willy is also delusional as he constantly sees and hears his older more successful brother, ben. ben constantly ridicules him as he does to himself for not taking the opportunity to go to alaska with him.
he may also be suffering from alzheimer as he constantly forgets things that he has just said or done. he is also seen on many occasions reliving moments from the past and communicating with figments of his imagination.
willy is not a very good role model for his sons. when they were young and stole limber from a construction site, instead of punishing them, he encourages them. wily is also verbally abusive to his wife linda, telling her to shut up more than once when she tried to contribute to a conversation he was having with his sons.
linda - this is willy's wife and mother of his two sons. she is quite loyal as she is not seen associating with other males in the book. she loves her husband as can be seen when she attempts to get rid of biff because he is upsetting his father with his presence. also, at the funeral, she keeps asking why no one came. this shows that she expected her husbands many "friends" to be there.
she is very docile. linda does not contradict her husband in anyway even though he contradicts himself. she supports and agrees with his every utterance. in my opinion, she does not seem very confident in herself as she is so "hung-up" on willy. she keeps track of all the bills and when they seem high, willy yells at her and she simply takes it.
charley - he is willy's neighbor and seemingly, his only friend. he helps willy when money is low by giving him $50 every week because he is not making sales. he even offers him a job, which willy refuses because of his pride. he is not very fond of willy but he recognizes his need and seeks to assist him.
ben - this is willy's older much more successful brother. he is consantly seen in the play as a huge influence on willy. willy keeps repeating that his brother "walked into the forest and walked out rich". this assists in giving willy a skewed vision on what success is as he now believes that there is reall no hard work involved.
the woman - this is a woman who willy has an affair with while on one of his trips to boston. she helps to disillusion biff as after finding out about the affair he realizes his father i a fake. she essentially ruins biff's high opinion of his father.
biff- thisw is willy oldest and favorite son. he is confident that his son will be a success, just like his father. when biff was in high school he was very proud when his friends all followed him and did whatever he said. this proved that ben was "well liled" an essential quality for a man to have according to willy.
biff has the highest admiration for his father. this is however ruined after he finds out that his father is cheating on his mother while away on his business trips. he realizes that his father has instilled in him useless values and that is father is a fraud. he eventually confronts his father, forcing him to realize that he has the wrong view of what success really is and that it is essentially his fault his sons are unsuccessful.
happy - happy is the younger son. he believes everything his farther says and tries his hardest to emulate him. as a man he is not very successful as he is an assistant to an assistant. he however is "well liked" especially by the women. he however lies without guilt to get the women and seem to be fine with it.
happy does not recognize his father for what he is as biff does. instead he tries to be just like him. involving himself in scams to get rich.
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