Ben and Biff’s

In Arthur Millers romp, Death of a Salesman, the character poking is the word of honor of Willy Loman, the protagonist. The character Ben is Willys brother. They argon very different but they distribute some similarities. slug is real, in the sense that he appears in the play in the present, while Ben is a hallucination and a product of Willys delusions, appearing in an alternate time-line. puncher is Willys hope for the prospective and a symbol of his own lost hopes and dreams. Ben is a paragon of supremacy and a standard for which Willy strives.Barrons Booknotes says of Ben, From the moment we see Ben he turns pop to be a highly idealized figure, for Willys memory turns him into a god, (Miller, Williams, Paul 1984 p 21). Both characters further the plot but Ben is much purely a rhetorical device that helps to drive the play by allo provideg the audience a glimpse inside the mind of Willy Loman in a way that would be difficult otherwise. Both pigeon berry and Ben are goo d at taking Willys mind off his own problems.He goes into a sort of hallucinatory trance and speaks to both characters when he is troubled. Sometimes these conversations are rehashes of conversations ultimo and sometimes they are conversations carried on as Willy wishes they had been. Willy remembers conversations with his brother that never hap composeed. He believes that his brother is the success that he is not and the success that he takes his son to be so he wants Ben to explain the secrets of making a fortune.Both Ben and Biff are amoral and have virtually no social values. Biff is willing to steal and goes out of his way to take a pen as a sort of trophy to show he is higher-ranking to someone to whom he actually is subservient. Ben knocks down his nephew Biff in a fight and then tells him that is ok to cheat and do anything necessary to win against a stranger. Ben, patting Biffs knee Never fight elegant with a stranger, boy. Youll never get out of the jungle that way, (A ct I p 49).Biffs mother does not ilk this advice but Biff simply believes that it is a good motto to live by. His father, Willy, then instructs him to steal real from a aspect site. Biff and Ben both seem to think that the break off justifies whatever means is used to achieve their goals. Ben shows that he is proud of Biff for being a thief. He praises Biff for having the courage to steal from the construction site, showing he is not afraid. Biff comes to realize his father is a failure at life and his idea of how to achieve dreams is not logical.Biff is more(prenominal) like his Uncle Ben, who treats him as the person he really is and not like the image that he wants to create, as his father does, living on imagined past glory. The characters of Biff and Ben are used by Miller to allow Willy to expiration his rage and frustration. They both give Willy Loman an opportunity to address the audience. It shows he is losing his adhesive friction of reality, of course, but more so , it gives Miller the opportunity to advance the themes of the play in a direct way. He is not dime-a-dozen, he is Willy Loman, Miller has him say.Ben and Biff both say things to Willy that makes Linda, his wife, try to protect him. Linda, frightened of Ben and angry at him Don t say those things to him. (He is doing) well enough to be blessed right here. Right now, (Act II p 8). They say things that she doesnt want Willy to have to deal with. Both Ben and Biff are characters that have a close relationship with Willy even though Willy doesnt really shaft either of them. He is lost in his own world. Ben is more the realist than is Willy. He is a man who does not live in the past.He grabs what he wants and makes it his own. Biff at last loses his rose-colored glasses and accepts his uncles view of the life. He sees that he is more like his uncle than he realized and that he is naught like his father. He at last understands that his father is a unsuccessful person and a tragedy. Re ferences Miller, A. , Weales, G. Death of a Salesman New York Penguin Group 1977 Miller, A. , Williams, L. and Paul, K. Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman (Barrons Booknotes) Hauppauge, N. Y. Barrons Educational Series, Inc. Copyright 1984