections of Biff's youthful, reckless behavior, as voiced by Linda and Bernard - stealing a football, being too rough with girls, driving the car without a license, and not working hard enough for his maths exam. Then painful memories cause him to cry out and the real Happy to come down, in his pajamas, to try to find out what is troubling his father.

Hap's real-life presence brings Willy out of his disturbing recollections briefly, but he is still agitated. Willy remonstrates with himself about missing out on the opportunity that his brother Ben offered him, many years before, to join him in Alaska and make his fortune. We see that Willy values financial success above all other satisfaction in life.

Willy reacts dismissively to Hap's promise to support his father in his old age, ‘I'm gonna retire you for life', raising his voice in desperation as he recognizes his predicament as a travelling salesman who ‘can't drive a car!’

The commotion has roused Willy's neighbor Charley, who arrives in his dressing gown and slippers to see if he can help. Seemingly used to Willy's odd behaviour Charley sends Hap back to bed and plays cards with Willy to try to settle him down. He offers Willy a job, which willy refuses.

The commotion has roused Willy's neighbor Charley, who arrives in his dressing gown and slippers to see if he can help. Seemingly used to Willy's odd behaviour Charley sends Hap back to bed and plays cards with Willy to try to settle him down. He offers Willy a job, which willy refuses.

As they play cards, Willy's dead brother Ben materializes, and Willy and he converse about the past. Only hearing Willy's side of the conversation (since Ben's comments are in Willy's head), Charley is bewildered by Willy's apparently random replies Ben's questions. Willy accuses Charley of not playing their game of cards properly and Charley leaves the house. Willy continue to talk to his dead brother about how Ben made his fortune in diamond mines.

Willy slips back into his imagined past, introducing Ben to Linda and his boys and listening to Ben's tales of his financial successes. Willy boasts to Ben about the ‘fearless’ nature of his sons and we hear that Willy is encouraging them to steal building materials from the construction company next door. Ben offers nothing but approval of the way Willy is raising his sons, calling them ‘Outstanding, manly chaps’, reassuring Willy that he is right to teach them to value material wealth.

Ben walks out of the scene repeating his catchphrase, ‘by God, I was rich’.

In real time, Linda comes downstairs to see where Willy is and finds that he has gone outside. Biff and Happy both come down, complaining about Willy's erratic behaviour. Linda chastises them both for abandoning Willy. She tells them that his firm has stopped his salary, that he is on 'commission only’ and not selling anything anymore. She explains that Charley is giving him $50 a week, which Willy claims to Linda is his pay.

Linda also reveals that some of Willy's recent accidents in the car have been failed suicide attempts and that he has prepared and hidden a short piece of rubber tubing to attach to the gas pipe in the cellar in order to kill himself. This moment of revelation encourages the audience, as well as Willy's sons, to adjust their perception of the man who previously appeared to be simply old and tired.

All of this is shocking news to the boys. Linda tries to find out from Biff what happened to sour the relationship that he used to have with his father, but Biff only reminds her that it was Willy who threw him ‘out of this house’, claiming that it was because he found out that Willy is ‘a fake and he doesn't like anybody around who knows’. Nevertheless, Biff promises to stay in New York and get a job.

Willy comes in from the yard and seems to have emerged from his hallucinations. He is initially quite aggressive with Biff, whom he feels has been insulting him. When Hap comes up with the idea of he and Biff going into business together, selling sporting goods under the brand name of Loman Brothers, Willy's mood is transformed to one of boundless optimism.

Biff's original vague notion that he might seek a loan from Bill Oliver, a previous employer, is seized upon by Willy who sees an opportunity for Biff to become the kind of success that he had always dreamed of for him. Willy gives Biff a stream advice about how to secure Oliver's backing, which includes lying about the work he has been doing.

The family go to bed more optimistic than they have felt for a very long time. Linda sings to Willy to soothe him to sleep. He does not answer her question about what Biff might have against him.

As Willy expresses his determination to talk to his boss about a job in the New York office in the cellar Biff discovers the rubber pipe that Willy has prepared to take his own life. The curtain falls as Biff removes the pipe from its hiding place and climbs the stairs to his bedroom.

Episode 7

Act Two begins with Willy at the breakfast table, drinking coffee and feeling refreshed. As Linda tells him about Biff starting out early to see Bill Oliver, Willy feels confident of a positive outcome. He tells Linda that one day they are 'gonna get a little place out in the country' and grow vegetables and keep chickens He fantasizes about the boys coming to stay with their families, emphasizing Miller's interest in the American Dream and its location in the succeeding generations.

Linda reminds Willy to ask his boss for 'a little advance' as well as for a job in the New York office, as they have outstanding bills to pay, including their final payment on the 25-year mortgage on their house.

She delights Willy by telling him that the boys want to take him out that night and treat him to an evening meal. Willy is thrilled by the idea and leaves with a light heart. As soon as Willy leaves, Linda gets a phone call from Biff. She is bursting to tell him that Willy seems to have changed his mind about the rubber tube, so is disappointed to hear that it was Biff who removed it from its hiding place. She begs Biff to be kind to his father.

