Impressions of the end of act 1

In the last few pages of act one, the audience learns that Willy has had thoughts of killing himself, the evidence being the car crash Willy was in which "wasnt an accident" and the "length of rubber pipe" found by Lynda. What's immediately clear as being starnge about the rubber pipe discovery is that she removes it but "puts it back where it was" "when he comes home". This is strange behaviour for someone who supposedly loves Willy, and gave me the impression that she possibly does this out of spite for his recent verbal mistreatment of her, and unconciously passes this off as guilt. She also exclaims how "his life is in your hands" to Biff, possibly to pass of some of the responsibility to him.
    Besides this occurence, the characters seem to be behaving as they have in the previous scenes of act 1. Willy is still deluding himself over his apparent popularity, e.g. describing himself as a "big shot". It is also seen when descussing Biff's meeting with Bill Oliver that Willy is still transfixed with the impression that "Personality always wins the day". Lynda is still being undermined by Willy, seen in the last scene of the act when she is being constantly blamed by Willy for interupting him. It is Biff who stands up for her in the end by saying "dont yell at her Pop, will ya"? This is befitting to both Lynda and Biff's characters that he is the one contradicting Willy while she does nothing. There is a point towards the very end of the act when Happy says, "Im gonna get Married". To which there is no reaction from any of the other characters. This is the second time this has occured in the act, namely the first one being when Happy describes how he has "lost weight" and similarly there is no responce. The most likely reason for Arthur Miller to include this dialogue for Happy is to cement the reason for Happy's clear attention seeking nature. Whether Happy is or isn't getting married is irrelevant, as its use as an extreme comment to which there is no reaction signifies that Happy may be seen as less important to Willy than Biff.
     The way that these characters maintain their individual idiosyncrasies so meticulously towards the end of act one suggests to me that one or more of them will show a big change in their personalities in act two, as this big change can now create a large juxtaposition with their original selves.

First impressions of Biff and Happy

The stage directions found on page 14, just before the scene depicting a conversation between Biff and Happy provides the audience with a general idea of the characters of Biff and Happy. Within these stage directions, the brothers are compared and contrasted, mainly regarding their current predicaments, i.e. they are both 'lost'. However, the stage directions also explain that Happy's position of being 'lost id "different" to Biff's, in that he has never "turned his face toward defeat". This suggests that Biff has seen "defeat". Defeat which is likely tied with the fact that "he has succeeded less", and why his "dreams", despite being "stronger" than Happy's, have not been realised.
       In the first few lines of dialogue, Happy is shown in a positive light, as the fact that he is "getting nervous" about Willy, suggesting he cares for his father. It appears however, based on Happy's question, "you're not still sour on Dad, are you Biff?", that Biff is tired of his father. This may be due to Biff acting selfishly as he feels his father's issues are taking precedence over his own, or he may just feel his father doesnt deserve the attention as he is just feeling sorry for himself.
       As the conversation progresses, it becomes apparent that Happy is actually more arrogant than caring, for example when describing a woman as "a pig". It also seems he is not particularly genuine, particularly when describing how he "controls" his "bashful" nature, and does so by putting on a 'front'.      
       Biff's lack of "self-assurance" is seen within the conversation as well as the stage diresctions, when he says to Happy, "I dont know what im supposed to want". This realisation seperates Biff from Happy as assembles him as an honest character, much unlike Happy's deceitful nature.

Arthur Miller

Hi-Hi  -  this is basically the only thing from waybuloo I can put on here.

Arthur Millar was born in October of 1915, in New York City, which is also the setting of two of his most recognised plays, A View from the Bridge, and, Death of a Salesman. Miller grew up into a moderately wealthy family, however his luck changed when his family came near to bankruptcy when his father lost his women's clothing business after the Wall Street crash of 1929. Miller discovered his talent for writing while studying journalism at university. There, he wrote his first play, No Villain, and reveived an award shortly after. Upon leaving university, Miller received an offer to work for 20th Century Fox, but this offer was quickly taken away by the US congress due to their beliefs that it had ties to communism for some reason.
   
    Miller wrote several plays for both radio and stage, but as i said he is most famous for three of his works:

Death of a salesman was written in 1949 and depicts the last days of a failing salesman who lives in New York City with his family. Death of a Salesman is well known for the stroy of its origin, in which Arthur Miller retreated to a log cabin with the first two lines of the play in his head and returned six months later with the completed play.
Another noted play by Arthur Millar is 'The Crucible', which is a dramatization of 'The Salem Witch Trials', a set of trials which attacked people the government believed were invloved in communist activities.
Miller also wrote 'A View from the Bridge', a tragic semi-love stroy set in Brooklyn, New York.

Arthur Miller lived an exiting life and was highly publicised thanks to his works and his marriage with Marilyn Monroe. Miller married three women in his lifetime but sadly divorced his third wife three years before his death in 2005.