The Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's "The Death of a Salesman" is a play filled with interesting and complex characters. Characters, who change our feelings and opinions about throughout the course of the play. One such character, who has generated quite a discussion, is Biff.

To put it plain and simple: Biff is not lazy. If Biff were lazy, he would not be working at all. As it is, he has worked many jobs, and the only reason he does not maintain a job is the fact that he is restless; that he still feels the need to live up to his father's expectations rather than his own, rather than being lazy. Growing up, Biff was driven by his father. He idolized his father and never questioned him. This is why he got into the habits of cheating or stealing when necessary. This does not make these actions right, but at the same time, he was never really taught right from wrong in these aspects. It is this heightened view of his father that led Biff not to go to summer school in order to graduate. His father essentially died to him when he went to Boston. Biff was now utterly lost, and so, in a sense, Linda turns out to be right about him in the end, Biff's struggle, in its basic form was really to find himself.