Character Analysis Of Linda Loman In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Sometimes as people get older they tend to reflect on mistakes they have made in the past. The featured family in the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is the Loman family who continuously prove to be very dysfunctional. Never once did Linda, the wife and mother, choose to face the problems confronting her family. Linda is an expert excuse maker and enabler who keeps Willy from getting the help he needs. The classic enabler contributes to negative outcomes without actively trying to bring about these outcomes. Linda Loman is a loving mother and wife but unfortunately she neglects the fact that her husband is going down a terrible, irreversible road. “You’re doing well enough, Willy!” (Miller 2). In this quote you can clearly see that Linda is pushing away Willy’s problems. In this part of Act II, Willy has a flashback to his late brother, Ben, who tried to get him to come to Alaska with him. Willy is beginning to realize how much his family is corrupted and begins to think that he may have made the wrong decision when he decided to stay in New York as a salesman instead of going to Alaska to work for his brother. By ignoring Willy’s problems she proves to be an enabler. Willy Loman had been only a few steps away from his death on many occasions. Little did he know that Linda was …show more content…
“She does not openly blame Willy for their financial situation because she is aware of that it is the most important thing for Willy to provide for his family and to make a good living for them.” (Thelen). Linda always tells Willy that he is doing just fine as a traveling salesman even though Willy and her both know he is not. Linda continues to push away the financial problem that her family is in just to make her husband happy. They are emotionally declining and a lot of the fault can be blamed on