Willy's Immaturities

Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, is about the dysfunctional Lowman family. The family consists of salesman father Willy, homemaker mother Linda, son and sports star Biff, and youngest son and daddy’s boy Happy. It became apparent through the course of the story, that the “Men” of the story were actually boys. By analyzing the males of this story the reasons for their immaturities become clear.

The first one to look at is Willy the father and patriarch of the family. Looking at a lot of his behaviors and the choices he makes throughout the story it’s not hard to see why he would be classified as immature. From his infidelities and his tendency to throw fits when he doesn’t get what he wants to his stubbornness about his job and financial situation. There is a quote by Biff that sums up Willy’s downfall the resulted from the immaturity that he carried all through his life. “He had all the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.”(Miller1775)

The next one to look at is the youngest son Happy. It can be seen throughout the story that he longs to for approval from his father and in a way wants to emulate him. This along with his womanizing ways and tendencies to always promise that he will settle down and get married show that he is an immature person. There is something that

Unlike his father and brother Biff ends up changing by the end of the story. He was always the apple of his father’s eye being the sport star of the family. But, after failing high school and finding out about his father’s infidelities his went downhill. His actions of not going back to finish school and disregard for authority showed his immaturity. Although he started out as immature by the end of the story he had stood up to his father and decided to take charge of his life. This showed that he was beginning to blossom into a man. A quote that showcases this change starting within Biff is “I know who I am! Why can’t I say that”