Episode 8

The scene shifts to the office of Howard Wagner, Willy's boss and the son of the man who first employed Willy, over 30 years before. Willy's request to give up travelling and move to working permanently in New York is met with a flat refusal and a reminder that, as the play persistently demonstrates, 'business is business'.

Willy is angry He pleads with Howard to find him some work and tells him he only needs $50 a week. Howards tells him he no longer wants Willy either in New York or as a travelling salesman. In despair, Willy ends up yelling at his boss, who is adamant that he must pull himself together before instructing him to 'stop by and drop off the samples'. Willy's employment of over 30 years comes to a brutal end.

Episode 9

When Howard leaves Willy in his office to calm down, Willy, exhausted and highly distressed, imagines his brother Ben. Ben doesn't have much time, but he offers Willy a role to 'look after things' for him in Alaska. Willy is tempted by the idea, 'Me and my boys in those grand outdoors', before the younger Linda enters the delusion and talks Willy out of the idea. Linda is scornful of Ben's obsession with chasing a fortune.

Cheered by Linda's confidence in him, Willy revels in the likely future success of Biff, but Ben turns away, reminding Willy of the opportunities to be had in 'a new continent' and concluding, as ever, with the tantalizing prospect of becoming 'rich'. Willy is defiant, however, calling after the vision, 'We'll do it here, Ben', showing his unwillingness to take on the role of adventurer and absentee father or to abandon his family.

Willy’s pride in the young Biff leads him into another vivid encounter with the past and he relives the day of Biff's greatest triumph on the football pitch as the captain of the All-Scholastic Championship Team of the City of New York. Willy remembers his feelings of pride in his son, as Hap and Bernard compete for the privilege of carrying Biff's helmet into the clubhouse.

Willy also remembers Charley's jokey tone as he pretends not to understand the significance of the game. Willy is incensed by Charley's refusal to be impressed, to the extent that he is ready to fight his neighbor, 'Put up your hands'.

Episode 10

The memory fades and the scene shifts to the present as Willy finds himself in the reception area of Charley’s office. He meets Bernard, who has made a success of himself as a lawyer. When Bernard enquires about Biff, Willy blusters and lies to him about his success, telling him that Bill Oliver had 'Called him in from the west' where Biff has been 'doing very big things'.

Willy suddenly asks Bernard why Biff didn't 'ever catch on', a tacit admission that Biff is not successful. Bernard seems reluctant to discuss Biff with Willy. Finally, he identifies Biff's trip to Boston, when he went to talk to his father about flunking maths, as the turning point in Biff's whole attitude about his future. Bernard tells Willy that after the trip to Boston, Biff had 'given up his life'. Willy feels that he is being blamed for Biff's failure and he becomes angry. Bernard leaves to 'argue a case in front of the Supreme Court', which is a tremendous achievement for the boy who Willy and Biff used to mock for his studiousness.

Charley offers Willy a job, one of many such offers he has made him, but Willy refuses, even though he admits that he has been fired by Howard.

Although not prepared to work for Charley, Willy is prepared to borrow money from him and, on this occasion, he asks for $110 dollars to pay for his insurance. Charley is angry with Willy but out of compassion lends him what he needs. Willy concludes that he is 'worth more dead than alive', an idea that Charley is quick to quash, insisting, 'Willy, nobody's worth nothin' dead'. In a rare moment of tenderness, Willy tells him, 'Charley, you're the only friend I got’.

Episode 11

The scene moves to the restaurant where Biff and Happy are supposed to be treating Willy to a big meal. Hap is the first to arrive and he starts flirting with a young woman, offering her champagne. When Biff arrives, Hap introduces him as a great football player and tries to impress her Forgetting the purpose of the meal, Hap persuades the girl to find a friend so that he and Biff can have a double date.

Biff is highly agitated, having waited to see Bill Oliver all day only to discover that he did not remember Biff at all. Biff has stolen Oliver's fountain pen, in a moment of madness, before running down eleven flights of stairs, arriving at the restaurant in a state of despair and determined to tell Willy the truth.

Hap encourages Biff to keep Willy happy by telling him that Oliver is thinking about the proposition. Willy arrives and immediately wants to know how Biff got on. As Biff tries to tell Willy the truth, Hap keeps cutting him off and trying to put a positive spin on everything.

Willy's troubled brain struggles to keep the hallucinations at bay. First, he imagines Bernard telling Linda that Biff had 'flunked math'. Then, tormented by his guilt, Willy becomes unstable, hearing the laughter of the Woman and striking Biff who he calls a 'rotten little louse'.

The girl that Hap was flirting with returns with a friend for Biff, while Biff is showing a confused Willy to the washroom. Biff confronts Hap with the rubber tubing that Willy had hidden and accuses Hap of not giving 'a good goddam about him' before leaving the restaurant. Hap and the girls follow him out.

