Men & Women

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Willy's Relationships with Women

The relationships between men and women in the play largely conform to conventional representations of the 1940/50s: men are the breadwinners while women are seen in a domestic role, as mother and housewife.

Linda

Linda acts in an almost maternal role in her marriage.
At the beginning of the play we see her comfort and console Willy, taking off his shoes, taking his jacket from him, soothing his ego and, in a revealing stage direction, treating him “very carefully, delicately”.
She is careful to avoid confronting Willy, knowing that this upsets him further, but, as a result, many commentators see her as being too passive, allowing Willy to, in Biff’s words, “wipe the floor” with her.

Linda’s passivity

One example of Linda’s passivity is her refusal to confront Willy about the piece of rubber tubing Willy has hid behind the gas heater.
Linda knows of Willy’s suicidal impulses but feels it would “insult” Willy to mention it to him.
Therefore, at the heart of their marriage, there is a refusal to speak or confront the truth.

Willy's guilt

This sense of a dark secret at the heart of their marriage is amplified by Willy’s guilt about his infidelity.
This in turn leads to erratic behaviour from Willy e.g. when he reacts “angrily” to Linda mending her pair of silk stockings.

Willy's affair

The relationship between Willy and the Woman is only glimpsed in short scenes, but the flashes that we see reveal that both parties ‘gain something’ from the affair.
Willy is boosted by the reassurance offered by the Woman (“You picked me, heh?”) while she is quick to remind him that “you promised me stockings, Willy!”
Willy and the Woman use each other for their own ends.

Happy's Relationship with Women

Happy’s relationships with women are troubled in that Happy uses them for some short-lived sense of victory or satisfaction.

Work

The world of work is represented as an almost exclusively male world.
When women do appear in the workplace, it is as a secretary (Jenny).
As a result, ‘masculine’ traits are celebrated in the workplace, exemplified by Happy’s competitiveness (“I’m gonna win it for him”) and Howard’s hard-headedness (“business is business”).

Womanising

Happy’s relationships with women are troubled in that Happy uses them for some short-lived sense of victory or satisfaction.
His compulsive womanising, sleeping with the partners of his superiors at work, is driven by a need to prove himself against the “pompous, self-important executives” he works with.

Women as sport

As Happy himself explains to Biff: “it gets like bowling or something. I just keep knockin’ them over and it doesn’t mean a thing”.
The metaphor is revealing: for Happy, his relationships with women are a sport.

Objectification of women

Happy objectifies women throughout the play, reminiscing about the “pig” with who he shared his “first time” and then later telling Stanley, the waiter, “Strudel’s comin’” before the entrance of Miss Forsythe.
Happy’s dialogue with Miss Forsythe is also full of innuendo, for example when Happy asks “You don’t happen to sell, do you?” implying that she may be a prostitute.