Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Family: destroyer or
nurturer?
- Death of a
Salesman
- Father-son-relationship
- Willy cannot provide for his family
- not the ideal
father
- provides through the charity of his
neighbor and friend (Charley)
- illustrated by the fact that Biff is a
thief -> he has internalized
capitalism (like his father)
- family as a site for oedipal conflict -> suffering of women,
conflict between father and son
- Long Day's Journey into Night
- once-close family has deteriorated over the years
(drugs, alcohol, stinginess, attitude towards
money/work)
- Marriage
- problems due to
morphine
- Tyrone: money for land
speculation and
investing, but not for his
family (Capitalism)
- cheap doctor, second hand furniture
- Mary: rich family,
equates love with
economic spending on
herself (capitalism)
- Father-son-relationship
- providing for his family (car, education, maid)
- failure to protect his sons from
becoming alcoholics & in
protecting his wife's health
- home is not
hygienic
- let Jamie enter the nursery when
exposed to measles (Eugene)
- he ignores his family's social,
personal, emotional needs because
consumed with his pursuit of
wealth
- Mother-child relationship
- she gave birth
-> requirement
of feminity
- does not provide
for her family
(drugs)
- does not cook, clean,
shop -> no
"traditional" maternal
act
- Mary cannot see them,
because she is high ->
sees her children as
things
- Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf
- George has failed to fulfil the expectations of his wife and her father
-> lack of social and economic production
- Martha compares George to her father: "And
Daddy built this college ... you know what the
endowment was when he took over, and what it
is now?" -> values him for making money
- Nick married Honey,
because she is rich
(father: religion)
- Nick and Honey as younger
versions of George and
Martha
- in both marriages: spouse was chosen
for her or his economic potential
rather than romantic love
- A Raisin in the Sun
- family unite at the end to realize their
dream of buying a house -> Walter and
Beneatha learn it at the end of the play ->
put their family's wishes before their own
-> merging of individual dreams with the
family's overarching dream
- Mother-child-relationship
- tension: Mama's dream and Walter's -> Walter:
regain his pride and dignity, which has been
eroded by his work as a chauffeur for a white
man
- Mama: ideal mother,
domestic provider -> looks
out for everyone's needs
before herself
- Mama: Walter "worked himself to
death" -> people are exploited by
20th century American society in
order to produce things
- all dreams are commodified:
Mama and Ruth dream about a
house, Walter wants a liquor
store, Travis wants 50 cents,
only Beneatha's dream of being
a doctor is not commodified by
a materialistic society
- Mama ignores Walter's dream: contributed to
his emasculation, Walter seen as a commodity
that has to work