Responsibility Of Women In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

In 1950, one in three women participated in the labor force. This statistic is startling because this implies women did not have major roles or have any responsibility. About seventy percent of men worked in the labor force, giving more pressure to the men to work and have their wives state home and be objects to them. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman, the main female character, feels the pressure of staying home and pleasing her husband, Willy Loman. Linda is Willy’s motivation to keep going and he does not realize that. During the 1950s, it was also a period known as the baby boom, a large growth in birth rates occurred during this period, implying women were seen as objects for sex. The Loman sons, Biff and Happy, support the claim that there was a lack of respect for a woman’s body, which was probably a learned behavior from their father. This play demonstrates just how little responsibility women were given and the lack of respect they received in the 1950s. Happy and Biff continuously speak of women in an attitude that they were just used for sex. Happy says “I keep knockin’ them over and it doesn’t mean anything,” signifying that he will just keep moving onto the next, and then will leave once he is done (Miller 25). There are many more …show more content…
Ophelia is constantly mistreated by Hamlet. Hamlet throws her to the curb and uses her for sex only when it is convenient for him, just like Happy. Ophelia believes Hamlet loves her but he says “you should not have believed me, for virtue/ cannot so our old stock but we shall/ relish it. I loved you not” (Shakespeare 3.1.126-129). Hamlet and Happy are similar because they do not love the women they sleep with. Ophelia was mistreated in the 1600s and Linda was mistreated during the 1950s. Does the constant mistreatment of women in literature end or will it continuously