The Woman's Role in the Early 1900's

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In the early 1900’s, the woman's role was to stay home, clean and take care of the children. Arthur Miller illustrated the life of the average woman in the 1900’s with the character Linda in Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York in 1915. Arthur Miller’s father owned a clothing company that employed four hundred people, but after the wall street crash his family lost everything and moved to Brooklyn. After graduating in 1932, Miller worked in several small jobs to pay for his tuition, While in college at the University of Michigan he majored in Journalism worked for the student paper. Arthur Millers early career started after his graduation, he wrote The Man Who Had All The Luck in 1940 which won the Theatre Guild’s National Award, In 1946 Miller’s play All My Sons won Him his first Tony Award. In 1948 he wrote Death of A Salesman won him another Tony Award, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Death of A Salesman is the story of Willy Loman and the struggles he faces trying to achieve the “American Dream”, not only for him but for his sons. Willy wants to have a perfect family and a perfect life, but his family and life are know where near perfect which causes him to go into depression and want to kill him self. Due to Willy’s many desperate attempts at suicide he starts to lose his mind, start talking to himself and have flash backs. After Willy’s sons Happy and Biff are turned down for a loan Willy finally goes through with taking his life, and leaves his family with the insurance money to pay of debts so they can live a better life. Willy’s wife Linda plays the submissive role, and just leaves Willy in his own hands. In Death of A Salesman linda represents the...

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...f course someones going to want to kill them self if there own wife cant give them a reason for living, or conversate with about their issues. Except for making Willy feel like a man Linda made Willy feel like he was alone. Linda represents women of the early 1900’s because she was loyal, Submissive, and she protected her husbands feelings. Many women today would see this as outrageous but as times change so the the places that women hold in social status, at least in america that is.

Works Cited

"Arthur Miller Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

Davis, Kingsley. "Wives and Work: The Sex Role Revolution and Its Consequences." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Clifford Weales. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print.

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