The Selfish Linda Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

She always tries to keeps everything on its way. But the problem is that Willy is acting angrily and he loses his control easily. This is shown when he saw her stockings “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!” Then she puts her stockings in her pocket. This also shows how Linda climbs down and how she makes it positively.

Watching a solitary blade of grass will never tell you the direction of hurricane, just as one characteristic can never describe Linda Loman. In Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman is a woman torn between guilt, retaliation, and pity. Her guilt stems from the fact that she prevented Willy from pursuing his true American Dream; she retaliates in response to Willy's failure; she feels sorry for Willy, because he is a "pitiful lone adventurer of the road" (47). As the battling motivations blow from opposing directions, the reader is left to decide to which one motivation Linda will succumb.

Discrete — Linda was the only person that new Willy was suicidal which is mainly why she cares for him greatly however she was the reason for Willy’s death. If she would have told someone else Willy could have got the help he needed before he was driven to kill himself.

In Death of a Salesman, although Linda never finds out about the Woman, her relationship with Willy is still affected by the Woman. For example, Willy says, "Will you stop mending stockings? At least while I'm in the house. It gets me nervous. I can't tell you" (1745).

-Biff defends her from Willy but she defends Willy, then Biff says “Don’t go making excuses for him, he wiped the floor with you. He never had an ounce of respect for you (54-55)

Later in a flashback, Willy and Biff are on their way to Ebbets Field for a football game when Charley appears and beings a conversation with Willy. Merely joking around, Charley makes a few comments which Willy takes great offense too and beings insulting Charley and telling him to put his hands up as if to fight. Willy's arrogance shows it's face once again when Willy is talking to Biff about his meeting with Oliver. Completly ignoring what Biff is saying, Willy goes on about how good of a kid Biff is and how impressive he is. Though not directly insulting, Willy ignores what his son has to say and goes off on his own tangents, losing the respect of the reader. Willy then ends up in another flashback in the bathroom of the restauraunt where he met Happy and Biff for dinner. The most disgusting part of Willy is revealed here. Biff walks in on Willy and his woman friend whom hes had a secret relationship with. Willy attempts to cover it up and when that doesnt work he orders Biff around and shows how bad of a person he can be.

An idea is shown, “that's why i moved out here. Why biff can feel anyone of theses trees no time! boys!”(Miller 50). Willy is talking to his brother ben and is shown his first sign of early false truth. Willys imagination of having a highly successful son blocks the real vision. He is making his son look like he can do anything without trying at all. Directly after Willy, tells Biff to go to the apartment buildings that are being constructed and steal from the sand. “Boys! Go right over to where there building the apartment house and get some sand we're gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now! Watch this ben!” (Miller 50). This instance brings to light many of the underlying realities, willy let's biff and orders him to go do wrong and steal to show his imaginary brother that he has raised his kids “right”. Charley, the realest, tells willy the consequences of biffs actions by saying that the watchman will put the police after him and arrest him which could destroy any future for Biff if he gets caught. LInda’s underlying passiveness is also shown by her speaking to willy and says “dont let biff..”(Miller 50), the awareness of linda in the situation and her knowness of willys order to do wrong is not addressed and she shuns away from saying anything in hopes to please her

To some extent she acknowledges Willy's aspirations but, naively, she also accepts them. Consequently, Linda is not part of the solution but rather part of the problem with this dysfunctional family and their inability to face reality. In restraining Willy from his quest for wealth in the Alaska, the 'New Continent', ironically the only realm where the "dream" can be fulfilled, Linda destroys any hope the family has of achieving 'greatness'. Even so, Linda symbolically embodies the play's ultimate value: love. In her innocent love of Willy, Linda accepts her husband's falsehood, his dream, but, in her admiration of his dream, she is lethal. Linda encourages Willy and, in doing so, allows her sons, Biff and Happy, to follow their father's fallacious direction in life.(Griffin, 1996)

Willy also lies to Linda. We find out in the play that Willy is having

In the play Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman serves as the family's destroyer. Linda realizes, throughout the play, that her family is caught up in a bunch of lies. Linda is the only person that can fix the problem and she doesn't.

But in the beautiful, ironic complexity of her creation, she is also Willy's and their sons' destroyer. In her love Linda has accepted Willy's Greatness and his dream, but while in her admiration for Willy her love is powerful and moving, in her admiration for his dreams, it is lethal. She encourages Willy's dream, yet she will not let him leave her for the New Continent, the only realm where the dream can be fulfilled. She want to reconcile father and son, but she attempts this in the context of Willy's false values. She cannot allow her sons to achieve that selfhood that involves denial of these values" (Gordon p. 316). Linda is also caught up in Willy's lies and therefore does nothing but help fuel the fire in the inferno of their dreams and ambitions. She lets this whole masquerade continue right in front of her instead of doing something to stop their out of control lies.

    Linda Loman is the heart and soul of the Loman household.  She loves her family, even though she is all too aware of husband's faults and her sons' characters. She provides a sharp contrast to the seamy underbelly of the world of sex, symbolized by the Woman and the prostitutes.  They operate in the "real world" as part of the impersonal forces that corrupt.  Happy equates his unhealthy relationships with women to taking manufacturer's bribes, and Willy's Boston whore can "put him right through to the buyers." In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman holds the family together through purity and love - she keeps the accounts, encourages her husband, and tries to

Linda speaks these lines to Biff and, not only do they prove that she loves this man an enormous amount, but also that she would sacrifice not seeing her son again just to keep Willy happy. She is wiling to sacrifice her family for the man that she loves, who appears to not treat her as well as a husband could. Linda's last comment shows that she is not treated with a great deal of respect from Willy. Nevertheless, she puts his needs before her own because of the profound love she has for him. Her love for him drives her do whatever is necessary to keep him happy, and binds her to him no matter what the consequence.

Throughout the entire play Willy talks to Linda in a way demeaning way. During Act 1 there is a conversation with Bernard and Willy that Linda enters saying that some mothers thing Biff is “too rough” with their daughters. Willy was very upset with this news and told everyone to shut up which made Linda hold back tears and Bernard leave. This guide “ Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always be exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.” The guide says the woman is wrong for questioning him. This is exactly what happens with Will and Linda which is why he gets so angry and she doesn’t say anything back.