Good Evening Friends,

Who is Charlie (Uncle Charlie)? He is the next door neighbor and family friend of the Lomans. He is confidant of Willie. I think 'friend' would be too strong a word. Frankly, I saw no evidence in the play that Willie Loman had any friends or was even capable of making any friends, despite his zeal to be "well liked."

Charlie owns his own business. He is a man very much the antithesis of Willie. He does not care about selling himself. He is not a idealistic dreamer like Willie. He is down-to-earth and practical. He does not talk about what he's going to do or what he's done, he just does it. And this is one of the ethics he had apparently taught his one offspring, Bernard.

But we are interested in Charlie for another reason. There is a parallel dynamic at work between Charlie and Willie and Biff and Hap. You see, both Charlie and Biff make an offer to Willie and Hap, respectively, that Willie and Hap should have accepted.

But Willie and Hap do not because, for them, to have done so would have been the unacceptable admission of defeat. They would have to had to have acknowledged the complete futility of their lives up to that point. The situations were that serious!

I am spoiling the suspense, aren't I? No matter. Yes, Hap, the barely acknowledged second son is the one who is the reincarnation (and I can't stress this enough) of salesman Willie, the false self of Willie Loman. And it is Biff who is actually the reincarnation of the true self of Willie Loman.

In fact we can go further. Biff, as well as being the biological, is the spiritual grandson of Old Man Loman, Willie's father. Both Biff and Old Man Loman are both ne'er do wells (or they have that aspect about themselves.

You will recall that I theorized that the reason Old Man Loman moved around so much was that he was running from creditors. Biff has itchy fingers. He steals. At one point he tells Hap about an incident that occurred when he once worked for Bill Oliver, the sporting goods man.

Biff stole a crate of basketballs from Oliver. No reason for this is given. Biff was never sure if Oliver knew it was he that stole those basketballs. But Biff thought Oliver knew and so he quit before Oliver could fire him.

If I am right about Old Man Loman - and I think I am - then a third thing he and Biff have in common is there propensity to get themselves into trouble through some irresponsible behavior of some kind (having to do with goods and money) and flee the scene to avoid a confrontation or responsibility for their actions.

Hap, interestingly enough, but yet for obvious reasons, is the spiritual grandson of Dave Singleman - at least as Willie Loman had always idealized him. But then again, this is precisely what it means to be the spiritual descendant of someone.

Next time we shall say a word about Hap and also examine the transformation of Biff.

wingedcentaur