Death Of A Salesman Women Essay

Death of a Salesman is an American play that takes place in the 1940’s, which, in that time period, women were stereotyped as stay-at-home wives who had the roles of cooking, cleaning, and catering to their husbands and children’s needs. In truth, rather than staying at home and raising their families, women began to juggle careers and family lives evenly. Overall, though, Miller portrays certain women in the play to be weak, gullible, and submissive. Arthur Miller demonstrates this by the men’s treatment of the characters Linda, Miss Forsythe, and Letta. “For the first time, the working woman dominated the public image. Women were riveting housewives in slacks, not mother, domestic beings, or civilizers,” said Leila J. Rupp when talking about her studies of WWII and its effects on women throughout and after the 1940’s. Living in the 40’s was a trying and arduous time for women. They had begun to transfer, as Rupp said, from being typical housewives to taking up the men’s jobs while they were away fighting the war. Even as the men returned, though, women kept pursuing their careers or kept their jobs. And with the returning men, it came to be habitual that women were disrespected and received lower pay in the workplace because they were not seen as equals. Women, with symbols such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosie the Riveter, …show more content…
Rosie was not known locally- she was known worldwide. Throughout America, Europe, and Australia she was a popular figure who had movies and songs created about her to provide women with incentive. Eleanor Roosevelt, the other strong feminine symbol of the era, provided moral support to women seeks to follow their dreams as well. She was the longest serving First Lady of the United States. In that time she did outstanding work towards human rights, women’s rights, and civil