The role of women in the death of the SalesmanThe critic Rhoda Koenig criticizes Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, complaining that in this work he describes all the women as “evil sluts” or “a combination of good maids and slipper retrievers,” Linda being a “dumb and useful doormat” (Koenig 10). While this criticism may seem reckless and writers such as Christopher Bigsby and Terry Otten consider it seriously “off the mark” (Bigsby xix), Koenig raises an interesting point about Miller's categorization of women. In Death of a Salesman, Miller mocks the male-driven "American Dream" by categorizing female characters into two stereotypical social roles, namely domestic housewife and extramarital partner, to show the underlying but influential position of women in a company that is believed to continue to function. “male myths” (Stanton 190). He further makes his point by creating a plot in which housewife Linda instigates the main tragedy through her interactions with Willy. In Death of a Salesman, Miller does not fully characterize most of his female characters, but he does so enough to create two categories. in which all the female characters except one fit perfectly. Miller classifies "The Woman", Letta, and Forsythe as the stereotypical promiscuous women whose sole purpose derives from the desire of men, and classifies Linda as the loyal, submissive housewife who does everything to keep her mentally faded husband from feeling "blue" or “unwanted” (Miller 39). Various feminist critics argue that Miller is exposing his sexist views in the play when he classifies women into these demeaning groupings. They say that Miller portrays these characters as if they were “trading objects” (Austin 49) and reduces these “t… middle of paper… g his composure Miller infuses abundant irony into his work by having the submissive housewife try to preserve the fragile emotions of the “provider,” telling her two children to be more sensitive towards their father's feelings and mental state. This certainly calls into question who the real "man of the house" is in this society. Miller subtly groups these influential women into these stereotypical categories to show the folly of the American Dream ideology . Miller furthers his point by introducing the character of Jenny, an employed woman and therefore a minority in her male-dominated world. When Miller introduces Willy, a suicidal man with no real paying job who borrows money to pay bills, you patronizingly ask Jenny, “How are you? Are you working? Or still honest?" (Miller 69) when she is employed and working, she ridicules the ideology and reinforces her criticism.