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Both Fences and Death of a Salesman occur in the late 1940’s to 1950’s. At this time after World War II, American women developed a role of homemakers. Many women acted as subordinate housewives within this time, and Linda and Rose are no exception. While the women do portray characters that are typical homemakers, they challenge this idea with each of their positions at the end of the plays. Each woman evolves from the stereotypical housewife to an independent, self relying woman throughout the story.
In Death of a Salesman, Linda spends the entirety of the play covering up for Willy and justifying his action to their sons. The play opens with a tired Willy confused and dazed after a long business trip. Linda wakes up and immediately starts assisting him because he is too dazed to
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do so himself.
Linda blames everyone but Willy for his insanity, including their son Biff. Linda is so loyal to Willy at the beginning of the play that she is willing to throw her own son under the bus if it means defending Willy. Linda states that Willy only becomes distraught when Biff is around because Happy has disappointed his father so much. Biff views his mother as very fragile but still respects her as the lady of the house. He comments on how grey her hair has gotten, adding to her frail image. Linda is a pacifist who is unable to defend herself. Linda is never seen anywhere other than the house in the play, adding to the “homemaker” idea of this time period. She is always waiting for Willy when he gets home and dutifully keeps the house in order. She is constantly folding laundry or cooking, stereotypical woman ideals. When she buys a new type of cheese, Willy gets honestly angry with her because he does not like change and this
alone forces Linda into a more submissive position from the audience’s perspective. When Biff is telling his father of a prospective job opportunity he is trying to have lined up, Willy becomes excited and when Linda tries to pitch in with encouraging motherly comments like “I’ll make a big breakfast” Willy shuts her down immediately telling her to “Shut up” so he can tell Biff how to nail the job, which is ironic because Willy is no longer a successful businessman and is not credible with “nailing the job”. Linda reveals her knowledge of Willy being suicidal but will not confront him about it because she’s “too embarrassed” to mention it to him. This shows her weakness as not only just a woman, but as a person in general. She would rather walk on eggshells with Willy and worry about his suicidal thoughts than try to help him. This leads to Willy’s ultimate ending as he, in a daze-like state, dies. It takes Willy dying for Linda to see that she could survive without him. Linda spent most of their marriage keeping track of the finances and balancing the house while all Willy did was simply earn the money, which he did not do well. One of Linda’s last lines reveals that she made the last house payment on their house and that its fully theirs, but there is now no one to live in it. Linda does not cry when Willy inevitably dies the death of a salesman, likely because her heart is almost relieved to not have to live with the stress of a distraught husband anymore. While Death of a Salesman certainly does not have a happy ending, a sense of rebirth is felt with Linda’s character when the play is over. She is more empowered and somehow the audience knows she will be better off and sympathy for a woman who has just lost her husband is not felt. In Fences, the play opens with Rose being seens as almost a sex object as Troy kisses her passionately and can not keep his hands off of her. It goes beyond the lines of a man who adores his wife and more into the territory of a disrespect for his wife. Rose has stood by her husband as they’ve struggled financially but still keeps him in check as well. Literal Roses in literature typically represent love, desire or lust. This is interesting as Rose loves her husband, who desires for a better life for their son while lusting on another woman. Rose shows the ultimate strength when she stands up for herself against Troy when learning he has had a child with another woman. Troy explains the situation to Rose by essentially saying that he will go in between both houses. He loses all of Rose’s respect as she learns more about the situation. When Rose learns that the other woman has died, she makes to decision to raise the child herself because the baby deserves to be brought up right. She sacrificed her happiness and remains in a now loveless marriage in order to give a child something better than what she had. Rose switches to more of a powerhouse character through her selflessness. When Troy begs Rose to raise his daughter for him, it demonstrates how he is not a man without a woman. When his mistress dies he of course is going to lean on his wife because he can not raise a child by himself. Troy ultimately ends up without love as he loses his wife, mistress, and his own son is reluctant to attend his funeral. Within normal society at this time, a woman would typically feel lost without her husband. Rose and Linda however demonstrate the opposite. Willy would be lost without Linda keeping track of his every move and their finances. While Troy would be lost without Rose to raise his child. Rose conveys a much stronger personality as she will correct Troy without a second thought. Linda would never be harsh towards Willy because she’s too afraid he may harm himself and she would feel guilty if she were the cause. Each woman provides her husband with a sense of security as she boosts his ego and defends him