An Adonis is Upon Us

A lot of focus in not only my literature classes, but in many of my humanities classes, is put on how women and femininity are treated in society, and with good reason. Still, I feel compelled to talk about how masculinity gets portrayed. Not because I want to steal the spotlight away from women, but because I think that patriarchy hurts men too by defining what it means to be a man. Then men go chasing this unrealistic ideal and all sorts of misery comes out of this pointless pursuit.

I feel that Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" is ripe for this sort of analysis. Willy Loman is obsessed with performative masculinity. He lies about his reputation, his commission, and his own stature. He mocks his neighbor and his neighbor's son, saying "Between him and his son Bernard they can't hammer a nail!" and "A man who can't handle tools is not a man. You're disgusting."

Willy is old and tired and has never been all that successful. By America's standard of masculinity, he isn't much, which is one of the great tragedies about Willy Loman, he has bought into the lie that is unattainable to all despite being the sort of person that should criticize the mold that patriarchy wants its men to fit into. He calls his sons "Adonises," and attributes business savvy to them that they cannot live up to either.

In the end, the irony is that for all Willy's male posturing, he's just pathetic.