Biff is the brother of Happy and the older son of Willy and Linda Loman. Biff and Happy had always looked up Willy and Biff had been especially close to his father. Biff is so devoted to following his father’s dreams he never bothers to think for himself and find out what he wants to do with his life. In fact, as the play reveals flashbacks of Biff’s youth, it is hard to figure out where Willy ends and where Biff begins. They seem to be two halves of the whole. Later in Biff’s life, something goes terribly wrong in his relationship with his father. The play through a series of flashbacks traces the decline of this relationship.
At the beginning of the play, when Biff is 34 years old, he and his mother would have quarrels about his father with Biff getting annoyed with his father and yelling at him and his mother defending his father saying that Willy would think about nothing but the happiness and interests of both him and Happy. There is a certain tension between the older man and Biff. Willy is unhappy that Biff has not settled down even at 34. Biff admits to being mixed up. He tells his brother, “I tell ya, Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know-- what I’m supposed to want”. (Act I) He confesses that he liked working on a farm and in the great open spaces, but then he thinks to himself “And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not getting anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week!...everytime I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my time.” (Act I)
Initially, it seems as though Biff does not care for an aging man who seems to be unappreciated at work and is suffering emotional and physical trauma. The climax of the play occurs in the scene when Biff finds out about his father’s infidelity. Willy had affairs in his travels unbeknownst to his wife because he was lonely and he thought nobody appreciated the “work” that he did for his company. At that point, Biff cannot rely on his father’s judgment or perception of life. Even though Biff and Happy looked up to their father, Willy never was able to instill the right kind of morals and decencies that children should be able to understand and told them that the ends justify the means Despite the fights with Biff and his father, Biff never tells his mother the affairs his father has at work. Biff, like Willy, has been known to resort to theft such as stealing footballs from coaches or steal lumber from the construction yard at the instigation of his father. But when he realizes that Willy betrayed his wife, he loses his confidence. He becomes a thief and he does jail time. “I stole myself out of every good job since high school”, he informs his father (Act II). At the end of the play, Biff comes to terms with himself. “I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” (Act II) he tells his father. There are no great dreams to chase, and he realizes he doesn’t even have to be liked. “Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” he pleads with his father. In a way, he does get through to Willy and perhaps Willy unburdens himself of the guilt of betrayal by crashing his car so Biff could have the insurance money.
