Death Of A Salesman (Linda Analysis)

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Natania Duhur 11A Stanley     English Homework

Death Of A Salesman

Willy calls Linda, ‘My foundation and my support.’ Do you think that this sums up her role in the play?

Linda is a mother to Biff and Happy Loman, a wife to Willy Loman. She is always loyal and caring towards Willy even when he is rude to her. She suffers as she watches his condition deteriorate, and she is very helpless. During this essay I will be discussing Linda’s behaviour and language, the way she is perceived by other characters, her relationship with Willy, the effect of the woman on Willy and Linda’s relationship in order to answer this question.

There are many positive aspects of Willy and Linda’s’ relationship, which can justify that Linda’s role in the play, is to aid Willy. Whenever Willy enters the room and Linda is present she will fuss over him. At the beginning of the play, she ‘takes off his shoes’ and questions him repeatedly about his trip. She also takes his coat off, and offers him an aspirin to make him feel better.

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Linda always refers to Willy as ‘darling’ and ‘dear’ and Willy refers to her as ‘pal’ and ‘sweetheart’. These are the only times in the play that they refer to anybody informally and playfully. This demonstrates how much they mean to each other. When Willy doubts his abilities, she encourages him saying, ‘maybe you’ll do better next week,’ and, ’maybe you should tell him.’ When he is insecure about his physical appearance she reassures him saying, ‘Willy, you’re the handsomest man in the world.’ By reassuring Willy, she supports him.

Linda always defends and shows concern for Willy ...

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Here's what a star student thought of this essay

The essay has an okay structure. There is an introduction, albeit not very strong. I'm not a big fan of the first person, as the essay states "I will be discussing" but prefer to see an introduction which summarises the argument and poses a strong critical voice. The first person is unnecessary and suggests your arguments are personal and opinion based. It's not good to see that some paragraphs here were one sentence - it doesn't show the ability to structure a proper argument. A paragraph that is overly short suggests you cannot explain or expand upon your points. Many of these one sentence paragraphs could be brought together with other points to make a more coherent argument. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are fine.

The analysis here is okay, but there is plenty of room for improvement. A very noticeable trait of this essay is the way they refer to characters as if they are real and make decisions. For example the essay writes "Linda always refers to Willy as 'darling' and 'dear'". I would be replacing this with "Miller has Linda's speech always refer to Willy as 'darling' and 'dear'" which would then force me to discuss why he does this. It is crucial you talk about Miller's constructions, as this shows the awareness of drama as an effective medium for evoking an audience response. There is good language analysis, but sometimes it needs to be more explicit. Why does Linda's language suggests she is the support of Willy? There is exploration of Linda being the norm to society, however this isn't elaborated upon. If I were writing this essay, I would be looking at how contemporary audiences would respond to Linda being unable to prevent Willy's tragedy, etc. Overall, the points are good, but I just feel there needs to be that further step to explain why Miller uses the techniques.

This essay responds well to the task, looking at Linda's role thoroughly. What I liked about this essay was the way they engaged with the quote, and always argued whether Linda is Willy's foundation and support. Examiners like to see this, as too often candidates see the question is about Linda and just talk about everything they can think of. Being able to stay focused on the question will make your argument more convincing and gain more credit for your analysis as it becomes more relevant. I would've liked to have seen some discussion of why Miller has Linda have such a central role to the play, looking more heavily on the audience response rather than how Linda shapes the plot.