Stockings

Quarter 1 Post 3
Death of a Salesman

Like I said, this is a pretty short play, so while it seems like writing this penultimate post only 112 pages may be premature, I'm left with no choice because I've reached the end. And a tragic end, at that. Things escalate in the Loman family, and the play ends with a tragedy that I won't spoil. However, right at the end of the book, before tragedy strikes, the most pivotal point of the story occurs, which brings all of the parts we've read so far full circle and finally reveals how the schism developed between father and son. On pages 93-95, we finally see why Biff gave up on his father and why he decided not to retake math and go to college. In line with my prediction from the first post, "The Woman" was indeed a mistress of Willy. However, what I failed to predict was that Biff actually caught his father in the act, and saw Willy give "The Woman" some of Linda's stockings after the two obviously had a sexual encounter that Willy tried to cover up.

There are references to stockings earlier in the play, such as the one on page 55 that "get me [Willy] nervous" when he sees a stocking dangling from Linda's hand. Even earlier on, "The Woman" says, "And thanks for the stocking. I love a lot of stockings" (26). Both of these foreshadow the big reveal on who she is, and the last mention of the stockings comes during this crucial scene when "The Woman" says, "Where are my stocking? You promised me stockings, Willy!" (94). This seems like a fairly insignificant symbol in the scheme of the play since the stockings only come up a few times and are only briefly mentioned in each appearance. Also, Flannery O'Connor says that a symbol needs to play a role in the story if it is to have symbolic meaning. The stockings have their appearances, but like I said, they aren't very meaningful in the development of the plot since they only act as little side notes in these character interactions. However, they do accumulate meaning, especially since early on in the play it's hard to tell what they are implying. Each time they appear, they become more and more humiliating for Willy. Their first appearance has Willy shrug off the gift as though it were nothing and response to "The Woman's" thanks with a flirty joke. Then, when he sees the stockings in Linda's hands, he's embarrassed by their presence and immediately asks her to put them down, which is a strange request in it of itself. Then, finally, face to face with Biff, "The Woman" insists that Biff give her the stockings before she leaves and walks to her room naked. From these moments, the stockings seems to represent infidelity, but also carry a message about infidelity with them. Since Willy is initially unperturbed by the implications of his gift and then grows to resent their significance, I assumed that the message carries over to infidelity: it might seem like a harmless engagement at first, but as demonstrated in Willy's case, it isn't worth it in the end.