BIFF: What’s he say about me?
HAPPY: I think the fact that you’re not settled, that you’re still kind of up in the air…
BIFF: There’s one or two other things depressing him, Happy.
HAPPY: What do you mean?
BIFF: Never mind. Just don’t lay it all to me.
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. This passage deals with the conflict between Willy and Biff. When Biff asks if his father says anything bad about him, Happy explains that the reason for Willy’s unkindness to him is because Biff is aimless with no direction to his life. However, Biff suggests that there is more to Willy’s moodiness than that. Both brothers are right. Willy is upset over what he sees as Biff’s lack of progress in job and career, but Willy also feels a disappointment to himself and his family. Biff is also hinting that he knows something bad about his father, a secret he doesn’t share with Happy. We learn later that the teenage Biff walked in on Willy having an affair with a woman in a Boston hotel room. This revelation is foreshadowed here.