*Death of a Salesman--Day 5.

In the commencement of the play Death of a Salesman, writer Arthur Miller implements various items that the reader does not understand the deeper meaning of until the play progresses. The “laugh” of “the woman” is not understood until further on in the play, and when the reader does unearth the meaning, the reader discovers the woman was Willy’s mistress in Boston. The reason Willy always hears the woman laughing in his memories, is because the woman was laughing when Biff saw her with Willy. Another symbol used to foreshadow Willy’s infidelity is the stockings. Previously in the play, Linda was mending her “stockings” and Willy became upset with her and told her to “throw them out.” The simple use of stockings denotes a deeper meaning within Act II. Stockings, being an undergarment, symbolize something sensual- therefore symbolizing Willy’s infidelity. When Biff catches Willy and the woman together, the woman is asking Willy for the stockings he promised to bring her. The reader then correlates the distress occurred in Willy when Linda was mending her old ones. Willy wants Linda to have new stockings to she has a better appearance to her- an image like Willy’s mistress.

Thus far, the characters have been dealing with a constant struggle of fighting with memories from the past. Falsifying reality is the main characteristic of Willy thus far, and is also occurring in the characters of Happy and Biff. When meeting with strangers, Happy recites that his family is “successful” and “wealthy” and that Biff is the “quarterback for the New York Giants” and that Willy is a great salesman. When Biff meets with Bill Oliver about working for bill, Biff realizes that he never actually was a “salesman for Bill” in his past, but was a “shipping clerk.” The Loman’s wanted the appearance of success so badly, that they made Biff believe that he actually worked for Bill Oliver. Biff is finally realizing that Happy and Willy are trapped in their demented minds of the past, and cannot move onto the future and what is happening now. The reader can predict that Biff will be the one Loman that will move forward and life and hopefully help Happy and Willy move forward also.