In "Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller masterfully illustrates the mindset of the play's disillusioned, turbulent characters. Although Willy Loman, a mediocre salesman for the Wagner company, is the salesman of the title it is his son, Biff, who provides the conflict which drives the play forward. He is an aging twenty-something with dreams of running a cattle ranch despite his father's desire for him to become a successful businessman. Ultimately, it is the will of the heart that truly defines success.
Before we can know Biff, we must know his progenitor. Willy Loman is an over-the-hill salesman of no real skill who based his entire career around a man he used to know (whose selling skills were far superior to Willy's) before he died. When buyers from around the nation turned out for the funeral, Willy determined that this was what he wanted out of life and diligently tried to follow in his footsteps. In truth, Willy's true passion was to be able to work with his bare hands and because of this he was a very skilled carpenter, although he would never admit it. He often preached to his boys about his self-deluding doctrine that success can be achieved merely through personal attractiveness and being well-liked by many people. This led to some problems later on.
Biff Loman was a star athlete in high school with multiple scholarships for athletics. He never went to college, though. He had flunked math in his senior year and never went to summer-school; it was mostly an act of spite against his father. Instead, he traveled around the West working on ranches raising cattle and horses. However, he had an unprofitable penchant for stealing his way out of every job he ever took in his fourteen years since high school, a penchant which landed him some jail time for his petty thievery. In this stretch of time, he and his father grew more and more distant from each other (contributing to Willy's encroaching insanity) over the simple matter of monetary success.
