5.3.1
Uncle Ben
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Ben Loman
Despite having died just a few weeks before the events we see unfolding, Ben’s role in the play is crucial.
Influence
- Willy’s brother, Ben, has died just weeks before the actual events of the play.
- This partly helps to explain why Ben is in Willy’s mind so much.
- However, it is fair to assume that Ben has always been a powerful influence on Willy’s life and, as the play progresses, we see how destructive an effect he has had on Willy and his family.
Idealised memories
- Willy’s memory of Ben seems to be based on a single visit made to New York when Biff and Happy were boys.
- Willy barely knows Ben as his brother left home while Willy was still young, he has brought up a family of his own (a wife and seven sons) in Africa.
Idolising Ben
- However, Ben’s role in the play is crucial.
- Willy idolises him and his achievements, drawing the lesson that success is built through personal qualities such as courage, fearlessness and daring rather than the respectable route taken by Charley & Bernard (involving discipline, hard work and modesty).
The pioneer/entrepreneur
- Ben represents the spirit of the adventurer and pioneer/entrepreneur who seizes any chance given through force of personality and a fierce competitive instinct (seen in his tussle with Biff: “Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way”).
The jungle
- The reference to the jungle recalls to the mind the phrase ‘the law of the jungle’ – suggesting the need to be ruthless in a dog-eat-dog world.
- And, in a play with little ‘action’ (until the end), Ben’s sudden assault on Biff, tripping him over and then towering over him, his umbrella pointing at Biff’s eye, is violent and shocking.
Linda
- Miller’s stage directions tell us that Linda is “frightened” of Ben, and with good cause: she can sense that Ben is a malign (harmful) influence on Willy, fuelling Willy’s impossible dreams.
Ben's Influence
Ben helps develop the plot of the play, particularly as Willy contemplates suicide at the end of Act 2.
Destructive influence
- At the end of Act Two, Ben appears as an almost sinister figure, apparently approving of Willy’s self-destruction (“Yes, outstanding, with twenty thousand behind him”).
Confidant
- By this stage, Ben exists outside Willy’s memories: although dead, and having lived most of his life thousands of miles away, Willy in his state of mental collapse feels he has no one else to turn to (“I’ve got nobody to talk to, Ben…”).
- Ben is Willy’s confidante in the darkest moments of his life.
Blurred reality
- One of the most disturbing aspects of Ben’s appearances is that he often enters while Willy is talking to another character. - At these moments we see that Ben is just as real to Willy as the other figures on stage (e.g. during the card game with Charley in Act One).
Reassurance
- Willy is desperate for reassurance and during each of Ben’s appearances he asks for his advice or opinion: on raising Biff & Happy, the suitability of selling as a career and on the advantages of suicide.
Abandonment
- However, Ben remains an enigmatic (mysterious) character and, obsessed with time, he hurries away without ever fully answering Willy, repeating the act of abandonment suffered by Willy early in his life, from both father and brother.
“Success incarnate”
Ben is less a person to Willy (and Miller) than the embodiment of an ideal, and one which Willy can never live up to.
Blurred memories
- Ben is perhaps the least realistic and most artificial of all the play’s characters.
- His appearances seem to be based more on Willy’s idealised image of his brother rather than on actual memory.
Ben's language
- Towards the end of the play especially, Ben’s language is often symbolic rather than natural, with his advice, “It’s dark there, but full of diamonds”, a particularly chilling example.
- The “dark” symbolises Willy’s death; the “diamonds” are the proceeds of Willy’s insurance policy.
- It is Ben’s presence which encourages Willy to take his own life.
Staging
- Miller also often uses lighting and music to emphasise Ben’s otherness: “In accents of dread, Ben’s idyllic music starts up”.
- Ben’s theme tune has, by the end of the play, turned into a funeral march.
“Success incarnate”
- Willy at one stage refers to Ben as “success incarnate” (success in human form) and this is perhaps the truth of Ben: he is less a person to Willy (and Miller) than the embodiment of an ideal.
- As such, it is impossible for Willy to live up to his example, meaning that Willy is always doomed to failure.
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
11Recap: Main Quotes
11.1Characters Quotes
11.2Quotes by Act
11.2.1Act One: Key Events 1-3 Quotes11.2.2Act One: Key Events 4-6 Quotes11.2.3Act One: Key Events 7-9 Quotes11.2.4Act One: Key Events 10-12 Quotes11.2.5Act One: Stage Direction Quotes11.2.6Act One: The Woman Quotes11.2.7Act Two: Key Events 1-2 Quotes11.2.8Act Two: Key Events 3-4 Quotes11.2.9Act Two: Key Events 5-6 Quotes11.2.10Act Two: Key Events 7-8 Quotes11.2.11Act Two: Key Events 9-10 Quotes11.2.12Act Two: Howard's Office Quotes11.2.13Act Two: The Requiem Quotes
Jump to other topics
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
11Recap: Main Quotes
11.1Characters Quotes
11.2Quotes by Act
11.2.1Act One: Key Events 1-3 Quotes11.2.2Act One: Key Events 4-6 Quotes11.2.3Act One: Key Events 7-9 Quotes11.2.4Act One: Key Events 10-12 Quotes11.2.5Act One: Stage Direction Quotes11.2.6Act One: The Woman Quotes11.2.7Act Two: Key Events 1-2 Quotes11.2.8Act Two: Key Events 3-4 Quotes11.2.9Act Two: Key Events 5-6 Quotes11.2.10Act Two: Key Events 7-8 Quotes11.2.11Act Two: Key Events 9-10 Quotes11.2.12Act Two: Howard's Office Quotes11.2.13Act Two: The Requiem Quotes
Practice questions on Uncle Ben
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 1When did Ben Loman die?Multiple choice
- 2Ben Loman's life:True / false
- 3Matters Willy seeks advice on from Ben:Fill in the list
- 4What is Ben's character obsessed with?Multiple choice
- 5Miller's use of music:Fill in the list
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