Episode 12

Willy is now alone in the washroom and his hallucination engulfs him. He is back in Boston, in bed with the Woman, when Biff knocks on the hotel bedroom door to tell his father about flunking maths and to persuade him to return to New York with him to talk to his teacher. When he discovers that Willy has a woman in his room, Biff is devastated. He calls Willy a 'phony little fake' before leaving his father groveling on the floor.

As Willy shouts at Biff, 'come back here or I'll beat you', Stanley the waiter at the restaurant enters the washroom and breaks the news to Willy that his sons have left with the girls. Dazed, Willy asks if Stanley knows where he can buy seeds.

Episode 13

The scene changes back to the Loman house. Happy and Biff are returning from their night out. Happy has a bunch of roses for his mother, which she knocks out of his hand. Linda speaks harshly to Biff and Hap, disgusted by their abandonment of Willy after having offered to take him to dinner. She calls the girls that Hap and Biff went out with 'lousy rotten whores' and orders her sons out of the house.

Biff is chastened but Happy pretends that he has done nothing wrong, insisting that Willy 'had a swell time with us'. Biff goes outside to see Willy, who is planting seeds in the dark, using a flashlight to guide him.

While Biff and Linda look on, Willy's fevered brain sees Ben moving towards him and he asks for Ben's advice about killing himself, to gain the $20,000 life insurance payout. Once Ben has confirmed, 'twenty thousand - that is something one can feel with the hand, it is there', Willy seems more cheerful. He anticipates Biff's shock when, at Willy's funeral, Biff will see how popular his father was. He looks back on the good times before Biff became disillusioned with him.

When Biff tries to tell Willy that he is leaving and not coming back, Willy accuses him of doing everything to spite him. He won't shake hands with Biff and yet he doesn't want him to leave. This precipitates a moment of crisis in the play.

Biff maintains that 'We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!' He confesses to having been in jail for three months in Kansas for stealing a suit and he blames Willy for filling him so full of 'hot air' so that he couldn't take orders from anybody. A bitter row breaks out between father and son before Biff breaks down.

Sobbing into his father's arms, Biff awakens in Willy the sense that he is loved by the son he has always adored. He decides to kill himself so that Biff can use the insurance money to 'be magnificent'.

The phantom brother Ben approves of Willy's decision, describing it in the language of business as 'A perfect proposition all around', thus sealing Willy's fate. Ignoring the pleas of Linda to come to bed, Willy rushes out. The sound of the car starting and moving away brings Linda and the boys hurtling downstairs to try to prevent the inevitable.

The curtain falls on a tableau of Linda, in mourning clothes, supported by Charley and accompanied by Biff, Hap and Bernard as the funeral party move to the front of the stage where Willy's grave is imagined to be.

Requiem

After the funeral, attended only by Linda, Biff and Happy, Charley and Bernard, Linda asks sadly, 'Why didn't anybody come?' She struggles to understand this and also why Willy killed himself just as they had paid off their mortgage. Biff says that Willy 'had the wrong dreams', but Hap fiercely disagrees, vowing to stay in the city and carry on pursuing Willy's dream 'to come out number-one man'.

Linda has a moment alone to say goodbye to her husband. She apologizes for not being able to cry but does begin to sob as she asks him, 'Why did you do it?' just now when they are free of the worry of the mortgage. The final lines of the play, 'We're free', are a poignant and ironic end to the play.

One of the challenges of writing about Miller's presentation of the Loman family, and of Charley and Bernard, is that these characters are seen objectively in the present but, at other times, they are shown as filtered through Willy's perceptions and memories of the past.

Of the other characters, Howard, Charley's secretary, Jenny, the Waiters and two girls at the Chop House only feature in the present, while Ben and the Woman exist in the past and in Willy's mind.

WILLY LOMAN

It is useful to consider Willy's characterization in relation to the various roles that he plays in his life - as a son, husband, father, neighbor, brother, lover and employee. These different roles help to define Willy Loman in his struggle to understand his own identity and to accept his worth.

Although Miller suggests, through the title of the play, that Willy Loman is defined by his role as a salesman, we never actually see him working in that capacity in the play.

Willy as a husband

We see Willy first as a husband, returning unexpectedly from an aborted sales trip. Although he attempts to reassure Linda that 'It's all right' and is concerned that she shouldn't be 'worried about me' (Act One), Miller is quick to establish the inequality in the marital relationship and to reveal Willy as the family patriarch, through Linda's exaggerated deference to him, as demonstrated through the stage directions.

In his happy memories, Willy shows a gallant attitude towards his wife, insisting that the boys help her with the washing, confiding in her about his feelings of insecurity, and expressing his devotion to her: 'You're the best there is, Linda' (Act One). In short, he shows a dependence upon her that is absent in the scenes in the present, in Act One, where he shouts at her for buying the 'wrong' cheese and savagely excludes her from his interaction with their sons, as they anticipate the success of Loman Brothers.

