Biff is going to force his father to recognize a few things :

• Willy is a coward : he intends to commit suicide with a rubber pipe. But Biff takes it off : "Allright phony ! Then let’s lay it on the line." (p.103)

• Biff makes a painful revelation : "I stole a suit in Kansas City and I was in jail." (p.104). All his father’s ambitions are ruined.

• Willy is under the illusion he will make money and rise in society. What Biff pushes Willy to accept is that they are simple ordinary people : they are "a buck an hour". There is no need to build castles in the air and to lie to oneself.

When Biff and Willy are about to fight, the dramatic tension turns into high emotional pitch because emotion prevails : Biff bursts into tears and holds on to Willy. It is an important stage in the play when Willy becomes aware that his son has never stopped loving him. Willy is reinforced in his determination to pass on a legacy : his life insurance.

Biff has not changed his projects (go back West and run a ranch). He seems to have learn no lesson and he is committed to searching through movement and space what he could find in relationships. Going West is a way of escaping reality and the changing world. He praises his father and his manual abilities : what he likes is not the fighting man but the figure of a settler who built his house.

http://www.skyminds.net/american-literat...

Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

Study Guides

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It's been awhile since I've read this play and seen the movie with Dustin Hoffman, but I do remember this scene well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in a prior scene doesn't he tell his boy who's having an interview not to pick up a dropped pen. "They have office boys for that." Interesting that later he doesn't take his own advice and picks up a pen his boss drops. I think by stealing the pen he feels like he has some control over what happens in his life despite everyone else apparently telling him what to do.