Saturday, August 30, 2014

     Is it just me or does anyone else think that Linda knows all about Willie's indiscretions?  She is just afraid to confronting the true to Willie.  She is such a victim that she would probably blame herself. She wasn't woman enough for the great Willie Loman.
     I think Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Willie is sympathetic but the one that I originally saw had Lee J Cobb as Willie and he played him as a poor moral corrupt man. I did not find one redeeming quality. Willie was a bully. It is amazing the same words in a play but the interpretation of the character Willie between Cobb and Hoffman are world apart.

4 comments:

  1. Well it's not just you, I think the wife always knows somethings up. I know personally in my relationship despite my husbands best efforts he's never hid or been able to surprise me with anything. When you know somebody like that, so intimately you just know. You can sense the differences about them. The way he was so uncomfortable about her mending her stockings, she knew what was up. She didn't have to say it and she didn't need anyone else to tell her. If Linda didn't know, I personally feel that would take away part of how I feel about her character. It's not that it's obvious he was cheating but how can you not suspect something. Your son and his father have an amazing relationship and when your son goes to see his father while on a business trip suddenly their entire relationship changes and they never have a kind word to say to the other since. There's no way, add a wife's intuition to a mothers intuition and either this woman knew and didn't care or she was in denial. And honestly I think it's that she had a husband that loved her and just lost his way and she didn't have the energy to fight about something she'd already forgiven him for. It's sad but that's at least how I saw. There's just no way you can be married that long and hide a secret like that, it's not possible unless there's no real love and connection there to begin with. Willy was a sad man, and his wife saw that. I guess she just didn't want to add any more troubles to his life by fighting with him about something she couldn't control. They had kids, a house, a family and she didn't want to risk losing it all over whatever he was doing behind her back. Of course this is all speculation but idk I just have a feeling, every time Biff says something about how she doesn't know him, about how he's a bad person. She doesn't ask her son why he thinks that, she just tells him he's wrong and doesn't want to hear it. And defends him, so she knows and she's already forgiven the poor man. But she let's him live with his guilt.

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  2. I think she just consciously chose to not think about what he was doing when he went away. I'm sure if she had found out about it before should would have either just immediately put it out of her mind or made an excuse for it like, "Well what else is a man going to do after those long hard days he works? It's just what men do"
    And you're absolutely right about the difference in the two interpretations, I was going to bog down your comments with my thoughts on that but I think I'll make a separate post to save space ;)

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    1. Eleanor raises a great point about her reaction to her husband not being what you'd expect today. Oddly enough, the day after my wedding we went to my great grandparents house for their marital advice. My husband was already in the Navy at this point and my great grandfather urged me to understand a mans "need" and that I shouldn't punish him for "doing what he needed to do" to get through a deployment. I listened and when he got back in the car stared at my husband telling him exactly what I'd do to him if he cheated and we awkwardly laughed but got the point. But to my great grandparents they were sincerely bestowing on us their wisdoms and what they believed to be sound advice. It makes you wonder how many wives just accepted having a cheating spouse. I for one don't but that was a different time.

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  3. I think part of the reason we see Linda like this is because Miller writes her with very little identity of her own outside her relationships with those in the play, almost a domestic version of Willy's focus on being well-liked in the business world. I did find the transformation of her speech in the play, especially in the Requiem, to be rather interesting. We pay most attention to Willy in the play, but Linda is an interesting character to examine as well. What did you mean when you say, "She wasn't woman enough for the great Willie Loman"? Also, don't forget about the minimum length requirement for blog posts...

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