Death of a Salesman Group

Question:

naraetyler
naraetyler
Student
College - Sophomore

What sort of person is Happy in "Death of a Salesman"?

is he inherited from Willy?

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Posted by naraetyler on Friday December 5, 2008 at 8:06 AM and tagged with characters, death of a salesman, happy.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    Happy is the younger of Willy Loman's sons. He grew up in the shadow of Biff and he although he seems happy, as his name suggests, he still is somewhat hostile. He is in his early 30's when the play occurs and is somewhat of a womanizer. In the end, Biff realizes his father's failures but Happy wants to show everyone that Willy's death was not meaningless. He says,,"I'm gonnashow you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have—to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him." This suggests that his life may end up as unhappy as Willy's ultimately was.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/death-salesman

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    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Friday December 5, 2008 at 11:58 AM

  2. mkopil
    mkopil Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    Happy is the younger son of Willy Loman. He has always stood in the shadow of his older brother Biff. We see this in the flashback when Biff is the star athlete and Happy is trying to get his father's attention, and we see it in the present when the boys meet the girls in the restaurant and Happy pretends that he and Biff are more important men than they really are. Happy has become very much like his father who cannot deal with the fact that he has not been successful because he is not personally attractive.

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    Posted by mkopil on Friday December 5, 2008 at 12:33 PM