"Death of a salesman" is a play, which is considered as a Arthur Miller's masterpiece. It presents an American family contains of parents and two sons. This family is specialized with the ambitious father who is Willy Loman and his American dream about fame and success. Millar has excelled by forming each character. Although, each character has its own aspects, they are finally integrated under the family umbrella. Linda is one of the main characters in the play. This woman has a distinctive character, which identified by its strength. Faith lets her ended with unsuccessful man, but she has the power and strength to fight not just the faith, but also the world. She loves her husband as it is and successes in putting a line between Willy who is unsuccessful man and Willy her husband. Linda is the best wife, friend and mother for Willy. She is always there to support, help, and even protect him. This indicates her intelligence and strength. Linda's strength appears clearly through supporting her husband's illusions. Linda's support of Willy's illusions indicates her strength, which is evident by how she supports her husband's illusions and the purpose of this support.
Firstly, Linda successes in proving her strength by the way that she supports her husband. Actually, supporting someone's illusions is very difficult especially when these illusions are far away from the real life and there is no hope even 1% to achieve the dreams that cause these illusions. That is exactly what happens with Linda, who supports her husband illusions until the end. Linda is a smart woman and this is clearly shown by recognizing:
· Her husband condition, i.e. bad psychological condition
· What he needs
· What affect him badly
The wondering thing is Linda is always aware of these three points and not all women have the ability of knowing their husbands like Linda and success of understanding him. This recognition comes from a position of strength.
Linda excels at highlighting the strength of her character through her attempts to relive Willy's bad psychological condition. Linda knows her husband very well and knows his fears that causes all of these illusions comes from his hoping to be a well liked therefore he will be a successful man. Subsequently, Linda always keeps telling him that he is the most handsome man in the world. Even if Willy is not handsome but in her opinion she sees him like this and she tries hardly to convince him and make him believe that he is well liked and handsome. This is clearly shown in the scene which Willy tells her that he is fat and he is very foolish (2475). She responds with sweet words that make him feel comfortable and happy."Willy, darling, you're the handsomest man in the world… to me you are the handsomest" (2476). Maybe this seems silly to people as well as to his sons, but Linda give this issue a big space and really cares about this point. The reason is that she really knows how Willy cares about this issue and his appearance. This gives him more confidence and gives him a feeling that he is an accepted and well liked man. Actually this reduces the severity of his illusions. Linda's impact is very clear in Willy's life. Here, she supports his illusions and in the other hand she knows how she can reduce its severity and tries hardly to reduce it. This really requires a smart and strong woman. Also, with regard to the Willy's American dream of fame and success, Linda is satisfied with their financial situation and she tells Willy about that. She tries to remove the fame tissue that cover his eyes and make him satisfied with their situation. Here, Linda proves her intelligence by recognizing what is the main reasons behind these illusions, which are Willy's hope to be well, liked which means successful man. Then she tries hardly and successes in finding good solutions. Even if these solutions are very simple and just based on the way that she speaks with him, but it really helps Will. This proves to me how she is strong woman and makes me remember the phrase that said: "Behind every great man there's a great woman". Even that Willy is not a successful or great man, but Linda is. She is always there to support Willy whatever this support will cost her.
Also, Linda's reaction with her husband reflects the strength of her personality. He is always there to suppress and stop her, but she is always there to support him. This is evident by the scene when the family is sitting on the table and discussing the Florida idea. Linda tries to share the discussion and support him, but whenever Linda talks Willy suppresses her and yells at her (Schlöndorff). Here in the situation, she proves to me how she is a wise and strong woman. Instead of yelling back to him she controls the situation by her calm, stability and not amplifying this issue. Her calm never means that she is a weak person, but the sharp contrast. Being calm and stability in order to handle the situation comes from a position of strength. People may consider her calm, supporting his husband illusions and agreeing of whatever he sees is a weakness. However, when we look to the way that she deals with people we realize that she is definitely a strong woman. This is shown clearly by how her sons' respecting her. Indeed, Linda success in controlling her sons which Willy, the man that sometimes yells, suppresses her and plays the role of masculinity, cannot. We see in many scenes in the movie how Biff acts with his fathers. Actually, sometimes he yells and tends to push him. In the other hand, he is very polite and kindly person when he speaks with his mother. This shows her strong and powerful character. Also, when she is speaking with her sons she is more confident and strong, while she is speaking with her husband she is more inconsiderable, calm and acceptable on his illusions and whatever he says. This does not mean that she is a weak person. In contrast, this proves her strength because by her supporting of Will's illusions, she gives him more confidence and that is what Willy needs.
The second thing that proves Linda's strength is the purpose behind supporting Willy's illusions. Linda is smart women. She supports his husband's illusions because she knows his husband very well and his bad psychological condition and understands that letting Willy facing the reality and knowing the truth will struck him and this will affect him terribly. Actually, this happens exactly in Hemingway's masterpiece, which is "The Snow of Kilimanjaro". In that story, Helen tries hardly to help her husband Harry and keeps making him feel comfortable and telling him that he will survive although she know that there is no hope. Helen never tells him that this is the end and she is always there to support her husband because she knows very well that her support is really helping him and telling Harry the truth may harm him or even kill him (2243-259) Linda has a good ability of future looking and she knows very well the consequences of shocking Willy by the reality and not supporting his illusions. She always walks behind him and tries to protect him even form himself. Also, she never faces him with the reality and asks: why he tried to commit suicide? She does not face him because she defiantly knows that this may kill him and unfortunately that is what happens at the end when Biff faces him with the reality. This appears clearly at the end of the film when Biff faces his father with the reality and tells him that all of his dreams actually cannot be achieved and asking him about his suicide attempts (Schlöndorff). In my opinion, the reason that goes behind Willy's death is forcing him to face and to see the reality. It is absolutely Biff's fault. If he supports his illusions exactly like his mother, does not face him with the reality and the important thing is does not asking him about his suicide attempts, Willy will not indulge in his illusions again. In my opinion, whenever the real life shock Willy, he indulge in his illusion more and more. That is why Linda always supports him and never faces him about the truth of the reality. Therefore, when Biff faces him about the reality and his suicide attempts, he gets deeper in his illusions which are the main reason that makes him has an accident.
Finally, in my opinion Linda Loman is one of the strongest characters I have read about it. She really let the reader impressed with her strength that is proved by the ways that she uses it to support her husband and his illusions and the reader actually gets more impressed after realizing the purpose that keeps her supporting him. This proves to me how she well understands her husband and his bad psychological condition as well as how she hardly tries to help, protect and support him. It is easy for a woman to give up, but it is very difficult to fight with her sons or even with the faith just to support and protect her husband. "Death of a salesman" brings to the literature and also for the world another model for a strong woman, Linda Loman, which her strength based on supporting her husband illusions.
Work Cited
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Dir. Volker Schlöndorff. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, Stephen Lang, Charles Durning, and John Malkovich. CBS Presents, 1985.
Baym, Nina. "Death Of A Salesman." Norton Anthology American Literature: Shorter. [S.l.]: W W Norton & Co, 2007. 2462-526. Print.
Baym, Nina. "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro." Norton Anthology American Literature: Shorter. [S.l.]: W W Norton & Co, 2007. 2243-259. Print.
