Father and son relationship dynamics

Father Doesn't Know Best: A Study of Willy Loman

Parents often teach their children through example, often never realizing the scope of the damage they can do to young, impressionable minds. In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, we see an example of this sort of teaching through example as Willy Loman teaches his son, Biff, the wrong way to become a success. Biff learns from his father and their relationship illustrates the powerful influence of parents. Willy teaches Biff to expect things without working hard and when Biff graduates and discovers that life is not like high school, he is lost. Biff lacks the motivation he needs to discover his passion and achieve his dream because Willy teaches him that he is great instead of teaching him that it takes hard work to succeed.

One aspect of the play is its ability to capture the heart of dysfunctional family L.M. Domina agrees, noting that the play "exposes the relationship between gender relationships and dysfunctional family behaviors" (Domina). Biff's primary fault is that he is not motivated to do anything. He has fallen under the spell of Willy's notions that he is great and that things should simply come his way without putting forth much of an effort. As an adult, Biff is confused because he does not have the structure of high school to hold his life together. He tells Happy that he does not know what to do with his life even though he has had "twenty or thirty different kinds of jobs" (Miller 1038). He also tells Willy, "I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That's whose fault it is!" (1108). He realizes that he has no direction and instead of facing it and doing something about it, he lashes out at his father. Fred Ribkoff asserts that Biff inherited a "sense of inadequacy and inferiority" (Ribkoff" and a "sense of shame" (Ribkoff) from his father. Domina suggests that Biff is the "clearest failure" (Domina) of the Loman clan, "unable as an adult to succeed or even persevere at any professional challenge" (Domina). Because Willy never took the tie to prepare Biff for the real world, Biff emerged from high school unprepared and ill-equipped.