Feminist Reading

• The Male Relationships

  Death of a Salesman is set in a male-dominated world and the primary focus of the play is the relationship between father and son.
• Male conflict

  • Death of a Salesman is set in a male-dominated world: the central conflict in the play is between father and son, while other male rivalries (between Willy and Charley, Happy and his work colleagues) provide further tension.
• Male conflict

  • Death of a Salesman is set in a male-dominated world: the central conflict in the play is between father and son, while other male rivalries (between Willy and Charley, Happy and his work colleagues) provide further tension.
• Ben

  • Ben’s success is held up as a golden example by Willy but both of his sons are eventually damaged by the need to get one over the next man.
• Biff and Happy

  • Biff’s petty thefts eventually lead to prison while Happy is presented as being compelled to embark on a series of sexual conquests with the partners of his colleagues, particularly his superiors, in order to give himself a short-lived feeling of achievement or self-worth.
• True feelings

  • But underneath the outward shows of bravado, the male characters in the play confess, in private moments, to feelings of insecurity and inadequacy.
  • In such moments, Biff sees himself as “like a boy”, unable to make a lasting impression on the adult world, while Willy admits to feeling “kind of temporary” about himself, unable to live up to his idealised images of his father and brother.
• Female Stereotypes

  The female characters in the play also play stereotypical gender roles.
• Stereotypes

  • The Woman is an obvious example of the dangerous seductress who leads Willy astray while Linda is the dedicated home-maker.
  • Indeed, Miller’s play has often been criticised for relying on such stereotypes in its representations of women.
• Maternal roles

  • The women in the play are there to provide support and reassurance to the men, playing an almost maternal role as nurse or nurturer.
• Examples

  • From the beginning of the play we see Linda willing to make excuses for Willy (“Maybe it’s your glasses”) in order to spare his feelings and protect his ego.
  • The Woman uses baby-talk to help soothe Willy (“Why so sad? You are the saddest, self-centredest soul I ever did see-saw.”)
  • It should be noted how much the male characters in the play depend on such comforts.
• Reliance

  • Willy tells Linda that she is his “foundation and support”, the imagery connoting Linda’s hidden strength in keeping the Loman household standing.
• Linda

  • But many commentators still see her as too passive a character, always deferring to Willy’s feelings.
  • For example, Linda prefers to make a daily routine of taking away the rubber pipe Willy has hidden behind the gas heater rather than confronting her husband and forcing him to air his suicidal thoughts out in the open.
• Male Exploitation of Women

  Women are continually exploited by Loman men in the play.
• Womanising

  • Women are used by the men in the play.
  • Perhaps the most obvious example is Happy’s compulsive womanising.
  • Unable to win the approval of his parents, and frustrated by his lack of advancement at work, Happy treats women like pawns in a game, using his sexual conquests as a means of getting one over his rivals and providing him with some (temporary) self-esteem.
• Linda

  • Biff, for whom the memory of Willy’s affair with The Woman in Boston is clearly still raw, tells Linda that “Willy always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you.”
• Language

  • This male exploitation of women is at times reflected in the language used by the male characters in the play.
  • Happy, especially, dehumanises or objectifies women, reminiscing to Biff that “Boy, there was a pig!” when discussing his “first time”.
  • Later, while waiting in the restaurant in Act Two, Happy tells the waiter, “Strudel’s comin’”, reducing Miss Forsythe to a consumable sweet.
• Wordplay

  • The flirtatious wordplay between Happy and Miss Forsythe then contains some barely hidden innuendo with Happy asking her, “You don’t happen to sell, do you?”, a less than subtle suggestion that she may be a call-girl.
  • Again, the implication is the same: that women are a commodity that can be bought and consumed by men.