Pimps, Hoes, and the American Dream

Marcos Norris
Dr. Schaak
Studies in Drama
December 3, 2008
Pimps, Hoes, and the American Dream: Female Commodification and
Gender Dynamics in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
At the heart of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the struggle between the livelihood of its characters and the challenges of an increasingly impersonal capitalist commerce. Miller's protagonist, Willy Loman, is a representative American type whose belief in the American dream--"to come out number one" (101) in a nation whose early frontier promised boundless socioeconomic possibilities--eventually thwarts his success as a salesman, destroys his family, and ransacks his soul. Riding "on a smile and a shoeshine" (101), Willy incorrectly adheres to a retrograde model of industry based on personal relationships and being well liked, which, as symbolized by the "towering angular shapes" (5) immuring his home, has been replaced by the "cut and dry" (59) austerity of twentieth-century capitalism.
Miller critiques the American dream in its capitalist context by portraying the damaging effects economic influences have in the lives of his characters. Nilsen writes that "Miller's critique can be summed up as follows: capitalism is inhuman in its glorification of private property and its exclusive orientation toward profitmaking. Human beings are sacrificed to economic interests in ways that are not only immoral, but even criminal in nature...Conformism rules, turning people into mere cogs in the machine of production" (146,147). Preoccupation with capital gain and material possession, within a predominantly male-centric society, infiltrates the American mentality and results in the devastating dehumanization of women as commodities: material possessions with market value. Female commodification and its effects on gender dynamics leads to the decay of male-female relationships and mingles the false-idealism of the American dream with flagitious images of prostitution and economically-driven procurers, or pimps.
Willy's reminiscences of his older brother Ben embody the idealism which is the driving force in his pursuit of the American dream. Ben's perennial statement that "when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one...and by God, I was rich" (37), is repeatedly referred to by Willy and reinforces his capitalistic perspective and entrepreneurial desire to conquer the world. Ben's capitalistic idealism percolates through generations of the Loman family, finally culminating in the identities of Willy's sons, Biff and Happy.
Moments before Willy's death, he is caught up in a phantasmagoric interaction with Linda, Happy, and the image of his deceased brother, Ben. The text reads, "BEN. Yes, and it does take a great kind of a man to crack the/ jungle. (LINDA takes HAPPY to stairs.)/ HAPPY. (Arm around LINDA.) I'm getting married, Pop, don't for/get it. I'm changing everything. I'm gonna run that department/ before the year is up. You'll see, Mom" (98). Happy's empty promise of marriage (a motif as equally ubiquitous in the text as Ben's perennial promise of the American dream) is strangely associated with socioeconomic success and capitalistic pursuits. This mingling of marriage and capitalism is used by Miller to demonstrate the effects capitalism has on American identity, particularly in terms of female commodification and its role in gender dynamics. Over the course of this paper, I will show how female commodification has increasingly permeated the perspectives of each generation of the Loman family, evincing the economically-driven dissolution of gender dynamics inherently present in the pursuit of the American dream.
Because Ben is significantly older than Willy, deserting the family for Africa when Willy was only "Three years and eleven months" (34) in search of their father (who had decamped to Alaska), Willy assumes filial deference to a brother he views more as an authority than as an equal. Constantly pursuing Ben's validation, Willy interacts with his older, superior brother in much the same way that Happy imploringly seeks validation from Willy. This parallel conspicuously emerges, indicating each generations' desire to fulfill the ideals and expectations of the previous generation, when Willy says, "we're gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now! Watch this, Ben!," and, a moment later, Happy says "I lost weight, Pop, you notice?" (36). The generational bestowing of values and Willy's desire that his children "know the kind of stock they spring from" (34), promotes the family's ensuing capitalist perspective and perpetuates a related, commodified view of women.
During their first and only meeting as adults, Willy reveals to Ben that their mother had "died a long time ago" (32); Ben apathetically responds, "That's too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, Mother...I'd hoped to see the old girl...Heard anything from Father, have you?" (32,33). Learning of his mother's death for the very first time, Ben shows few signs of sadness or regret, fails to console his brother, and flippantly moves on to the next subject. Later, Linda accusingly asks Ben, "Where've you been all these years? Willy's always wondered why you...," and is cutoff before uttering the cold truth of his abandoning and its lasting effects on Willy and the family. The economic pursuits of Ben and his father led each of them to disavow the same woman (both mother and wife), demonstrating the immoral ways in which "Human beings are sacrificed to economic interests." Linda's later protestations of Ben's inappropriately rough treatment of Biff are apathetically dismissed, causing Linda to withdraw "her hand coldly" (35) upon Ben's departing salutation. Shortly after, "BEN laughs lustily" (36) in response to Linda's continuing protestations, symbolizing his lusty (a word suggesting phallic potency and bestial passion), male dominance over women. Thus, inherent in Ben's generation is both a marginalized and chauvinistic view of women, as well as, a preoccupation with capital gain.
Willy's objurgatory demand that Linda "Stop interrupting!" (47) when she attempts to contribute to a family conversation, demonstrates Willy's own inferior view of women and a superior, dominant view of himself. Linda timidly "agrees she should [stop interrupting], puts hand over mouth" (47) and diffidently resigns in obsequious submission. Sharply undermining Willy's statement, "You're my foundation and my support, Linda" (11), is his pejorative "hand over mouth" refusal to let her speak and the dominating, disrespectful manner in which he interacts with her.
It is Willy's interactions with the other females in the text, however, that glaringly display his licentious, commodified view of women. Visiting Charlie at his office, Willy is met by the receptionist, Jenny and says, "Jenny...Jenny...Good to see you....How're ya? Workin'?--or still honest?" (66), implying her possible dishonest involvement in prostitution, or "Workin'" the streets. Willy's vulgar comedy, however distasteful, dwindles in comparison to his marital infidelity and prostitute-like treatment of his paramour, aptly named "WOMAN" (a title which both objectifies and devalues her worth as a nameless individual).
