eng 272: death of a salesman and gender politics

One philandering husband. One worrisome housewife. Two womanizing "Adonises."

What's a reader to do?

While we have been reading Arthur Miller's classic, Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman through the lens of the American Dream, another interesting way to approach the text is through an exploration of gender roles.

To what degree is Willy's despair and downfall caused be his ideas of masculinity? What messages have Happy and Biff received about being manly? This blogger believes that Willy Loman offers us examples of "Unmanliness." What does it mean to be a man in post-WWII America anyway? For a more sympathetic view of Willy's struggle, look here.


Literary critic Terry Thompson posits that Willy, along with Happy and Biff, are locked in a kind of "perpetual adolescence," symbolized by their lack of facial hair: "Thus, in the Loman household, the cheeks, chins, and upper lips of the males are peachy, soft, and schoolboyish, punctuating their lack of real manhood, their inability to assume the stressful societal roles assigned to grown males" (246). Do the Loman "men" understand what it means to be a man? Why are they stuck?

And what about the women? How do we reconcile Linda and the Other Woman? What about the women that Happy and Biff "make," especially the wives and fiancees of Biff's superiors who fall for his advances? Some of you believe that Linda is to blame for Willy's downfall--why do you think she is a) responsible and b) powerful enough to stop him? To what degree does Linda's role as a housewife contribute to the family dysfunction?

Feminist Betty Friedan argues in The Feminine Mystique that housewives were suffering from "The problem that has no name," which was basically a limited life of few opportunities outside of the home and constricting gender roles. Can we see Linda as an example of this problem?

To what degree is Miller's play a commentary on the gender roles of post-war America? And how do these roles fit in with our idea of the American Dream?

Works Cited

Thompson, Terry. "Miller's Death of a Salesman." Explicator 63.4 (2005): 244-47. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. UW-Manitowoc. Manitowoc, WI. 13 Nov. 2008.