The cause of Willy and his sons relationship to break down

In the drama Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, in the beginning of the book, seemed to have a fairly good relationship with his sons Biff and Happy. They all spent time together making fun of Charley's son Bernard because he was not very well liked and always seemed to be into his books. In addition, Willy got along with his son Biff because Biff was well liked and had male friends, was favoured by the girls in his high school amongst other places and he was a star football athlete for teh school. Willy as well as Biff believed that he had quite a future ahead of him and were working towards that together, which seemed like they were quite close. Even though Willy did not seem to pay much attention to Happy at times, and was more concerned with Biff, Happy never really seemed to mind, but instead went with the flow. But this was just the way it was before things seemed to go downhill for the seemingly content family.

Firstly, Willy's relationship between his son Biff seemed to be going downhill slowly but surely as he got older. This damage in the relationship first started out with Biff seeing his father with another woman in a hotel, giving off the impression that they were having an affair and he was cheating on his mother. This never recking sight caused Biff to change his mind about going to summer school to enhance his math grade and thus ruined his chances of attending the university of his dreams- University of Virgina.

In addition, after Biff left the house and was not heard from in a while, his absence led to even further damage to the relationship especially when he came back and lied about what he was doing and where he has been why he couldn't keep in contact. He was not really goign from job to job and always on the go in the way that Willy and Linda thought, but instead he was stealing and spent time in jail why they could not get through to him.

Moreover, the factor that really seemed to end the relationship between Willy and his son Biff was the mere fact that in the end Biff realised that lying to people, setaling and being well liked by people was not getting him anywhere and the idea of the "American Dream" that his father instilled in him and Happy from an early age was not going to get him anywhere. Biff thus broke away from what his father's aspirations for him were, and wanted to work hard and get somewhere in his life on his own by making an effort instead of being like his father and waiting for this big job offer to come and make his life a lot better. Biff was no longer clouded by the idea of such a dream.

When it comes to Willy's youngest son Happpy, their relationship it one that was quite interesting from the start. In the beginning Willy never really seemed to be concerned with Happy as much as he was concerned with Biff. Happy was therefore never really pressured or expected to do much since Willy was not focused on him as much and just went with the flow in life. This lack of attention from the beginning started making their relationship go down hill.

Furthermore, even though it may be said that Happy continued to have similar views as his father when it came to being well liked and making people think that you were doing well in the specific job that you were in, the lack of attention from early caused Happy to be even less concerned with his father as the years went by. This is made evident in the late stages of Scene 2 when Biff and Happty invited their father for lunch at a restaurant and Happy was not the least bit concerned that they left him there by himself while he was in the bathroom. Happy was more concerned with the lovely ladies he invited to sit down with them at the table. The lack of attention from the beginning ended up to be a major cause in the break down of Willy's relationship with Happy.

in addition, when focusing on Willy alone, it may also be argued that Willy's tragic flaw of have delusions and believing in the "American Dream" also had a part to play in the break down os the relationship between him and his sons. For him having delusions led to him slowly breaking down emotionally now and then and caused him not to think straight at times, and only hear what he wanted to hear. This caused problems for his relationships with his sons. For example, when Biff was trying to tell Willy the truth about him not being known by Oliver and not getting a job deal from him, Willy persisted to make it harder for him by telling him all the things he thought Oliver would have done when he saw him, instead of istening to what Biff had to say.

In conclusion, it may be submitted that there were many causes of the break down of the relationship between Willy and his sons. Willy's high expectations for Biff as well as him seeing his dad cheating on his mom and later realising that the "American Dream" was not the way to make it in life caused the relationship between Biff and Willy to breakdown. Secondly, the lack of attention from Willy to Happy played a part in breaking down their relationship, and lastly, Willy's tragic flaw of having delusions and believing whole heartedly in the "American Dream" also added to the break down of the relationship between him and his sons.