Biff

Linda: "He put his whole life into you and you've turned your backs on him. Biff, I swear to God! Biff, his life is in your hands!"
Death of a Salesman Act I pg. 1578


4. Which characters change during the course of the play?

One of the dynamic characters in this play was Biff. At the beginning of the play, he has many hopes and dreams that he will one day live up to Willy's expectations for him. He is especially excited by the thought that he could start a business with his brother and finally go somewhere with his life. However, he never actually meets with the man Oliver, who is supposed to help him map out the plan to start a business. Because of this, Biff realizes that his life is not supposed to be centered around business and being a salesman. Everything he did with sales seemed to encounter problems, even when he worked with it in the past. Biff knows that being a salesman is not his destiny and therefore he finally accepts that it is not the way in which he wants to follow in life. His dreams of pleasing his father are diminished and he decides that he will no longer pretend that he will someday be the perfect salesman.

Biff's view toward his father changes many times throughout the play. As a child, Biff idolized his father and he looked up to him very much. As time wore on, Biff admired his father less, especially due to the time in Boston when he saw Willy with another woman. After he saw his dad cheating on his mother, Biff's entire life seemed to change. A man that he had trusted so much had betrayed him and been unfaithful to the family. This caused Biff to neglect to make up the summer course for mathematics and his life was never the same after that incident. Biff and Willy's relationship was not as open and trusting as it had been before; a rift grew between the two of them and Biff preferred to avoid his father. However, between his conversations with Linda and realization that he wouldn't be the perfect son his father pictured him to be, Biff changed his attitude toward his father. Linda tells Biff that his life is in his hands. Literally. When Biff finally reveals to his father that he loves him and he cries in front of him, Willy then almost takes it as a signal that he can die happily. It's pretty ironic that Biff's conversion led to his father's death.