He also talks about how he has no respect for the women he seduces, and really wants a woman with character, such as their mother. Happy believes that he should not have to take orders at work from men over whom he is physically superior. Biff worries that he is still merely a boy, while Happy says that despite the fact that he has his own car, apartment, and plenty of women he is still unfulfilled. He reminisces about herding cattle and wistfully remembers working outdoors. Biff claims he has had twenty or thirty different jobs since he left home before the war, but has been fired from each. Biff wonders why his father mocks him, but Happy says that he merely wants Biff to live up to his potential. The two brothers discuss their father, thinking that his condition is deteriorating. Happy, two years younger, is equally tall and powerful, but is confused because he has never risked failure. Goodrich.īiff Loman, at thirty-four, is well-built but not at all self-assured. They argue about whether or not Biff is lazy, and Willy believes that Biff is a person who will get started later in life, like Edison or B.F. Linda says that Biff is crestfallen and admires Willy. She reminds Willy not to lose his temper with Biff, but Willy feels that there is an undercurrent of resentment in Biff. Linda tells him how Happy, his younger son, took Biff, his eldest son, out on a double-date, and it was nice to see them both at home.

He thinks that if Frank Wagner were alive he would be in charge of New York, but his son, Howard, does not appreciate him as much. Linda tells him that he needs to rest his mind, and that he should work in New York, but he feels that he is not needed there. He reassures her that nothing has happened, but tells her that he only got as far as Yonkers and does not remember all of the details of his trip he kept swerving onto the shoulder of the road, and had to drive slowly to return home.

His wife Linda greets him, but worries that he has smashed the car. Willy Loman, a mercurial sixty-year old salesman with calluses on his hands, returns home tired and confused.

Death of a salesman book