Later, we discover that Willy's guilt over his affair with the Woman torments him. He admits to both Biff and Ben that Linda 'has suffered' (Act TWO). However, he justifies his affair to himself in Act One by telling Linda, 'l get so lonely' (Act One). Willy's greater betrayal of Linda is his suicide. His misguided belief in Act Two that he is 'worth more dead than alive' robs Linda of any contentment that might have been her due in old age, consigning her to terrible loneliness.

Willy as a father

Willy’s experience as a son is shown to have influenced his behaviour as a father and it is his role as a father that is his most significant in the play As a son, he was abandoned by his 'wild-hearted' father and his only memory of him is of 'a man with a big beard' (Act One). His father left the family to search for his fortune in the Alaskan 'gold rush', but never returned, leaving Willy still feeling 'kind of temporary about myself' (Act One).

As a result of this, Willy has striven to be a good father to Biff and Happy, and is shown to be perpetually anxious about whether or not he has brought them up properly. Although the phantasm Ben assures Willy that he is 'being first-rate with your boys' and that they are 'Outstanding, manly chaps' (Act One), Miller shows them to be something very different. Linda refers to them as 'a pair of animals' (Act Two), calling Happy a 'philandering bum' and dismissing Biff, at 34, as nothing more than 'a boy' (Act One). Miller's implication is that this is as a result of being fed the wrong dreams by Willy. In an attempt to be a good father, Willy has a range of mottos or mantras that he uses to instill good values into his sons, but 'boiled down' they are fairly trite precepts for happiness or success.

Willy has adopted the values of his brother Ben, who has made the pursuit of riches his life's goal and appears to measure both happiness and success in material terms. By passing on these values to his sons, Willy has done them both harm.

Willy's fractured relationships with his adult sons are shown to be the result of his own behaviour. His blatant favouritism of Biff over Happy is present in both the scenes set in the present and in the past.

Happy's announcements, in the present, in each act, about intending to be married are effectively ignored by both Willy and Linda, as they focus their attention on Biff Even in Willy's happy memories of the boys, when Hap desperately tries to gain his father's approval about losing weight, Willy either disregards or belittles him. However, Biff's relationship with Willy has been destroyed by the discovery of 'the Woman' in Willy's hotel room.

Willy's failure as a father is more destructive to his self-esteem than his failure as a salesman. His decision to kill himself, to benefit Biff principally, confirms Linda's claim that Willy loved his sons 'better than his life' (Act One). Willy turns his death into an act of self-sacrifice, and almost celebration, rather than one of despair.

Willy as a brother

Willy's role as a brother is also significant. He is the hero-worshipping younger brother who tries to impress his successful sibling while tolerating his often-contemptuous attitude. Although Ben is a figment of Willy's imagination, he rarely misses an opportunity to be disparaging about Willy's career and achievement. Willy assiduously ignores these slights and continues to treasure and act on Ben's advice. Ben's approval of Willy's scheme to kill himself to secure Biff's future, as 'A perfect proposition all around', seals Willy's fate (Act Two).

Willy’s relationship with Ben is based on a model of fraternal rivalry that Willy can never hope to win. Where Willy is domesticated, Ben is the great adventurer. Willy's financial security is precarious, whereas Ben is fabulously wealthy. Willy is steady and cautious, while Ben is reckless and a risk-taker. Miller presents Willy's character by comparing him, as Willy compares himself, with the successful, if fantastical, elder brother.

Willy as a neighbor

As a neighbor, Willy appears churlish and ungrateful. It is obvious that Willy's hostility towards his good neighbor is engendered by jealousy of his success.

The line above is delivered, however, as Charley counts out the 110 dollars that Willy has asked for in order to pay his insurance. Despite taking handouts from Charley, Willy never stops abusing him. When Charley comes to play cards, to calm Willy down, in Act One, Willy ends up accusing him of cheating. He also calls him 'disgusting' for not being able to 'handle tools'. It seems that Willy consoles himself for not being as successful as Charley by belittling his neighbor, calling him an 'ignoramus' even when Charley is trying to help him (Act Two). Miller reveals this to be a

most unattractive quality in Willy.

Finally, after he has lost his job, Willy acknowledges that Charley is 'the only friend I got' and he congratulates him on Bernard's evident success, telling him, 'He's a fine boy' (Act Two). Unable to relinquish his dream for his own sons, he adds, 'They're all fine boys, and they'll end up big - all of them' as he anticipates Biff and Happy becoming rich and successful as Loman Brothers, another delusion that will be smashed before the end of the play.

Willy as a lover

We only see Willy in his role of lover through his own memory. The first time he remembers the Woman, in Act One, he sees himself in a flattering light. The Woman tells him emphatically that she 'picked' him, that Willy is good for her and that she thinks he is 'a wonderful man'. Willy recalls the compliments that she paid him: 'you're so sweet. And such a kidder' (Act One). He remembers the stockings he gave her as a sign of his generosity as a lover, but Miller is also inviting us to compare the 'lot of stockings' that the Woman has from Willy with Linda's need to mend hers; as she says, 'They're so expensive' (Act One).

