Continuing Death of a Salesman...

As I continued reading, I noticed more and more of Willy's "day dreams" or hallucinations. In my opinion, Willy is using these memories of the past to hide away from the present. He also searches for the mistakes he made back then, mostly with Biff and seeks out how he managed to ruin the good relationship he once had with his son. Through reading this, I could tell that Willy wanted to be well known and rich as a salesman.  On page 81 of Death of a Salesman Willy has a monologue. He talks about an old man he once knew who died "the death of a salesman". This speech caught my eye, not only because it uses the book title in it, but also because I think it shows Willy's hopes and dreams in a nutshell. It also shows how he wants the life and death of a true, successful salesman, but just can't seem to get what he wants and how his constant yearning for riches and fame has led to him to destroy the relationships he once had.

Two characters I noticed as I kept reading were Linda and Happy. Linda is wife of Willy and mother to Happy and Biff. Happy is the younger son. I noticed these characters were both abused by Willy. They were not physically abused, but they were both emotionally bruised by him. In Linda's case, Willy took for granted her and the support she always gave him. From what I've read so far, Linda has never given up on Willy. She seems to be his anchor...whenever he is getting wilded up about something not going his way, Linda seems to always be there to calm him down/set him straight. It seems to me that Linda adores Willy and does whatever to make him happy, but Willy doesn't seem to appreciate her help. One example of his ungratefulness is how he sleeps with a mistress on a business trip and even gives the woman Linda's stockings. Happy is a whole other story. Happy was always less superior to his older brother Biff and because of this Willy seems to favorite Biff. Since in high school, Biff was the star football player and was always getting the girls, Willy would only pay attention to him. I think this is because he thought Biff would grow up to be very successful and since Willy wanted that for himself, he also wanted it for his son. Happy tries to get his attention endless amounts of times. He is constantly choosing Willy's side and standing up for Willy even though Willy doesn't seem to notice. One example of this is a flash back to when the two boys were in high school. Happy keeps saying "I'm losing weight pop, you notice?", looking for his father's acceptance and admiration, but instead Willy is too wound up in listening to Biff to care. Happy never expressed hatred or envy toward Biff, instead he tries to adapt Biff's way of living in high school. In high school Willy was always impressed by all the girls Biff had trailing behind him and also joked around with Biff about his stealing habits. Happy represents this by "stealing" other men's wives by sleeping with them.