Good Evening Friends,

We return to our examination of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Here we want to get to know the two sons of Willie Loman. There's Biff, who we have already met. He is the eldest son. He is the Golden Boy, High School Football Hero Quaterback. He is the focus of Willie's parenting efforts.

Biff is the one to whom Willie tries to transfer the spirit of Dave Singleman. But Singleman is the spiritual ancestor of Hap Loman, not Biff. We meet Biff as a thirty four year old man whose latest job is working with horses in Texas, and though he isn't supposed to, he enjoys the work. He enjoys the work so much that his dream - the correct dream for him - is to somehow scrape together enough money to buy a ranch of his own.

Biff is back at the Loman family home for a visit. He is bunking with his brother, Hap, in the old room - just like old times a very long time ago. Biff talks of the ranch and invites Hap to come along with him. At first, Hap seems to agree, and apparently squeals with delight. "The Loman brothers!" he declares.

"Sure, we'll be known all over the counties," Biff says, getting into the spirit.

We quickly learn that Hap's heart is not really into it, because he turns on a dime and invites Biff to move back to New York and share his apartment with him. Hap seems to think that he and Biff would make an admirable Cassanova team and that they would enjoy nightly orgies with beautiful women. I'm exaggerating - a little.

Who is Hap Loman?

He is the spiritual descendant of Dave Singleman, first of all. He is the second son of Willie Loman. He is the barely acknowledged child of Willie Loman. He is not a sports figure like Biff, but we get the idea that he, like his brother The Golden Boy, is vaguely cut from the same cloth in the looks department. He is a big, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, good looking brute, reasonably "well liked." But it is clear that he does not have the effortless charisma that his older brother, Biff, exudes like an aroma.

During Willie's flashback scenes to the period when they were young, we always notice Hap in the background, on his back, peddling his legs in the air saying, "I'm losing weight, pop. You notice?"

Of course, Willie never does. In fact, Willie is so far removed from his second son that Willie has, in effect, recreated the parental abandonment dynamic with Hap. In other words, just as Willie's father abandoned him when he was "just a baby," so has Willie, emotionally abandoned Hap.

He was never engaged with Hap. All the evidence from the text points to the fact that any attention Willie gave to Hap was spillover from the hero worship he slathered over Biff, The Golden Boy. So, at one point in the play when Linda Loman, Willie's wife, says "... he [Willie] put everything into you boys..."

Note the plural, "you boys." But we know that he assertion is simply not true in connection to Hap. At best Hap got Willie's leftover love.

By the way, how's this for the title of a sad country song?: "Don't Gimme Your Leftover Love!"

I'll finish this in the next post.

wingedcentaur