Who Is To Blame For Willy Loman

Throughout history, different time frames had issues, and Willy Loman endured much distress due to the war. Willy Loman was always short of cash, but there was always Charley, Willy’s next door neighbor to bail him out by assisting him. Although Willy may be the blame for some of his misfortunes, his wife certainly did not help him to matters better for him. There will always be someone to blame for one’s social and cultural environment.
I do not think Willy is completely responsible for what became of him and his keeping-up with the Joneses obsession. The time frame when the story was written was during a hardship for America (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012). As stated by Kirszner and Mandell (2012), “At the time of Death of a Salesman was written
in 1949, the United States was experiencing the largest economic expansion in its history” (p. 961). There were so many women who had to work to help their families during World War II, but Linda did not. Linda was a naïve lady who believes anything her husband tells her. What kind of person would not investigate their husband who comes home during the hours of the night with so many different excuses? In my opinion, Linda is not much different that Willy. Linda associates contentment and liberty with the material things of life, and she certainly knew how much money was needed for bills.
I believe Linda could have helped to support the household just as much as her husband. I want the finer things of life; needless to say, money does not grow on trees. The war alone brought hardship for the economy. After all, her children were grown. When her husband changes the amount of money he collected multiple times, I would have known then something was right
about how many hours he actually worked.
Linda doesn’t seem to take pride in her outward appearance since her son managed to take notice. Of course, Willy gets his needed funds from Charley, his next door neighbor. If Charlie would not have kept on helping Willy, then something could have been brought to end with the monetary situation. Linda does make excuses for Willy’s actions when Biff asks how long his father been acting in his manner. Nobody took the time out to see why Willy was not acting like himself. Even though issues were going on prior to Biff and Happy coming home for a visit, Linda blames Biff for his behavior. Now the one thing that Linda did that was not normal for any adult, and that was she sung a child's bedtime song for her husband to go to sleep. Linda takes his shoes off and treats him like a baby, and oh the things she asks Willy (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012)! According to Kirszner and Mandell (2016), “Should I sing to you? Willy: Yea, Sing to me (p. 997). If Linda sung Willy a song to go to sleep, no wonder he had an affair! Lastly, Linda had convinced Willy to approach Howard, Willy’s boss, for an advancement in his wages in order to pay bills and to relocate his job locally. Willy gets more than he bargained for,
permanent dismissal from his position as a salesman. It didn’t make any difference, Willie was getting money for Charley. It seems like throughout this play, everyone was looking for someone else to blame for anything that went wrong. I believe some blame can be put on the social and culture environment in which Willy lived, but not to the extent that everything had to be put on credit to cause a hardship on Willy (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012).
Every war brings hardships, but some people have times tougher than others. Willy knew he had someone to back him up when money was low and sometimes none. Linda is not only immature, but somewhat foolish herself. Not only does Linda put blame on her son, Biff, for not visiting; but she does not help situation within her home.