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.
