What Is The Role Of Women In Willy Loman

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Arthur Miller tells the tragedy of Willy Loman, a salesman who spends his days driving on the roads and lives in the illusion of an American Dream that he couldn’t reach. In fact, he lost his job and has a lot of debts to payback. The one who perfectly fitted in the capitalist society, which values are based on competitiveness and success, founds him self disappointed, hopeless and overtaken by events. His wife, Linda is described as the common American housewife, very faithful and shows a full support to her husband. Thanks to her devotion to him, Willy unveils his weaknesses but she is also his scapegoat whenever he releases his accumulated anger and frustration. And contrarily to what we might think their relation is the same as a master and his slave, they are complementary but not equal. This play exposes consequently the inferior role that women have in the American culture. In this play, two women play a significant role. How are women portrayed? According to Willy, Linda can’t handle big responsibilities and thinks that her capabilities are limited to taking care of the house, their …show more content…

Linda and « the women » both exhibit throughout this play the inferior role of woman in the American culture. In fact as we saw with Linda, women at that time was tragically intended to get married and fulfill here obligations; cleaning, cooking, raising children while the husband work and provide income to the family. In fact, Linda is only seen around the house working hard to keep her family satisfied and living in comfort. Willy and his mistress who was also providing comfort and assistance to him also have cheated her on. We can however argue that Linda is very present in the play but women remain portrayed as someone powerless and submissive to men. In fact they assure the man’s character development. And this superior and sexist behavior rubbed off on his

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