Key Event Three and Four

• As Act One progresses, Miller starts to introduce the rest of the Loman family and their familial relationships.
• Biff, Willy and Linda’s oldest son, has returned home.
• He and his younger brother, Happy, are upstairs while their parents discuss them below.
• Biff dominates the discussion, with Miller’s stage direction telling us that Willy becomes “worried and angered” when discussing the difficult relationship he has with his son.
• We will learn in Act Two what is at the root of this conflict.
• "Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such - personal attractiveness, gets lost.”
• The quote reveals much about Willy.
• We see his unquestioning belief in America as a land where everything is possible and see how he conflates popularity and charisma (“personal attractiveness”) with success.
• However, his sarcastic repetition of “lost” betrays his resentment (and guilt) at Biff’s lack of progress.
• As Act One progresses, Miller starts to introduce the rest of the Loman family and their familial relationships.
• Upstairs, Happy discusses his father with the recently returned Biff.
• In this short section, the boys sum up their lives so far, revealing their doubts and insecurities.
• Both feel a sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness, fearing that each may be wasting their lives.
• "HAPPY: …Like I’m not supposed to take bribes. Manufacturers offer me a hundred-dollar bill now and then to throw an order their way. You know how honest I am, but it’s like this girls, see. I hate myself for it… and still, I take it…”
• This quote links to Happy’s last lines in the play when he tells Biff how he will stay in New York and beat this “racket”.
• Happy knows how corrupt his line of work can be and, in this quote, he reveals how corrupt he is.
• Moreover, like his father, he is blind to the contradiction between reality and his idealised perception of who he is.
• Despite accepting bribes and sleeping with the partners of colleagues, Happy still perceives himself to be “honest”.