Death of a Salesman- Part 2

This post covers the second half of Act I (approximately pages 25-50) of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In this section, three new minor characters are introduced. These are "The Woman," (Willy's mistress from Biff's high school days), Charley (Bernard's father, the Lomans' neighbor), and Ben (Willy's older, more successful brother).
In this section, it is apparent that Willy's mental state is in rapid decline. He has several more hallucinations. The first hallucination is one revealing his affair with The Woman and that he gave her a gift of stockings. His guilt is apparent when he later scolds Linda for mending stockings. He is clearly trying to rid himself of guilt by convincing himself that he can provide adequately for his family. He also begins to mutter to himself and his hallucinations affect his everyday life. He is overtaken by guilt over his affair and regret over his life. He feels that if he had gone off with his brother Ben, he could have been much more successful.
Charley, one of the newly introduced characters, seems to be a well-meaning man. He offers Willy a job, even though it is doubtful that Willy would be an asset. He tries to be understanding about Willy's mental state.
As Willy's insanity is revealed, Linda's actions seem more and more sane. She acts as an enabler for Willy's actions but does so only for his well-being. She defends him to her boys, showing her loyalty.
Biff seems to distance himself more and more from his father. He describes his father as a fake. Presumably, this means that he recognizes how Willy lies to himself and refuses to see the truth. This shows that Biff is unwilling to lie to himself in the same way.
Happy, at this point, seems to be a static character. While Willy and Biff are fighting, he intervenes and brings up their sporting goods store idea. He still seems like his only desire is to equal himself to Biff in Willy's eyes.
This section of the book, while a bit more eventful than the first, still does not carry many significant plot events. Miller continues with characterization  and set-up for events to take place in the second act (Biff getting a loan, Willy talking to Howard). The plot seems to be building and the mystery about what happened between Biff and Willy to change Biff's attitude towards his father is becoming more significant.