seek to forge ahead by taking shortcuts to achieve his version of success. Willy's affair with the Woman not only eroded his marriage but also effectively destroyed Biff’s prospects through his reaction to learning about his father’s deception.

Although Linda was betrayed and has to scrimp and save as her husband’s income declines, she has warm memories of their early days together and bears witness to his good qualities, and her compassionate character forgives him. It is his two sons that suffer the most because, unfortunately, their temperament is too similar to his. Perhaps because both are male, they have been raised to be self-centered and to chase the elusive American dream. Rather than accept that the dream is a mirage, instead they blame their father for failing to achieve it. Even as they reject and mistreat him—such as when they leave him in the restaurant—they also imitate him, in privileging romance with a strange woman over loyalty to family. Overall, the characters do not benefit from Willy’s actions, in part because they do not understand what makes him tick, and they mistake his innocence for arrogance.

Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman effectively drags down everyone around him. His impact on his family is almost entirely negative, despite the love that holds them together.

Willy’s tendency to lie and to falsely present himself can be seen in both his son’s.

• First we find this in the case of Biff, who steals sports equipment. He steals because he feels he is entitled. His friend, however, suggests that this sense of right and wrong is not universal. There is a larger moral code that rules the world and which will crush any Loman who tries to stand up against it.
• In Happy, we can see Willy’s willingness to lie (and to cheat romantically) on display as Happy blithely and baldly lies to the woman at the restaurant. He inflates his own importance in the same way Willy does.

Though Willy doesn’t have many friends, he manages to both insult and rely upon his neighbor who offers Willy a job – which is refused, for pride – and who gives Willy small amounts of money to pay his bills.

In these ways we can see Willy’s negative effect on the people around him. However, Willy is also imbued with an ability to dream and to inspire, momentarily, a belief in himself. This is passed on the Biff and it is what lifts the spirits of the whole family, occasionally.

Throughout the play, Arthur Miller creates tension between the family members by illustrating their delusion, worry, and constant arguing. Happy and Biff continually disagree and fight as Happy portrays himself as an unreliable, habitual liar. Happy is more than willing to lie to his father and refuses to accept the reality of his situation. Linda is continually criticizing her sons for not supporting Willy and is worried about her husband's well-being. Biff cannot stand being around his father and tries his best to act amiably for his mother's sake. As was mentioned in the previous post, Miller's use of discord and tension reflect Willy Loman's failures both as a professional and father. Willy raised his boys to value appearance over substance and did not instill in them a sense of integrity. The tension between the characters also highlights Willy's unattainable expectations for his boys. They will never live up to their father's expectations and find it difficult to please Willy. Biff wishes to live in the country and work on a ranch but feels inadequate because he will not be paid enough. The problems that Biff, Happy, and Linda experience are directly linked to Willy Loman. Willy's delusional, pathetic character has created tension and discord for each member in his family. 

I think that Miller is able to construct a domestic situation full of tension and discord to underscore Willy's failure in the personal realm, as well as in the professional realm.  If Willy's family was happy and if he were to be a good father and husband, then he would have a realm into which he could retreat.  At the same time, it would give him a sense of balance from a personal point of view.  One of Miller's strongest elements of characterization is to show Willy as connecting to the modern individual in that he features a lack of balance.  His instability comes from the fact that he has failed to achieve anything in his dreams or his ideal, something that is rooted in a lack of balance.  For Willy, the presence of tension and discord in the family is reflective of yet again another realm in which he is a "zero."  Miller's use of developing this in the characters of the family helps to substantiate these feelings within Willy, and feed the desire to commit suicide as a way of becoming "something."  The use of tension and challenges within the family are ways in which Willy's character is developed.  The construction of a subjective world where there is tension helps to illuminate the total scope of shortcoming that confronts Willy.  Willy's own lack of reflection and rumination in this realm helps to substantiate this.

One of the largely unstated tensions in the family is Happy's failure to mature and his womanizing. He is the quintessential "cad", harboring no real or deep feelings for anyone and demonstrating this through his behavior with women. The notion that this is also true of Happy in relation to his family remains implied, but is a strong undercurrent in the play. 

Willy is unfaithful to Linda at one point. He does not admit this to Linda. Instead, the affair (discovered by Biff) remains a suppressed secret. Happy's flaws are similarly left un-discussed, creating a parallel between Willy and Happy. 

The emotional failures of Willy are reflected in those of Happy. Happy's character, in this way, helps to articulate Willy's weaknesses as a husband and father.

Biff's professional failures stem in part from his resentment against his father and also from Willy's successful attempts to inflate Biff's ego. Willy incessantly reminds Biff that he can be great, like his uncle. Fueled by this ego-boost, Biff allows himself to be fooled into believing he is better than he really is. This inflated sense of self paves the way for Biff's entitlement and exceptionalism, leading him to petty theft and self-betrayal.

