I just finished reading about half of Act I of Death of a Salesman, a play about a middleaged traveling salesman. When the play opens, the scene is the main charecter, Willy, coming home from another sales trip, and he is very late. His wife was worried, and he told her that he had to drife back very slowly because he was becoming so destracted while driving that he veered off the road multiple times. His wife, Linda, was scripted to love Willy even though he has a bad temper. In the next scene, the two sons, Biff and Happy are in bed but still awake. They spend the scene first taljing about Biffs frequent clashes with his father, but laterthey talk about what they want to do for a living. Biff works on a farm making $28 per week. Biff knows that he likes to work outdoors, and Happy agrees on the grounds that everybody in sales is too fake. They fall asleep, and the next scene opens with Willy in the kitchen, and he appears to be mocking his wife, and then he has a flashback. In the flashback, his sons are younger and Biff is getting ready for a football game. Willy and Linda go over the bills and income for that week, and they are $60 short. Willy is distraught and feels he is a bad salesman for many reasons. while his wife is comforting him, he has another flashback involving a similar conversation with a different woman. It seems as though Willy had an affair, but I can't be sure yet.
Biff and Happy in the flashback were almost in awe of their father, but in the present time, Biff doesn't like Willy, so something must've happened to cause the change in attitude. Also, Happy feels conflicted. On one hand, Happy is following in his fathers footsteps taking a job in sales, but he, like Biff, enjoys working outdoors. Also, Willy's affair will most likely cause a conflict later on in the play.