An error occurred while loading the PDF.
The Effects of Toxic Masculinity in Miller's Death of a Salesman
Voiceover
Presenter(s)
Dori Shearer
Abstract or Description
Toxic masculinity has been rooted into our cultural norms under the guise of being the correct way for men to act. This poster explores how the playwright Arthur Miller addresses his characters’ toxic masculinity in his play Death of a Salesman in order to reveal how non-toxic traits can lead to a more successful life. The poster compares Willy Loman to his sons, Biff and Happy, and it contrasts their behavior to their other family members, Charlie and Bernard. The poster uses Miller’s play as a primary source for quotations and character analysis, and it uses literary analysis from Basourakos; Gleitman; and Vanderwerken along with psychological reports on male gender conflict theory by Sipes and Huffman et al to support claims. This poster explores how men’s beliefs about gender are products of how their fathers instruct them and how mental health can be affected by gender beliefs.
Comments
Olivia Gray4 years ago
This is a very well thought out project, Dori! I never thought of the connection between mental health and gender beliefs, but it makes a lot of sense. It is also very interesting how you connected these ideas to literature showing their prominence!
• • 1 comment
Dori Shearer4 years ago
Thank you so much, Olivia! I was also surprised while doing my research about how older playwrights and authors tackled this issue as this is certainly not the only play from the same era that talks about and shows mental illness, especially in men. If you are interested in delving deeper into how the theatre world has shown this, you should check out Tennessee William's plays, especially The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (whose characters have many parallels to those in Death of a Salesman).