![]() However, when Biff, in an unfortunate series of events, discovers that Willy has been having an affair with a strange woman, his world comes crashing down. ![]() Biff initially believes in his father’s lies and thus takes part in his delusionary world, simultaneously developing the same habit of over glorifying his reality and counting his chickens before they hatch. This justification of Biff’s actions later develops in Biff a compulsive tendency to steal, due to which he also later ends up spending three months in jail. When Willy learns that Biff has stolen a basketball from the school locker room, he laughs at his theft and further encourages it saying ,”Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative.” It is seen that Willy encourages Biff and takes his side even when he is wrong. His attractive, masculine features make him popular in the school, adding to his self-confidence and pride. He is always praised and congratulated by his father, due to which he develops an exalted sense of self. Willy adores him and has great hopes and aspirations for him, and Biff too idolizes his father and sees him as a perfect role model. He always stands at the center of his world he has a commanding presence and a full, resonant voice.As a teenager, Biff seems to be the apple of Willy’s eye. Ben (approximately mid-50s when we see him in 1928), Willy’s elder brother, is the voice of authority and absolute confidence, depicted as Willy remembers and admires him, the man who walked into the jungle and emerged wealthy and powerful. He has the insight and the compassion that some of the other characters lack. Bernard* (early 30s) is Charley’s son, the nerdy smart kid in high school and the object of the Loman boys’ derision who has grown up to become a quietly successful attorney. Charley* (about Willy’s age) is the next-door neighbor who has made a matter-of-fact success in a business similar to Willy’s, a pragmatic man who has learned to have no illusions but who has treated Willy with unfailing although unsentimental generosity. He has always wanted to be more than he is, but he’s either unable or unwilling to do what’s necessary. Happy Loman* (a couple of years younger than Biff) comes across as a smooth-talking operator and outright liar, but much of the challenge of the role involves finding the integrity in the character and in his vision of himself and the world. A central action of the play involves Biff’s struggle to come to terms with his own situation and to get his father to understand who he really is. Biff Loman* (early 30s) was a football hero in high school (in 1932) but is now confronting the truth that he’s lost, that he hasn’t been able to reconcile his values, as learned from his father, with the less ambitious, less accomplished adult he now realizes he’s become. She probably has few illusions, but she has decided to accept what she cannot change. We see her soothing Willy, no matter how childish or irrational his behavior and we see her denouncing her sons to their faces, so she is alternately sympathetic and assertive. Linda Loman* (not quite 60) has made a life of doing whatever’s necessary to protect her husband and hold her family together her love of her husband and sons is sincere and unreserved. In any encounter, his first impulse is to get the other person to like him. We need to find the full range from his joyful confidence in the validity of his convictions to his sense that, as he puts it, “the woods are burning.” Even when he takes his own life, at the end of the play, he does so not out of despair but in order to ensure what he regards as Biff’s inevitable triumph. Willy Loman* (early 60s) is the salesman, a man staring into the abyss but never fully letting go of his dream of dazzling success for himself and his sons. ![]() The point is less an actor’s actual age and more in what s/he can play. Download Death of a Salesman cast information and more Voice Lecture notes in PDF only on Docsity!Death of a Salesman cast information The following lists the characters’ ages usually in what the play offers as the “present,” or 1949, but remember that there are extended flashbacks to 19, so six of the actors (see characters marked with asterisks) will play their characters’ younger selves as well.
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