Death of a Salesman Discussion

[Christopher Chow]

"Is Death of a Salesman a sexist play?"

In my opinion, definitely, the way Willy commits suicide with a
foolish car accident is extremely orthodox of a movie-like where man
usually kill himself.
Comparing to the death of Emily in Our Town, where she is died of a
miscarriage. From these two tragic endings, i think the both
playwrights Wilder and Miller are actually manipulating audiences'
sexist stereotype to create a strong thematic meaning.

[gin gin]

Actually I think that this is a sexist play, since Biff and happy are
both portrayed as a womanizer !
Happy is a womanizer. He picks women in the restaurant+ scene, for
example. Happy seems to have learned this skill from Biff, but Biff no
longer has the “old confidence”, he once had when he learned Willy was
cheating on his wife Linda.

[L Chan]

I personally think that woman/wife plays a huge role in both Death of
a Salesman and A Doll's House indirectly. Nora and Linda as woman/wife
are used to portray their husband's own failings to care for their
family, their blindness and lack of capacity to realise the truth. In
other words they reveal the flaws of Torvald and Willy, which in both
plays, the societies' expectations such as man dominance is
reinforced, to create flawed characters and advance plot by
demonstrate the breakdown of relationships as a result of how they
fail to show passion for their love ones. In A Doll's House, Nora
gains domination over Torvald, and this transfer in power signifies
how flawed characters adhering to their own beliefs creates dramatic
tension and shapes Nora's determination in the play. Therefore, to say
that Death of a Salesman and A Doll's House are sexists plays is a
huge assumption to make, both dramatists could be manipulating the
audiences' stereotypical beliefs to create strong thematic meaning as
Christopher Chow has commented, and more evidences will have to be
shown in order to prove such statement.

[ingrid chung]

From my perspective, Willy and Nora share similar trend of character
development in Death of A Salesman and A Doll's House. As 'persona'
was being discussed today, it can be observed from both Willy and Nora
who significantly present different personas in the two plays. For
Willy, his internal conflict is illustrated when flashback memories
have forced him to confront the enjoyment lost. On the other hand,
Willy's frustration is ultered to the suppression of his son and his
status and social power is regained. This aids in comparing the
personas of Nora. Due to Krogstad's threat, the internal conflict of
Nora is highlighted which leads to her struggle on choosing personal
power or social power. Nevertheless, Nora, as a heroine, has deceived
Torvald in thinking that she is merely a 'doll' of Torvald. One thing
that Willy's character is contrasted with Nora is, Willy's passion on
pursuing American dream is ultimately ended by his death while Nora's
desire on the pursuit of freedom succeed.

[Jason Kwan]

In my point of view, Death of a Salesman can be defined as a sexist
play. First, the play mainly focuses on Willy’s failure of life.
Despite the futility of Willy’s attempts and his humbleness in the
society, Miller portrays his failure through Linda's naïveté and blind
devotion to Willy. Miller slightly minimizes the social status of
women in that period. Besides, Miller depicts Linda’s cluelessness by
contrasting her American ideal with Willy’s endless failure. Here, the
audiences may notice that no matter how Willy fails in his whole life,
Linda is still a side issue in all the characters’ minds. In A Doll’s
House, Nora as a wife tries her best to gain her personal power in the
family. Although she fails to establish an independence female figure
in her family, she still can achieve what she expected. Despite she
losses her social power and rank for abandoning her children, she at
least gain her personal power in the society instead. To sum up, we
see both playwrights, Ibsen and Miller has portrayed an issue of
gender stereotyping with a very difficult point of perspectives. The
tragic endings of both Willy and Nora have emphasized the existence of
feminism.

[Ho Lok Sze]

From my point of view, I think Miller signifies Willy’s role as coward
through dialogues between Willy's wife (Linda) and her sons.
Throughout the play, although Willy is supposed to be the dominator of
the family, who is brave and full of confidence. In reality, he does
not follow the society expected gender role of a male. From the
dialogue between Linda and her sons, Linda implies that Willy needs
caring from them. Similarly, in “A doll’s house”, Nora who is expected
to be the typical doll-like housewife, she does not following her
gender role. At act I, again Ibsen uses dialogue between Nora and Mrs
Linde to give an account and establishes her role as a woman who seeks
for her own determination.

[playboy]

Willy’s confusion /delusion becomes our own; the improvigred setting
in our own mind’s eye.
Dreams -> downfall (Willy as a tragic hero?)
What qualities do Willy act as a ‘hero.’
Miller builds empathy from audience towards Willy?
Willy -> extremely pathetic character.
How? By constructing the daydreams – American Dream – used by Miller
as a motif.
His attitude -> self important, proud,

Persona -> one side of your personality
Miller has crafted Willy to have different personas; he’s confident,
etc. …
Does Willy exhibits different personas? Is he acting the same all
throughout the play?
Inflection
Willy’s imagination as a structural device -> conveys the theme of
Willy’s blindness.
Death of a Salesman portray failure, perception through a single lens
(symbolic failure), while Our Town is portrayed through a boarder
scope (collective failure).
Willy is relatively more desperate to fulfill his dreams, and are
relatively more ignorant to the events happening surrounding him.

Comparison of Death of a Salesman and other works:
Emily died of accident (childbirth), while Willy died due to suiciding
There’s no epiphany towards Willy (no body went to his funeral; even
his wife doesn’t cry); FAILURE EVEN AFTER HIS DEATH
Nora & Willy aims for a goal -- Nora succeed; WIlly failed.

Is DotSm a sexist play? Will Willy get more empathy if he's gay, or
even, a female? Does male characteristics dominate the play?

[amy keung]

Death of a Salesman is a sexist play in that Miller uses women to
represent the failings of Willy and his sons. The only female
characters with major roles are Linda, and The Woman, with whom Willy
is engaged in an affair with. The juxtaposition of the women entangled
within Willy's romantic life highlights his failures as a husband, and
his inablility to refrain from indulging in his vices. Furthermore,
Happy is portrayed as a womanizer. His obsession with women is a
reflection of Willy as a bad father who is unable to instill values
and morals into his sons. Although women are only one aspect of
Willy's many failures, women are nonetheless portrayed one-sidedly as
symbols of men's failures. Therefore, Miller's use of women as a
dramatic device can be interpreted as sexist.

[wong alex]

Death of a salesman is a sexist play in which Miller uses symbol which
relate to women to represent the character of Willy. The most crucial
symbol in this play is Linda's and The Women's stocking. Willy's
obsession of Linda’s stockings foreshadows his later flashback to
Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room. He
is accused by Biff that he gives Linda's stocking to The Women. This
stockings indeed is a symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. On the
other hand, new stockings are also crucial for Willy. This is because
this proves that he is being financially successful and able to
provide for his family. This can also help to suppress the memory of,
his betrayal of Linda and Biff.



[Michael]

Yes DOS can definitely viewed as a sexist play. Miller's thorough and
exaggerated portrayal of a stereotypical man (Willy) has revealed
undesirable traits such as being naive, immature in decision making
and unaware of his surroundings. His act on blindly following the
American Dream proves the point on how he is unaware of the real life
context, thus it also reveals his immaturity and his inability make
the good decisions. His demand of his sons to follow his path also
shows that he's a hypocrite, which also reveals this failed male
figure's inability to reflect and correct its own mistakes.