Willy Loman
          Willy Loman  is the main character in the play, an insecure, self-deluded salesman (of unspecified goods). He is a victim of society, and his warped values are a reflection of that, but he never acknowledges or learns the errors of his ways. To the very end he is a devout believer in the ideology that destroys him. He maintains that life’s problems can be solved by making oneself “well-liked.” His failure to achieve self-realization is atypical of the tragic hero. Probably the real tragedy is his inability to recognize the deep anguished love offered to him by his family and to be redeemed by it. His sacrifice is his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream.

Willy is someone well-known to Miller. He simultaneously hated and admired his own father, who had suffered financial ruin in the Depression. Miller was annoyed by his father’s inability to recover emotionally and economically from this catastrophe, but was also able to appreciate the man’s inner goodness and capacity for love.  This ambivalence toward his father lies at the core of many of the father figures in his plays.

          The other important model for Willy was Miller’s uncle, Manny Newman, also a salesman. He had a wild imagination, liked to brag and maintained a continuous sense of competition between his nephew (Miller) and his own sons. Newman was also prone to black moods and bouts of despair and it is believed that he committed suicide. After a conversation during which Newman abruptly changed subjects, Miller got the idea to write a play without transitions, in which the dialogue would flow from one scene to another without apparent breaks.

 

Biff Loman
          Biff is the elder son, who led a charmed life in high school as a football star with prospects for scholarships and good friends. He failed math and did not graduate, thus not fulfilling his father’s ambitions for him. In some ways, he represents Willy’s vulnerable and poetic side. He needs to break away from Willy’s expectations, and is compelled to seek the truth about himself and to confront failure. He longs for the freedom of the West to escape his father’s blind faith in materialism. When Biff catches Willy in his hotel room with The Woman, he loses faith in his father, as well as his dream of passing math and going to college.

 

Happy Loman
          He is Willy’s younger son, who has lived in the shadow of Biff all of his life, but has compensated by his relentless sex drive and professional ambition. He represents Willy’s sense of self-importance and devotion to society’s expectations, to some extent also embodying the dark side of the American Dream. He also shares Willy’s capacity for self-delusion – a doomed, utterly deceived figure.

 

Linda Loman
          She is Willy’s loyal, loving wife, who suffers through his grandiose dreams and self-delusions. Sometimes she seems taken in by his hopes for glory, but usually she seems far more realistic and less fragile than her husband. She has nurtured the family through it all. Along with their neighbor Charley, she serves as a force of reason and is probably the most enigmatic and complex character in the play, and maybe even in all of Miller’s work. It can be said that she represents the emotional core of the drama.

 

Charley
          The Loman’s next-door neighbor, Charley owns a successful business and his son, Bernard is a successful lawyer. Willy is jealous of Charley’s success, but still regards him as his only friend. Charley can be seen to function as a kind of poetic prophet or sage, much like Tiresias, the mythological seer in the Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle. His analysis of Willy’s circumstances is logical, and grounded in practical considerations. The job he offers Willy is a commonsense solution.

 

Bernard
          Charley’s son and successful lawyer, Bernard was always mocked by Willy for studying hard. In spite of this, Bernard has always liked and admired Biff and Happy. Bernard’s success is difficult for Willy to accept because his own sons’ lives do not measure up.

 

Ben
          He is Willy’s older brother, who has recently died and appears in Willy’s “daydreams.” Willy regards him as a symbol of the success that he desperately craves for himself and his sons.

 

The Woman
          She is Willy’s mistress during the time that Happy and Biff were in high school. She is someone who boosts his fragile ego. When Biff catches Willy in the hotel room with her, he loses faith in his father, and also in his own dream of going to college.

 

Howard Wagner
          He is Willy’s boss, who had inherited the company from his father, regarded as “a masterful man” and “a prince,” by Willy. Although much younger than Willy, Howard treats him with condescension and eventually fires him. Miller presents him as the epitome of the hard-hearted businessman.