In the Woman's second appearance, Willy's treatment of her is disgraceful. Faced with the exposure of his affair, Willy bundles her out of the hotel room only half dressed. The stage directions describe her as both 'angry' and 'humiliated' (Act Two); Willy's memory reveals him to have been unchivalrous and unfeeling as a lover.

Willy as an employee

When Willy confronts his employer about working in New York, Miller shows us an employee who has not been able to adapt to having a boss the same age as his sons. Rather than treating Howard with due respect, he patronizes him by reminding him that he was only a baby when Willy was a successful salesman with the firm.

Willy monopolizes Howard's time with his anecdote about Dave Singleman and when this story fails to impress Howard, Willy yells at him.

This eloquent and impassioned plea dignifies Willy in the eyes of the audience but does not sway Howard at all. Howard fires Willy and this results in a loss of identity for the salesman and certainly contributes to his decision to kill himself.

Willy is the play's central character. As the father figure, Willy plays a large part in any expressionist reading of the play. He is also, arguably, the tragic hero of the play.

Willy is associated with themes of identity, family relationships, material success, the American Dream, loyalty and betrayal, lies and illusions, memory.

Linda

Early in the play, Willy describes Linda as 'my foundation and my support' (Act One). Linda supports Willy throughout the real-time action of the play, defending him to his sons and shielding him from their disapproval. She is as much a mother figure to Willy as she is a wife, fussing over him when he returns from Yonkers, tolerating his changeable moods, soothing him to sleep with her humming.

In Act Two, Linda becomes more fiercely protective of Willy, to the extent of ordering the boys out of the house for deserting Willy in the Chop House. Miller presents Linda as a patient and undemanding wife, who consistently boosts Willy's confidence, overlooks his short temper and allows him to maintain the fiction that he is still earning some money.

Although Miller shows us that the boys both love their mother, as Biff refers to her as his 'pal' and Happy wants to marry someone 'Like Mom, y'know?' (Act One), Linda's love for Willy far exceeds her feelings for her sons.

However, Linda fully appreciates that Willy is a difficult man and she tries to keep the peace between him and Biff, in particular. She suspects that something has happened to disturb the close relationship they once enjoyed but cannot get either of them to reveal what happened. Conscious that some of Willy's problems stem from his uneasiness with Biff, she cautions Willy about criticizing Biff, telling him, 'You mustn't lose your temper with him' (Act One).

The Linda of the present ignores Willy's outbursts and his put-downs, and tries to accommodate his whims. She is more fatalistic than Willy, functioning as a contrast to him in this regard; she accepts the fact that once the house is paid for, the boys will have left home and she tries to console Willy by reminding him that 'life is a casting off' (Act One). She functions as a pragmatist to Willy's idealist tendencies.

The phrase 'casting-off' could refer to the domestic activity of knitting, in which 'to cast off' means to finish a garment in such a way as to prevent the unravelling of the stitches. Alternatively, we also associate 'casting off' with the untying of a boat from its mooring before setting off to sea.

The younger Linda of Willy's imagination is naturally more youthful and energetic, and she is also more opinionated. Although proud of Biff the football hero, Linda is not uncritical of his wildness. Nor is she afraid of opposing Ben when he visits Willy and offers him a place looking after his timberland. She is happy with her life as it is and does not want Ben putting ideas into Willy's head about the 'grand outdoors' (Act Two).

It is the younger Linda that Willy is unfaithful to, the younger Linda who must mend her old stockings while Willy gives new stockings to the Woman, and the younger Linda who tells Willy that he is 'The handsomest' (Act One).

Oblivious to Willy's infidelity, it is the older Linda who urges Biff to be 'sweet' to his father, who she describes as 'only a little boat looking for a harbor' (Act Two). Linda's powerful defense of Willy to Biff and Happy in Act One demonstrates her commitment to her husband and also reveals her compassion.

It is the older Linda who is the real victim of Willy's delusions and his suicide. Living on in a house that is paid for but without the man she loved so fiercely, Linda struggles to understand his action and her final cry of 'We're free' (Requiem), before the curtain falls is poignantly ironic.

Linda functions as a facilitator to Willy's illusions about himself. In an expressionist reading of the play she is the mother figure that the younger generation must oppose. In a psychoanalytical, Oedipal reading, she is desired by both of her sons who seek to displace their father. Feminist critics see her as the archetypal, undervalued wife, associated in Willy's memories with laundry and drudgery.

Linda is associated with themes of the American Dream, loyalty and betrayal, and family secrets.

Biff Loman

Some commentators have suggested that Miller is more interested in Biff than in Willy Loman, but as the play centres on Willy and his perceptions, this is hard to support. Certainly, Biff has more self-awareness than either Willy or Hap, and he functions as Miller's mouthpiece, to some extent, in his criticism of the 'daily grind' and the competitiveness that lies beneath the myth of the American Dream.

Biff appears in the present and also in Willy's memories and imagination. As the favored son, he is critical to Willy's emotional and mental well-being. In the sections set in Biff's 'glory days' as a high-school football star, he is depicted as a boy with a golden future. In the sections set in the present, he is a failure in Willy's eyes and consequently a disappointment to himself.

