Willy Loman Analysis

In order to underscore these constraints, Miller juxtaposes the dullness of the Lomans’ “present” existence with the natural world around them (Miller 1). Almost immediately upon returning from work, Willy remarks how he caught himself “looking at scenery” and noticing that “the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm” (Miller 3). The fact that, in admiring the scenery, Willy “forgot” he “was driving” and almost crossed “over the white line” highlights the tension between the boundaries of the material and the natural worlds (Miller 3). Both spaces are demarcated and distinct, and the act of crossing over (both literally and metaphorically) from one side to the other can be life-threatening and dangerous. In deploying this dichotomy, Miller
Our first encounter with Linda’s stockings is, unsurprisingly, in a memory sequence. While The Woman laughs at Willy from the sides of the stage, Linda sits in the kitchen “mending a pair of her silk stockings” to which Willy expresses horror (Miller 26). In an act of anger, he takes them “from her” and puts them in his pocket (Miller 26). By placing Linda’s stockings in his pocket, Willy makes a conscious attempt to gain control of the narrative in his memory. He removes the object, which reminds him of his wrongdoings, from the hands (read: control) of someone else, and places them under his direct influence instead. The politics of this action are clearly very gendered, but it is important to question whether Willy’s action gives him any sort of real control over Linda. After all, Linda appears at the top of Act 2—this time in “the present” (Miller 1)—with another pair of stockings “hanging from her hand” (Miller 55). Try as he might, Willy will never be able to fully gain control of this memory from Linda. Time after time, she can conjure up stocking after stocking to mend, much to Willy’s frustration. When the stockings make their final appearance in the hotel room memory, Linda’s ownership of the stockings is made explicit when Young Biff yells at Willy that he gave The Woman “Mama’s stockings!” (Miller 95). The stockings are emotionally and syntactically tied to Linda, serving as the final nail in the coffin for Willy, and giving her a dominant position in this memory. No matter how hard he attempts to disconnect her from the event or to regain control of it from her, Willy is always “left on the floor on his knees,” submissive to Linda (Miller 95). In the end, we are left wondering whether the stockings were ever really a part of his affair with The Woman, or whether