Death of a Salesman (Act I)

The setting of the story takes place in the home of Willy and Linda Loman. Willy is an older man in his sixties and is a struggling business man. In his old age, he has began experiencing dementia, causing him to have memory loss and contradict himself quite frequently. Although he is not a very successful salesman, Willy is preoccupied with "success" and being "well-liked" by others. Many times throughout Act I, Willy emphasized the importance of being well-liked to his two sons, Biff and Happy. Both Biff and Happy haven't really matured over the years; they are both living at home and are always struggling to find their own "success," just like their father. Even before Biff appears in the story, the reader becomes aware of the constant conflict between Biff and his father. The reason for the ongoing conflict between the two is because Biff keeps failing to live up to his father's expectations of himself. Toward the end of Act I, Linda reveals to her sons that their father is dying and at one point says that Willy's life is in the hands of Biff. She will not stand for Biff to stay in their house if he continues to disrespect his father and make him upset. Concerned by this, Biff decides to go into business with the help of a former boss, Bill Oliver. This pleases Willy and he gives him advice on how to impress Bill during the interview, during which he contradicts himself many times. Act I ends with Willy and Linda discussing how successful Biff was at sports in high school. They are convinced that someone who was once so great couldn't just fade away; Biff would surely be successful someday.
This story was a little hard to follow because it was written in the form of a play. It was hard to decipher when Willy was experiencing dymensia and reminiscing of if the action is actually occurring in the present tense. I didn't understand who the woman was that Willy was talking to. Was it young Linda? Was Willy's brother, Ben, really there or was he just reminiscing about a visit he once had with him? One of the underlying themes of the story that I started to pick up on was the endless desire to be successful and well-liked. Why didn't Biff end up going to college to play football? Did he graduate from high school? Willy is one of those parents who didn't accomplish what they wished to in their lives, so they try to live through their kids' lives. This is a big contributing factor to the main conflict of the story between Willy and Biff. Another conflict takes place in the story as well, Willy vs. circumstances. This I though this story started off a little slow, but I'm hoping it will start to pick up.