Death of a Salesman - Biff character profile
Uploaded by jixton on Apr 02, 1999
Biff is one of the main characters in the play "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. Biff is Willy's and Linda's son. He was the star of the football team and had scholarships to 3 college's, but he flunked math and couldn't graduate, so he tried to work at many different jobs, and failed at each. Finally, he decided to head out west, and work on farms.
Biff came back home this spring, because he didn't know what he was doing with his life. Willy has mood swings and sometimes thinks very highly of Biff sometimes but other times he hates him. The day he came home Willy yelled at him, and because Biff admires his dad, he was depressed. He later reveals to Happy, after their double date, that all he wants is to work on a farm, without a shirt, doing manual labor. He wants Happy to come out west with him, to open a ranch, but Happy won't. To make his father happy, he says he will open a sporting goods store.
Biff is an interesting character. He seems to adore his father, but he really doesn't. He finds out that his father has an affaire, and he looses all respect for him. He ends up forgetting everything Willy said, and steals something from every job that makes him loose it. He wants to change his father, and will do this by shockingly awakening him to the reality that something is wrong with him, and Biff tries to get his father to stop trying to kill himself. He wants his father to love him like he loves his father, but he will not, because of his mood swings, and the fact that sometimes he just hates Biff.
Biff is a no nonsense kind of guy. He gets straight to the point, and doesn't beat around the bush. He cuts straight through it, and isn't afraid that the subject might be touchy or hurt people's feelings. When Biff wasn't seen by Oliver, Happy wanted to make Willy happy, so he just told him that Biff got it, but Biff didn't want that. He told Willy that he didn't get the deal, but Willy refused to listen, so Biff just kept trying. He didn't care that it would hurt willy.
When he confronted Willy in he end, he just yelled at him and brought him to the realization that he wasn't...