Willy's Wife

The relationship between Willy and Linda is very special because they love each other. Linda admires him and

When Linda refers to Willy as a "little boat looking for a harbor," another wind blows against Linda, pushing her to act with pity (1247). To her, he is nothing more than a small, helpless old man. She blames the business for forgetting Willy in his old age, and passing him over like an orange peel. Toward the end of Act I, Linda presents a sorry image of Willy, describing his past greatness as a salesman and ending with a sad description of treachery. She tells her sons that Willy is "exhausted" from driving 1400 miles without earning a penny, and that his reward from the ones he loved the most, his sons, is spite and rejection (1237). The picture she paints of her husband is on filled with pity and sorrow.

Linda treats everything like its inevitably going to happen. She goes with the flow and lets everything go against her. This is one of her major flaws is not defending her self or the actions of others that oppose her view.

Husbands and wives assume a vow of support for one another as they embark on a lifelong journey together through the ups and the downs. In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, the main character, Willy Loman, is an aged and failing salesman attempting to provide for his family without asking for help from anyone. His wife, Linda Loman, is one of the most intelligent and levelheaded characters in the play. Although her husband treats her poorly at times, she ceaselessly supports him and does everything in her power to ensure his happiness. Linda understands Willy’s declining mental health and knows that he is becoming less stable each day. Through her continued support of Willy and his unrealistic aspirations, Linda allows Willy’s mental decline to continue without attempting to keep him in check with reality. By ignoring Willy’s mistakes, failures, and blatant suicide attempts, Linda permits Willy’s disconnect from reality to continue until she is freed by his eventual death.

In his play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses “the common man as a fit subject for tragedy in the highest sense” (Lawrence, Trudeau and Ross Vol. 1) and failure in the accomplishment of the American. The play tends to recline more in the direction of masculinity where men’s sole role is to get a job and support the family and the woman be seen and ordered which brings out the idea of traditional gender roles at its best. Though this is the case, it is very evident that women played an important role in this play. Although every character in the served and had a main purpose, women served a major role not only as subjects of submission and satisfaction who helped define who the men really were in the 1940’s but also as elements of support and wisdom.

he is now no longer able to experience and enjoy that freedom with Linda. It is immensely tragic that at the time when Willy and Linda should be happy, Willy chooses to kill himself. Willy spent his entire life trying to be successful, but he always viewed himself as a failure. However, at the end of the play, they had all of their house payments paid off. He actually was successful and did not know it.After working for so many years in a job that he was never suited for, Willy has finally paid of his mortgage. The irony is that now that he and Linda

Willy’s difficulty with change in his life can be seen when Linda tries to help him. Linda tells Willy outside their bedroom, “...life is a casting off. It’s always been that way.”. (Miller, p.15) She states the truth that life is about change and not knowing the future ahead. She attempts to get Willy to see that he needs to take chances to be successful but he does not want to accept that. Willy wants

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)

Linda Loman protects her husband at all

    Linda, a character from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" is a selfish housewife. She pretends to care about her husband, but in reality, prefers that he kill himself so that she can live an easier life.

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.

In the play Death of a Salesman, the character Linda Loman is always being shown as a calm household wife that is very loyal to her husband Willy Loman and would always take his side. As the play continues she reaches a breaking point and snaps during a confrontation with her sons. Linda goes on to describe how she has put up with knowing her husband Willy has been trying to kill himself. She states that Willy has been getting into multiple car accidents purposely and that she fears he is trying to suffocate himself after discovering a rubber pipe holes behind the heater. As Linda said, “he’s dying,biff...

    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 is the heart of the Loman family and devotes to her time to her family, especially to her marriage with Willy who is difficult to deal with. She loves Willy unconditionally and defends him at all costs. She easily chooses him rather than her sons, when it comes to arguments between then men of the house. Not to mention, she goes along with Willy in his delusional moments and fantasies of grandeur (“Death of a Salesman”). For instance, as Willy explains to Linda how he suddenly could not drive anymore, Linda states, “Maybe it was your steering again… Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses” (Miller, 13). Linda constantly finds excuses for Willy when she knows that he is suicidal and irrational because in order to protect him from the criticism of others. Furthermore, “…selflessly subordinating herself to serve to assist…” ("Death of a Salesman Themes") Willy’s needs. In comparison, the prostitutes are two young women whom Biff and Happy meet at Frank’s Chop House while waiting for their father. Miss Forsythe and Letta provide character and plot development when Happy showers compliments on Miss Forsythe such as, “You ought to be on a magazine cover” (101). At this point, the theme of deception and lies is emphasized. Happy lies to the women so that he lures her into entertaining him and his brother for the evening. As a result, the prostitutes go off with the men to assist to their sexual needs and

Linda is the heart of the Loman family in Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman.  She is wise, warm, and sympathetic.  She knows her husband's faults and her son's characters.  For all her frank appraisals, she loves them.  She is contrasted with the promiscuous sex symbolized by the Woman and the prostitutes.  They operate in the world outside as part of the impersonal forces that corrupt.  Happy equates his promiscuity with women to taking manufacturer's bribes, and Willy's Boston woman can "put him right through to the buyers."  Linda Loman  holds the family together - she keeps the accounts, encourages her husband, tries to protect him from heartbreak.  She