for most of the play. As mothers, each portrays their husbands as successful to their children and never talk poorly about their husband to their children. This demonstrates their loyalty to their husbands and their family as they try to hold the front together. Neither man has been particularly successful and both families struggle financially. This likely stabs at the husband's’ masculinity as the wife is given more power when the man is so dependent upon her to uphold the household. Both men push their children to have a better life than what they had and it ends with the opposite result than what they wanted for their children, The mothers stand by and watch this happen because, during this time, it was what was expected of them. The families each have grown adult children that have failed to get their own start in life and are still living off of the parents. This creates more pressure for the father to continue providing for not only his wife and his lifetime debt, but also the sons. Both Death of a Salesman and Fences portray a failed American Dream. The “get rich quick” ideology of the 40’s and 50’s was flawed. Women were often overlooked in the overall thought process and especially in their husband’s views on the working world. All the men do in these stories is work and cheat on their wives. The wives raise the children, pay the bills, clean the house, keep the husband happy, and basically just keep the house together. All the men have to do is bring home the money. These men still find the audacity to cheat on their wives after all the wives do for them. The house would not stand without the mother’s strength and the men take advantage of their wives loyalty by cheating on their wives and ultimately ruining everything she has built for the family. Willy pays his mistress with stockings while his wife is at home sewing the holes that are in her own stockings. The audience’s perception of Willy changes when this happens as he is not only a delusional man, he is also viewed as disgusting because he’ll buy the other woman stockings, but can not afford to buy his wife any of her own. The wives in Death of a Salesman and fences attempt to portray stereotypical housewives to their husbands. But the women actually show their power by being the support for their husbands and ultimately doing what is best for themselves at the end of the plays.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden.
Found within the storyline, Willy implements features of a tragic hero as he shows the reversal of events in his life due to his own actions. Willy, through the downfall with his son, Biff, shows that his actions have caused a bridge between him and his son in which his son chooses to grow apart from his family. As seen at the beginning of the play, Willy represents a tragic hero as he is distressed and troubled as he comes home from another failed sales trip. Although Willy represents a tragic hero in many cases, there are also others found within Death of a Salesman that help implement the role of a profound hero. Willy’s wife, Linda, implements the heroine as she presents herself with many wise and understanding words for Willy has he faces his hardships. Throughout the story, it is seen that Linda represents herself as a put together woman for her husband but is often found distraught by her husband’s actions in which readers and audiences can empathize with
This aspect of the time period greatly influences the main characters in each of the plays. The fathers and sons both treat women as objects for sex, tending to house chores, and taking care of kids. These characteristics of toxic masculinity create both similar and conflicting tendencies throughout Death of a Salesman and Fences.
Roles of Women in A Raisin In the Sun, The House On Mango Street, and A Yellow Raft In Blue Water
To start with, in the play Linda makes many excuses for Willy. For example, Willy says, “I suddenly couldn’t drive anymore. The car kept going off onto the shoulder ya know?” Linda replied, “Maybe it’s your glasses” (Miller 22). By making these kinds of excuses, it’s almost like Linda is ignoring the problems Willy has with his head. Also, Willy says, “I suddenly couldn’t drive anymore.” Linda replied, “Oh, maybe it was the steering again” (Miller 27). Willy doesn’t make excuses for himself, its Linda who acts like nothing is wrong. Willy is living half in the past and half in the present. In the play, Willy says, “It took me nearly four hours from Yonkers.” Linda replied, “Well, you’ll just have to take a rest” (Miller 27). By making all of these excuses, it shows that Linda refuses to believe that Willy has problems, and she tries brushing it off like it’s no big deal. She knows there are problems, but she is unwilling to face them.
Willy Loman is not the only victim of his tragic flaw. The rest of the Loman family is also affected by Willy's problem. Willy's wife, Linda, is the only one who supports and understands Willy's tragic flaw completely. Linda supports every far-fetched claim her husband makes. She is even described as having “infinite patience” whenever she is conversing with Willy (Miller 99). Willy's two sons, Biff and Happy, are also affected by his flaw. Happy, when in the company of two ladies, claims that Willy is not even his father, and “just a guy” (Miller 91). Later in the play, Biff decides that he does not want to be in his father's life anymore. Biff's problems are simply too much for Willy to handle with his current state of being, even though Willy needs Biff in his life. After both internal and external conflict, Biff reveals to Willy that Willy had been lied to for a number of years, and that the life he lives is essentially a lie (Miller 104).