Willy visits his paramour in cheap motels and promises to bring her new stockings. When the two are disrupted by Biff's visitation, Willy forces "WOMAN" to leave as she adamantly demands her promised payment of "two boxes of size nine sheers" (87). The surreptitious meetings between the two, closely resemble a man's visitation of a brothel, for the woman says, "I've been sitting at that desk watching all the salesmen go by, day in and day out. [just as prostitutes "day in and day out" await the visitation of their clientele] But you've got such a sense of humor, and I think you're a wonderful man," lavishing Willy with the false-flattery characteristic of brothel women. When scheduling their next meeting, Willy "slaps her on [the] rear" (27) and instructs her to "keep your pores open!" (27), indicating her role as a sexual object and the exchange-value of beautiful skin. The woman admits to her degradation when she says, "You know you ruined me, Willy? You ruined me! From now on, whenever you come to the office, I'll see that you go right through to the buyers. You ruined me. (Crosses to him. Hugs him.)" (85). The woman's affection for Willy, dialectically mingled with her ruin, manifests in her promise that whenever he comes to the office (their place of business), she'll send him "right through to the buyers" (her bosses)--an image which parallels the business interactions of pimps and prostitutes.
At one point in the text, Willy's conversation with his wife subtly transforms into a conversation with "WOMAN." Preceded by several portending, unified laughs between Linda and "WOMAN", as Willy simultaneously speaks with his physically-present wife and the reminiscent apparition of his paramour, Linda's place in the dialogue is superseded when "WOMAN" says, "Me? You didn't make me, Willy. I picked you" (27). Immediately, Linda seems to disappear from Willy's consciousness, but his conversation enigmatically continues in much the same way; soon after, Linda rejoins the conversation saying, "You are, Willy. The handsomest man" (27,28), without ever disrupting the continuity of his dialogue. Miller unites Linda with Willy's paramour by demonstrating their interchangeability in this scene. Like "WOMAN," Willy views his wife as a sexual object who, unfortunately, has a lesser exchange-value; unlike "WOMAN," who receives "two boxes of size nine sheers" when they meet, Linda is constantly "darning [a] pair of her silk stockings" (28). Thus, Willy treats females like commodities and regards his own wife with the disrespect and disdain of a common whore. Thus, Biff's words ring true when he says to his mother, "He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you" (40).
Like their father, Biff and Happy pursue the capitalistic idealism of the previous generation. According to Diane Hoeveler, "Willy's materialism and philandering find expression in" Happy who "Like Biff...has heen warped by Willy's belief in success at any price. His promiscuity and insensitivity reach their pinnacle in the "celebration" dinner when he deserts his father for a woman he has just picked up--an event that parallels what Willy did to Biff in that Boston hotel room" (635). Thus, the destructive effects of capitalism, culminating through generations of influence, are epitomized in the American perspectives of Biff and Happy. Biff, who is "too rough with the girls," and Happy, who believes "they broke the mold" (48) after making his mother, reflect their father's chauvinistic disrespect for women, as well as, an objectified view of his wife and their mother, Linda.
As pointed out by Hoeveler, Happy's "promiscuity and insensitivity reach their pinnacle in the "celebration" dinner," when he sexually solicits a girl who, in his own words, "ought to be on a magazine cover" (74). Suggestively straddling his chair (an action redolent of Ben's lusty bravado), Happy asks the girl, "You don't happen to sell, do you?" (74)--an equally suggestive question which, when coupled with his opinion that "She's on call," solidifies his suspicion that she's actually a call-girl, or prostitute. Happy's statement, "Strudel's comin'" and his admiration of its mouth and "Oh God!..the binoculars" (73), reflect his view that women are sexual commodities he can purchase with champagne, "company money" (74), and socioeconomic stature (e.g. he says that "Biff is one of the greatest football players in the country" (75) and calls himself a graduate of West Point).
Earlier on, while reminiscing with his brother, Happy says, "Sometimes I sit in my apartment...all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then...it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely" (15). Herein, Happy despondently acknowledges the failures of American capitalism and associates "plenty of women" with both private property and commodity ownership. Because of his commodified view of women and the possibility of female ownership, he regards them with the same economic dispensability with which he regards bowling. He says, "The only trouble is, it gets like bowling, or something--I just keep knockin' them over and it doesn't mean anything" (16, 17). Happy's "over-developed sense of competition" (17) and desire "to come out number one"--a byproduct of the American dream and Ben's challenging assurance that "it does take a great kind of a man to crack the jungle"--leads Happy to sleep with his company executives' fiances, who willingly acquiesce, proving (at least in his own eyes) that "There's not a good woman in a thousand" (76).
Linda's condemning accusation, "Did you have to go to women tonight? You and your lousy rotten whores!" (90), attests to Happy's commodified view of women and the dissolute exploitation of gender dynamics. The American dream, envisioned by Willy as the boundless socioeconomic possibilities of an early American frontier, pervades every generation of his family and eventually destroys their livelihood. Economic preoccupation and the “cut and dry” austerity of twentieth century capitalism, perniciously warps the American mentality and results in the dehumanization of women as commodities, the pestilent degradation of male-female relationships, and a fall of a society that once promised a better quality of life.










Works Cited
Hoeveler, Diane Long. “Death of a Salesman as Psychomania.” Journal of American Culture. 1978: 632-37. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. November 5, 2008..
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Dramatist Play Service, 1975.
Nilsen, Helge Normann. “From Honors at Dawn to Death of a Salesman: Marxism and the Early Plays of Arthur Miller.” English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. March 94: 146-56. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. November 5, 2008..