Willy can be seen as subject to the same or similar dynamics as he insists that he was once a great and beloved figure up and down New England. He is fired as he espouses this belief to his boss. He is rebuked for espousing it to Charley. He fails, in the end, because he cannot help but believe it himself. 

The initial event of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the entrance of Willy Loman onstage, saying "oh boy, oh boy", after having nearly smashed his car during one of the long drives that he has to make as part of his job.

The first glimpse of family that we get in that specific event is the devotion of Willy's wife, Linda, as she also enters the stage in complete worry about her husband. In the stage directions Miller specifies and important fact:

Most often jovial, she has developed an iron repression of her exceptions to Willy's behavior- she more than loves him, she admires him, as though as his [flaws remind her] of the turbulent longings within him...which she shares but lacks the temperament and follow...

Here we have the quintessential married couple: one in which the man is the indisputable head of the household while the wife is the subservient being which vicariously experiences joy through the enjoyment of the "man's" world.  In this, Miller brings out the essence of the conservative and nuclear family. We also get a lot of the maternal and nurturing female role within a family made only of males. Linda seems to come to the rescue almost instantly as Willy comes in: she listens, commiserates, offers him cheese (repeatedly and in a way that would annoy any other person), and tends to him as if he were a child, and she were his mother.

Subsequently we learn about the presence of "the boys" in the house, who are visiting and staying in their childhood bedroom, bunking together as if they were children. Happy and Biff, both thirty-something, clueless, and not as productive, are at home for different reasons; Biff, because he again was pulled in by the need of re-organizing his life. Happy, because he was visiting as he does whenever he is bored, or feels lonely.

However, there is almost an instant understanding that "the boys", the father, and the mother all live in completely different circles of reality. Happy tells Biff about the dissatisfaction and shallowness of his life, while Biff confesses to his complete loss of "self". Linda reveals immediately to "the boys" about Willy's slow spiral into insanity, asking them not to say a word to Willy; in other words, Linda asks the children to follow her act with Willy. Then we have Willy, who is in a world of his own altogether. This sends a strong message about family: that, regardless of the outer appearances, a big and seemingly-united family can still be, individually, living "alone, together". Appearances can work well at hiding dysfunction, but the need to open up to sincerity and reality will be the ultimate salvation for the Lomans.

In the work of Arthur Miller, particularly in his masterpiece Death of a Salesman, the role of family plays a vital role. 

Willy's psychological weakness and eventual unwinding comes significantly from his personal relationship with his family members. His son Biff resents him for having cheated on Biff's mother (and Willy's wife) with a woman in Boston.

In Death of a Salesman, the Loman family serves as the basis for most of the drama that occurs. By letting us into this family and by allowing us to see the interactions between the family members, we are made part of the intimate relationship that makes up a family. As this intimacy crumbles under the weight of tension and drama, the play unfolds, and the disillusionment of Willy Loman is truly revealed. Willy causes pain to his sons through his half-baked ideas of pursuing the American Dream and also through his own infidelity. His sons, particularly Biff, in turn, cause pain to Willy himself, by not finding the success that he expects of him and, in Biff's case, by not loving him.

The family serves as an intimate portal into the drama of the American public. What happens behind closed doors at night is unknown to us, and Miller relishes in this thought. Like familial strife and Machiavellian backstabbing in some of the works of Shakespeare, Miller takes feuding family members and creates organic and thrilling drama.

The Lomans are portrayed as a dysfunctional family and live in a delusional fantasy world, where they are accomplished, successful individuals on the verge of experiencing a big break. Willy Loman is a depressed, mentally unstable salesman, who maintains contradicting beliefs about his two unsuccessful sons, Biff and Happy. One part of Willy views them as complete failures, while the other part of him firmly believes that they are destined for greatness. Willy struggles with his own failures as a salesman by reminiscing, making excuses, and contemplating suicide. Biff, Happy, and Linda all contribute to their family's dysfunction and Willy's delusion by supporting his unrealistic dreams and attempting to live up to his high expectations. For example, Happy continually lies to his father about his position at work and encourages Biff to lie about his meeting with Bill Oliver.

Initially, Biff subscribes to the imaginary "Florida idea" and fills Willy's head with delusional thoughts of grandeur. Both of Willy's sons attempt to appear like they are ambitious, determined men with a solid business plan, which could not be further from the truth. Happy is simply prepared to tell Willy anything that will put a smile on his face and has no intention of accomplishing the things he speaks about. Linda also helps Willy cope with his insecurities by continually replacing the rubber hose on the gas pipe and refusing to speak about his suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Essentially, the entire Loman family is content with living a lie and suppressing the truth to maintain appearances and please each other. Willy attempts to cope with his own failures by hallucinating, suppressing his negative emotions, contemplating suicide, and accepting his delusional perspective of the world.