Lena and Linda: So Different and Yet the Same
“Death of a Salesman” and “A Raisin in the Sun”, two Tony Award winning plays; both are revered as classics. Both have been revived, reprinted, and filmed multiple times. however, that is not all they have in common; both plays share strikingly similar matriarchs. In 1949 Arthur Miller premiered his play “Death of a Salesman”; in this he introduces us to Linda Loman. When we meet Linda, she seems content with her lot in life, on the surface. In reality, she is living in survival mode for herself and for her husband Willy Loman. She lives with her husband and two sons, who are somewhat disconnected from themselves and each other. Some time Later, in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry debuted her play “A Raisin in the Sun”; Here we are introduced to Lean Younger. When we meet Lena, affectionately referred to as mama; she is awaiting a ten-thousand-dollar life insurance check from her late husband. She lives in a very small apartment with her daughter, son, daughter in law, and grandson. Her
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She serves as the voice of reason to the guys in her life. She constantly mediates between Bill and Willy, in attempts to salvage their broken relationship. More than family mediator, she is Willy’s rock; “She sings to him, dresses him, and mothers him through his disillusion and distress. As the rock of a dysfunctional family, this stay at home mom and wife wraps her life around her husband and boys, whose arrested development saddens her.” (Rosenzweig). She is so protective and fearful about Willy’s mental state; she goes as far as kicking her sons out of the house and verbally assaulting them for hurting willy’s feelings. “Get out of here, both of you, and don’t come back! I don’t want you tormenting him any more. Go on now, get your things together! You can sleep in his apartment. Pick up this stuff, I’m not your maid any more. Pick it up, you bum, you! You’re a pair of animals! (Cheuse