One of the most remarkable story lines within Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is Linda’s transformation from passive to authoritative wife and mother. We see her blossom as a character as she learns to defend and support her husband without being a doormat.
Within the first scene of the play, we see Willy and Linda argue over something as picayune as cheese. Willy harshly criticizes Linda for what she thought was a nice gesture. The problem gets worse when Linda takes Willy’s grief and proceeds to act in an apologetic manner. In other words, we lose respect for Linda as she subjects herself to Willy’s selfishness. As we witness Willy’s inner destruction, Linda’s character starts on its journey to improvement. Throughout all of the banter between Willy, Biff and Happy, Linda becomes the sense of stability between them. She takes on a role of authority and is the mediator between father and son. In essence, she becomes the true, stable female figure of the household that is necessary to maintain order.
By the end of the play, Linda is in the limelight. She showcases the new, strong, and powerful Linda. We see the improved character in the final scene between the entire family. She puts Biff and Happy in their places as they ditched their father and hurt his feelings. This is evident when at the end of act two Linda yells, “Get out of here, both of you(Biff and Happy), and don’t come back! I don’t want you tormenting him anymore. Go on now, get your things together... Pick up your stuff. I’m not your maid anymore.”(1824) In this way, Linda portrays her authority over her grown children while simultaneously defending her husband. She has found a stable balance that could stabilize and unite her family. Linda has reached the end of her journey and achieved greatness in the reader’s eyes. She has become the women that we all wanted her to be.
Linda could be considered a hero as she battled hardship and overcame her “doormat” status. She has risen to dominator in the family and is able to be the motherly figure that determines their overall stability. Unfortunately we are left with the realization that she may have reached authority to late. Despite, the timing of Linda’s journey, as a character, she has developed into greatness.
3 comments:
With your 407 words you should definitely include that because many of your classmates do not put their word count...hooligans
No one has talked about LINDA! I am so glad you are..(Oh i write my comments as I read the comment)
Picayune...nice...but I agree with Willy who would want anything but swiss
I like your stabillity point about Linda...She clearly knows when to be strong for her boys and for her husband respectively.
Side note...the period on the line where you quote page 1824 should be at the very end not in the quote.
lol
I especially like your last point.
Very good
Hi Alex :]
I completely agree with your blog. I think throughout the play Linda grows as a woman/character and earns immense respect in my eyes by doing so. Great job at analyzing her character and how she changes throughout the play.
Great Job Alex! I really like how you talked about Linda. I also think she is the stable figure in the family, and helps keep order in the family. Although it does seem like she grew throughout the play, I think she always had the strength in her, and just wanted to stay loyal to her husband. Great job!!!! :)
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