When Willy remembers Biff in Act One, he remembers the boy who idolized him, who wants to succeed in order to please him and who tells him that he won't be nervous about his big game 'if you're gonna be there'. It is Biff who absorbs his father's view on life that being 'well liked' is the key to success and he has cultivated a large group of followers who are happy to 'sweep out the furnace room' for the privilege of hanging out with Biff Loman (Act one).

Biffs character is shown to be influenced negatively by his father's uncritical appreciation of him. Willy turns a blind eye to Biff's criminal tendencies: he passes off his theft of a football as an example of initiative, he shrugs off Bernard's claim that Biff is 'driving the car without a license' and Linda's complaint that Biff is 'too rough with the girls' (Act One). Not only this, but Willy positively encourages Biff to cheat in the state maths examinations and he boasts to Ben about the value of the materials that the boys have stolen from the building site next door. It is unsurprising that Biff later admits to having been in jail for stealing a suit and having 'stole myself out of every good job since high school' (Act two). Miller suggests that Biff is a victim of Willy's hapless parenting style, just as Willy himself was a victim of his father, who abandoned him to search for gold. Miller also suggests that Biff's future evaporated on the night that he discovered the woman in his father's hotel room; Willy's status as Biff's 'hero' was downgraded to that of a 'phony little fake' (Act Two). Later in Act Two, Bernard tells Willy that he believed that Biff had 'given up his life' after what happened in Boston, although neither Biff not Willy have ever spoken of it to each other or to anyone else.

While the boy Biff longed to accompany his father on some of his sales trips, carrying Willy's bags and being introduced to the buyers in the Boston store, in Act One the adult Biff scorns the life that depends on a 'measly manner of existence', dependent upon 'keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying'. If Biff retains any of Willy's allegiance to the notion of the American Dream, it is in its original form of the pioneers with a longing for the great outdoors, for working with one's hands and living off the land.

Ultimately, Biff has an epiphany about himself, suddenly seeing things more clearly after waiting in vain to speak to Bill Oliver. Having stolen Oliver's fountain pen, possibly a symbol both of the business world that he despises and of his name or signature 'Biff Loman', he confesses to his father, 'l am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you' (Act Two).

Biff's revelation about himself leads him to try to make his whole family see how deluded they have been, not just about him but about themselves.

In Requiem, Biff states his belief that his father 'didn't know who he was' and that he had all 'the wrong dreams' (Requiem). He recognizes that what Willy actually enjoyed was working 'with his hands' (Requiem) and that he, Biff, does know himself and shares his father's pleasure in honest labor. Biff has accepted that his future is with 'the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke' (Act Two). Biff's disillusionment with his father led him to give 'up his life' (Act Two), but it has also freed him from the kind of 'measly manner of existence' (Act One) that Hap has committed himself to in his unquestioning acceptance of Willy’s dreams.

Biff is associated with themes of fathers and sons. In an expressionist reading of the play, Biff is the son that longs to defeat his father and, in an Oedipal reading, to displace his father from his mother's affections.

Some critics view him as a co-tragic protagonist because of his epiphany, which is closer to tragic recognition of himself than anything that Willy experiences. Biff is also linked to themes of sibling rivalry, loyalty and betrayal, family secrets, domestic happiness and the American Dream.

Hap Loman (Happy)

In the stage directions that introduce the first appearance of Biff and Happy, Miller describes Happy as 'tall, powerfully made. Sexuality is like a visible colour on him, or a scent that many women have discovered' (Act One). Miller also tells us that Happy is 'lost' and 'hard-skinned' but 'confused' (Act One), although he appears to be more contented than his brother Biff.

In the course of the play Miller shows Happy to be a great deal like his father. Although not the favourite son, Happy has embraced Willy's dream and projects himself as a confident and successful assistant buyer in a New York store.

Happy's constant pursuit and conquest of women appears to be his main drive in life. His penchant for sleeping with the fiancées of senior colleagues at the store has become something of an obsession, which even he recognizes as 'a crummy characteristic' (Act One). 'Crummy', too, is the way Happy lies to seduce the girls he meets. When chatting up Miss Forsythe, who is described as being 'now really impressed' (Act Two), for example, he explains that he got the nickname Happy at West Point, America's most prestigious military academy. Biff later exposes Happy's delusions of grandeur, reminding him that he is, in fact, 'one of the two assistants to the assistant' buyer (Act Two). Another unattractive trait that Miller reveals about Happy is his willingness to take bribes, although he tells Biff that he hates himself for it.

Like Willy, Happy is big on talk and empty gestures. His promise to his father that 'I'm gonna retire you for life' is shown to be hollow (Act One) and, although he takes the credit for giving his parents money at Christmas, Linda reveals how inadequate the gesture was, 'fifty dollars! To fix the hot water it cost ninety-seven fifty!' (Act One).