This also show that Linda loved her husband more than anything, she would do anything to protect his pride including not telling Willy that she knows he had been trying to commit suicide. Everything Linda di is to protect Willy pride and face, and not letting any of her son
Both sons live with the same concern for Willy as Linda, especially after she explains to them that Willy’s crashes were not accidents. Biff is particularly affected by Willy’s actions as Biff discovered Willy’s affair with one of his coworkers, an action which enraged Biff and caused Biff to refuse to fix his math grade and finish high school. Additionally, Willy’s affair also caused Biff to grow distant from his father, setting the two up for many future arguments such as one in which Willy tells Biff, “stops him with: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” (129). Not to forget that Willy’s suicide was originally meant to spite Biff as Willy believed his funeral would be grand, claiming “He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!” (126)--this being a tragic twist of dramatic irony. This trauma and strife brought upon Biff leads him into a great deal of hardship, never having had a job or settled down. Willy causes Biff to believe himself a failure, and Biff is dragged into Willy’s world of suffering where Biff cannot attain success in the face of his father’s high
The theme is gender roles in the 1950s in Fences by August Wilson. Gender roles are social and cultural standards that determine how males and female should think, speak, dress, and interact in the society. To know if a play is accurate or not we need to look up its historical context or background, research the author in order to know if he or she is speaking from experience, and analyze a character to show how well we understand what went on in the play. Understanding the historical context gives us better insight into the background. In this play fences are a metaphor that represents keeping people in figuratively for Rose by being motherly and sympathetic, and keeping people out for Troy
He seems to believe that the best way to be the “man” in the relationship is to be the dominant one and to put her down all the time. “I won’t have you mending stockings in the house! Now throw them out!” Willy feels guilty about Linda mending stockings when he bought the woman he’s having an affair with a new pair. He transfers this guilt into being horrible to her, which isn’t very fair. He seems to believe that this is a way to assert his masculinity, and it could possibly resonate from the way that his father treated women before he left. This is similar to Othello; when Othello believes that Desdemona is having an affair he slaps her in front of everyone, thinking that it is a way to assert his masculinity to the public. Willy also refers to Linda as “kid” a lot, which could be a playful nickname but it also could be a way of him putting her down and making her seem immature. It is an excuse to dismiss her. It also suggests that he thinks he is more mature than Linda, whereas the audience know this not to be the case as Willy is losing it a little and can act incredibly childishly. In treating Linda like this, it also drives Willy and Biff further apart than ever. He doesn’t approve of the way Linda is treated, especially since he knows how much she puts up with from her husband. In being so uncertain of his masculinity Willy can be horrible, which makes him unlikeable and drives him apart from
Linda does not lose respect for Willy for his actions as much as Biff does. Biff cares about his mother dearly and does not like to see her being yelled at. He grinds his teeth when he sees his father yell at his mother, because he knows that if he argues, there will be that much more tension between him and his father. However, Biff cannot take it much longer because he is losing respect for his father. He knows his father should never get physical with his mother, and he finally takes action before it gets violent. He grabs Willy by the arm and screams at him not to yell at her. Willy gets angry at first, but then goes to bed guilt-ridden.
In the play Fences, written by August Wilson we are introduced to an African-American family struggling in an urban city neighborhood in 1957. Troy Maxson is the male protagonist; however his wife Rose is a woman to be reckoned with. August uses Rose (the female protagonist) as an instrument, through her we see how African American women of this era gave up on their dreams as individual in order to provide the best life possible for her family. Rose Lee Maxson has been married to Troy eighteen years of her forty-three-year-old life. She is a loving woman that gives her all to help her family and friends.
Linda, Willy’s wife, seems to have a fairly small role in the play. She believes that the American dream is achievable by anybody, and supposedly is even the reason that Willy is un...
She takes care of the men, and when she tries to do something good, like saving money by mending socks, she is yelled at, ”I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out” (Miller 39). Linda is only there to listen to the men and do their bidding, offering comfort to them, “You’re my foundation and my support, Linda” (Miller 18), but never to herself until the end of the play, “Biff lifts her to her feet and moves out up right with her in his arms. Linda sobs quietly” (Miller 139). The general idea of this time for women is that they are after their husbands, that their needs should be met last. Linda is the ideal mother and wife, putting her family before her, but in this she lacked the ability to take care of herself and her mental health, which was most likely very damaged by Willy trying and eventually succeeding to kill himself, “Forgive me dear. I can't cry. I don't know what it is, but I can’t cry” (Miller
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.