Linda is passively supportive and docile when Willy talks unrealistically about hopes for the future, although she seems to have a good knowledge of what is really going on.
Linda Loman: Willy’s loyal and loving wife. His first name, Willy, reflects this childlike aspect as well as sounding like the question “Will he?” His last name gives the feel of Willy’s being a “low man”, someone who will not succeed however, this popular interpretation of his last name was dismissed by Miller. Willy’s age and degrading mental state has him appear childlike and reliant on others for support, coupled with his recurring flashbacks to various moments of his life. He vacillates between different eras of his life throughout the play, and re-imagines them as if they were real. He is 63 years old and unstable, insecure, and self-deluded. William “Willy” Loman: The titular salesman. Happy, on the other hand, chooses to follow in his father’s footsteps, while Linda laments her husband’s decision just before her final payment on the house. At the funeral, Biff retains his belief that he does not want to become a businessman like his father. The ambiguities of mixed and unaddressed emotions persist, particularly over whether Willy’s choices or circumstances were obsolete. The final scene takes place at Willy’s funeral, which is attended only by his family, Charley and Bernard (who does not speak during the scene). Willy exits the house, and Biff and Linda cry out in despair as the sound of Willy’s car blares up and fades out. In Willy’s mind, Ben “approves” of the scheme Willy has dreamed up to take his own life in order to give Biff his life insurance money to help him start a business. Rather than listen to what Biff actually says, Willy appears to believe his son has forgiven him and will follow in his footsteps, and after Linda goes upstairs to bed, lapses one final time into a hallucination, thinking he is talking to his long-dead brother Ben. The argument reaches an apparent climax as Biff hugs Willy and begins to cry as he tries to get Willy to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Biff conveys plainly to his father that he is not meant for anything great, insisting that both of them are simply ordinary men meant to lead ordinary lives. Biff tries to reconcile with Willy, but the discussion quickly escalates into another argument. When they later return home, Linda angrily confronts them for abandoning their father while Willy remains outside, talking to himself. From that moment, Biff’s views of his father changed and set him adrift.īiff leaves the restaurant in frustration, followed by Happy and two girls that Happy picked up, leaving a confused and upset Willy behind. Biff did not accept his father’s cover-up story, and angrily dismissed him as a liar and a fake before storming out. Willy was in the middle of an extramarital affair with a receptionist, when Biff arrived unexpectedly at the hotel room, and saw the woman, who was half-dressed. Biff tries to tell him what happened as Willy gets angry and slips into a flashback of what happened in Boston the day Biff came to see him: Willy had been in Boston for work, and Biff went to visit him to ask Willy to convince his teacher to curve Biff’s failing math grade. Happy tries to get Biff to lie to their father. 
Happy, Biff, and Willy meet for dinner at a restaurant, but Willy refuses to hear the bad news from Biff. Charley then reluctantly gives the now-unemployed Willy money to pay off his life-insurance premium, and Willy shocks Charley by remarking that ultimately, a man is “worth more dead than alive.” Charley then offers Willy a do-nothing job, but Willy repeatedly refuses. Bernard tells him that Biff originally wanted to go to summer school to make up for failing math, but something happened in Boston when Biff went to visit his father that changed his mind. Willy then goes to the office of his neighbor Charley, where he runs into Charley’s son Bernard, who is now a successful lawyer. Willy then loses his temper and ends up getting fired when Howard tells him he needs a long rest and is now no longer allowed to represent the Wagner Company, while Biff waits hours to see a former employer who does not remember him and turns him down.
Howard boldly refuses to give Willy a New York job, despite Willy’s desperate pleas. The next day, Willy goes to ask Howard for a job in town while Biff goes to make a business proposition, but they both fail.
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