Miller suggests that, like Biff, Happy had been molded by his father's expectations. Happy has struggled for the attention of his parents by adopting Willy's dreams. The pursuit of these dreams does not bring him happiness, however, and when Biff asks him if he is 'content', he replies with an emphatic 'Hell, no!', describing himself as lonely despite 'My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women' (Act One).

Leaving his father in the washroom of the Chop House in order to pursue 'Strudel' is Happy's lowest point in the audience's eyes (Act Two). He not only abandons him in a state of extreme distress, but he denies that Willy is even his father, telling Letta, 'He's just a guy' (Act Two). Happy's denial of Willy as his father has been compared by some commentators to the denial of Christ by his disciple Peter.

In short, although Happy recognizes Biff as a poet and calls him 'an idealist' (Act One), he himself has no such redeeming qualities. He has accepted Willy's world view without question, demeans women and is completely lacking in the self-knowledge that allows Biff, finally, to break out of the cycle of self-loathing and failure, and to recognize his true place in the world. Unlike Biff, by the end of the play, Happy has learned nothing.

Happy is associated with the themes of fathers and sons. In an expressionist reading of the play he represents the son figure who feels ambiguous about his father, complying with Willy's dream while actively disrespecting him. In an Oedipal reading he longs for his mother's love and wishes to displace her affection for his father. Happy is also associated with themes of self-deception, sibling rivalry, the American Dream and the role of women.

Charley and Bernard

Charley is Willy’s next-door neighbor, his only friend and functions as a foil to Willy. Charley is a successful businessman who has his own office, secretary and accountant. We meet his son Bernard, both in the present and the memory scenes, where he is depicted as a serious and studious young man who is shown to have idolized Biff in his teenage years.

The relationship between Charley and his son Bernard offers an interesting contrast to the father-son relationship that exists between Willy and Biff.

Willy appears to have been jealous of Charley for a long time and he only once appears appreciative of all the things that Charley has done for him. Willy derides Charley, calling him an 'ignoramus' to his face (Act Two) and, behind his back, expressing his belief that Charley is 'liked, but he's not - well liked' (Act One).

Throughout the play, however, Miller shows Charley to be a humane man, who, unlike Willy, is conscious of his own failings. Despite his personal failings - his lack of 'interest in anything' (Act two), including his own son's education; an inability to 'put up a ceiling' (Act One); and an unsentimental attitude towards life - Charley is shown to be a good man with a fund of common sense. Charley is willing and able to spare money to subsidize Willy, thus protecting him from the shame of admitting to Linda that he is making no money. He repeatedly offers Willy a job and he offers him sound advice, which Willy refuses or is unable to take.

Both Charley and Bernard have seen Willy and his boys at close quarters when the boys were growing up and they both seem to understand that Biff is somehow at the root of Willy's unhappiness. In Act One, when Willy bemoans the fact that Biff is returning to Texas and that Willy is unable to give him anything, Charley tells him to 'Forget about him', adding cynically, 'When a deposit bottle is broken, you don't get your nickel back'. In Act Two Charley's son Bernard also advises Willy to 'walk away' from his problems with Biff; but when Willy asks, 'But if you can't walk away?', Bernard concedes, 'l guess that's when it's tough'.

Miller uses Charley and Bernard to represent a normal and healthy father and son relationship. Bernard has become a lawyer and has a family with two boys of his own, but he still drops by to see Charley on his way to Washington.

Charley is proud of his son's achievements but neither he nor Bernard brag that he is about to 'argue a case in front of the Supreme Court' (Act Two). When Willy hears this, he is astounded, telling Charley, 'he didn't even mention it', to which he receives the telling reply, 'He don't have to - he's gonna do it'. Neither Charley nor Bernard have to exaggerate stories of their success like the Lomans as both have achieved their potential through hard work and perseverance.

Bernard is depicted as a direct contrast to Biff in the scenes from Willy's memories Willy laughs at Bernard and calls him a pest when he tries to persuade Biff to study for his maths exam. After he returns to his revision, Willy calls Bernard 'an anaemic' and makes disparaging comparisons between Bernard and his own two 'Adonises' (Act One). In a typically unrealistic assessment of Bernard, Willy assures his sons that although 'Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him' (Act One), a prediction that is never fulfilled.

It is because Charley has been presented as such a down-to-earth character that his eulogy to Willy, in Requiem, is so touching in its sincerity.

Charley and Bernard function as foils to Willy and his sons. They are also related to the theme of the American Dream. Willy constantly disparages Charley for not knowing how to use tools, whereas Willy is so good with his hands.

Ben

Ben is Willy's elder brother, who, we learn in Act One, has only recently died. Perhaps Miller intends the audience to deduce that this is why Ben is at the forefront of Willy's mind. Ben comes to dominate Willy's imagination and, especially in the closing moments of Act Two, to guide him to his death. Ben only appears as a phantom character, either in Willy's memories or, latterly, in private 'conversations' with his younger brother and as an apparent symptom of Willy's delirium.

Ben represents the pioneering, adventuresome spirit of the beginning of the 20th century when the American Dream was related to pitting oneself against the elements and setting off for unknown regions in search of financial reward. Willy is full of admiration for his brother who represents all that he wanted to become, 'The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich!' (Act One).

