Is Biff A Success Or Failure Essay

365 Words2 Pages
Biff has learned or at least acknowledged the truth about his own life and his father’s life. He learns that he is nothing and no one but may be someone one someday. Throughout the play Biff has adored Willy; he believed his father’s stories and accepted his father’s philosophy which was that a person will be successful if he is “well-liked”. Biff was taught to do whatever it took to be successful even stealing and cheating. Prior to his trip to Boston everything changed he saw that his dad was a fake which meant that Biff was also a fake too. Biff at this point only knew what his father, Willy has taught him, therefore making Biff a failure just like Willy. Throughout the play Biff learns the hard way that his father’s lessons on life only would bring failure to Biff. In the end Biff does realize that both Biff and Willy are failure and are nothing.…show more content…
This is rather noticeable in the conversation at the end of the play with Biff and Willy. Biff tells his father that they are both “a dime a dozen” and that neither of them is “a leader of men.” Biff essentially admits that him and his father are both failures and are worth nothing. Although Biff does believe that someday he may be someone. “When all I want is out there waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” Biff knows as long as he does not follow the advice from Willy he may be someone. As Biff understands how destructive his father’s lifetime of denial has been for both of them. “I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop.... Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” This last conversation between Willy and Biff establishes that Biffs knows and has learned that he and his father are both failures. Biffs words in his conversation are quite true; they also foreshadow Willy’s death in the
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