Spread the Wealth (in a non-Communist way)

In class on Friday, I asked the class whether they thought Death of a Salesman had feminist undertones at all. I posed the question because I thought at the time that Linda Loman was a far stronger personality than all the men, including Willy, Happy, Biff, and Howard. When she pushes the flowers out of Happy’s hands and calls her own two sons “a pair of animals,” the viewer wants to applaud her for standing up for what she believes in. Yet when I thought about this scene more, I realized that her seemingly bold, self-confident action was in fact the best manifestation of her hopelessness pitiful position in the family. She continues to defend her husband and remains loyal to the end, even though he lost his loyalty to her eighteen years ago. He continues to keep secrets from her, yet she continues to trust him. Out of frustration and anger she yells at Biff and Happy, saying “You and your lousy rotten whores!” yet if she were truly self-aware, self-assertive, and an independent feminist spirit, she would be saying this to her husband. When I first read Death of a Salesman, I thought that Linda was being a hero by standing up for Willy and staying by his side at a time when he seems like the loneliest man in the world. Yet she is little more than the stereotypical suburban 1950s wife, since she believes that what her husband thinks is automatically what is righteous. She adds further to the pain of both Happy and Biff by telling them to “get out of here, both of you, and don’t come back!” Willy always had a place in his home for his sons, yet Linda now does not. Immediately after she unleashes her hopeless verbal tirade on her sons, Biff says, “Now you hit it on the nose! The scum of the earth, and you’re looking at him!” The stage direction even says that Biff is “on the floor…with self-loathing.” It is easy for critics to look at Death of a Salesman and point to Willy’s negligence and poor paternal instincts as the reason for Biff’s “failure,” yet Linda clearly has not helped the situation. She is the one who has been at home all these years, while Willy has been on the road. Sure, Biff saw Willy having an affair and blames this event for his entire future, but Happy who knows nothing of the affair, has led a similarly unsuccessful life. And Linda must share part of the blame. There certainly is enough to go around.