Willy is uncritical of the means that Ben had to employ to become rich; indeed, these are never specified. However, when Miller wrote the play, it was generally understood that diamond mining was founded on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous African population and that the massive wealth yielded was not shared with the native workforce. Ben as good as admits to employing unscrupulous business tactics when he tricks Biff into a sparring match that ends up with Biff flat on his back with the point of Ben's 'umbrella poised over' his eye. (Act One).

As much as Willy admires Ben, he is swayed by Linda not to take up his offer to manage Ben's timberland in Alaska. Linda uses Willy's own fantasies of future success to persuade him that he is 'building something' with the firm and that, like Dave Singleman, he will be able to make a living into his eighties (Act Two). While Linda perpetuates Willy's illusions by never questioning them, Ben is less credulous. When Linda assures Willy that he is 'doing well enough', Ben quibbles, 'Enough for what, my dear?' (Act Two).

Later in the play, Willy appears to summon the spirit of his brother to ease his passing to the next world. He seeks his advice about killing himself to gain the insurance money for Biff Ben is equivocal about it, at first warning Willy that he must avoid 'making a fool of' himself (Act Two). However, when he returns after Biff has wept in Willy's arms, Ben appears to have changed his mind, agreeing that Biff will be 'outstanding, with twenty thousand behind him' (Act TWO).

Ben appears to equate the jungle with death in his last speeches. At the end of Act Two, he tells Willy that it is 'time' before moving off into the darkness and towards the 'The boat'. Now, for the first time in the play, Ben refers to himself and Willy as 'we' as he acts as a conduit between life and death, warning Willy, 'We'll be late'. Willy tries to follow him immediately, 'Ben! Ben, where do 1...? [He makes a sudden movement of search] Ben, how do I ...?' before rushing out into the night and suicide, the ultimate step into the unknown.

Ben is associated with the American Dream, with sibling rivalry, materialism and unscrupulousness. He functions as a 'tempter' figure to Willy, giving his seal of approval for Willy's suicidal plans. Ben also functions as a substitute father figure in psychoanalytical readings of the play.

HOWARD WAGNER

Howard only appears once in the play and he is part of the action that takes place in the present. His function is to fire Willy from his job after over 30 years of service. Despite this, Miller has not demonized Howard but instead, through the device of the tape recorder, he presents him as a family man.

Although Howard flatly refuses to find a spot for Willy in New York, his decisions appear to be based on sound business principles and he is reasonably patient with Willy, despite Willy's patronizing and hectoring behavior Nevertheless, Howard represents the face of capitalism that puts profit before loyalty.

Howard speaks casually and insensitively about the expensive hobbies that he is able to pursue and of his latest acquisition, the wire recorder, which cost a, not insubstantial, $150. By implication, he discards Willy like orange peel and does not honor any of the promises that Willy claims, accurately or not, that he was made by Howard's father.

Howard is not a fully developed character. His function, through firing Willy, is to act as a catalyst to Willy's state of desperation and eventual suicide. Howard is associated with the themes of family relationships, the American Dream, capitalism and wealth. He acts as a foil to Charley, who is a more benevolent capitalist, and may perhaps be compared to Ben in his more ruthless attitude towards 'survival'.

THE WOMAN

The Woman is not given a name in the cast list by Miller. This may be because the character represents a succession of similar types of women that Willy may have had affairs with during his 30 years on the road. Alternatively, her lack of a name and the use of the definite article could imply that the Woman is Willy's only indiscretion and that by identifying her simply as the Woman, Miller is signaling the destructive impact her discovery had on Willy's relationship with Biff.

In either case, Willy’s memories of the Woman are guilty ones. In the first memory, which is anticipated by the sound of the Woman's laughter, Willy remembers himself in a favorable light. The Woman thinks that he is 'a wonderful man' (Act One). She appreciates his joking as well as his generosity with the stockings.

The Woman's second manifestation in Willy’s memory is less comfortable, culminating as it does with her being bundled, half-dressed, into the hall. Indeed, Willy could be accused of treating fie Woman like the 'piece of fruit' he complains to Howard about (Act Two). When Biff turns up unexpectedly, Willy acts disrespectfully towards the Woman, in front of his son, telling lies about who she is and humiliating her. The Woman functions as a physical manifestation of Willy’s guilt, both towards Linda and towards Biff. She is associated with themes related to the role of women in society as well as to loneliness. In a feminist reading of the play she is the whore figure to Linda's perfect wife.

MISS FORSYTHE and LETTA

Although very minor characters, the two women that Happy picks up demonstrate both his sexual magnetism and their mutual willingness to indulge in meaningless relationships. The two young women are associated with themes of lies and deceit, the role of women, and sexual conquest. Like the Woman, both Miss Forsythe and Letta are seen as objects, and Happy's decision to abandon his father for an evening of pleasure with these new acquaintances reflect especially badly on his character. They also highlight the 'sale of self' idea that relates both to Willy and to the Woman.