The Theme Of Pride In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Pride is a dangerous emotion, as it can cloud a person’s judgement and very easily lead someone down the wrong path. This is clearly evident in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, where the men of the Loman family all face challenges, but never listen to the voice of reason that is Linda Loman. This blatant sense of disregard can stem from her being a woman or the fact that they believe that it is just not her place to deal with their matters. If the pride that these men held were just put aside, then a multitude of their problems could have been resolved and various issues would have been avoided. Answers may come in various ways or forms, but is most often the one that’s right in front of us. From the beginning, it is evident that Linda …show more content…
Her husband knows this to be true as he even says, “You’re my foundation and my support, Linda” (1454). She pays and keeps tracks of the bills and seems a great deal more competent than Willy but still takes a great deal of verbal abuse from him and a general backseat. She does this because she wants to keep his fragile mind intact and she loves her husband dearly. Linda also makes sure to keep her sons in line and ultimately get them to help/ play along with their father. The sons however, are like their father as they do not listen to their mom and leave their father, who is losing his mind, in the restaurant. This constant cycle of advice and refusal to listen is imbedded in the Loman men as both Biff and Happy took their father’s word as the gospel truth and since he never really listened to Linda then neither will they. Overall Linda is in a position where she knows about her family but is willing to continue being a punching bag for her husband simply because, “He’s the dearest man in the world to me, and I won’t have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue” …show more content…
Linda Loman is the wisest and smartest in the Loman household, despite this she is hardly listened to and is generally ignored. This fact stems from her being a woman whose role is to stay at home and look pretty while the men are working. This stigma is also trained in the mind of her sons as when they were growing up they believed everything that their father said to be true and wanted to be like him. Linda however takes no offense to this as she is fine taking the neglect as long as Willy is fine, after all she knows that he’s losing himself and loves him too deeply to let him