Again the repeated symbol of The Lomans car further conveys the death of Willy. On numerous occasions the car is mentioned by Willy. “This street is lined with cars,” and “I can’t drive this car-it’s always breaking” These lines highlight how the car symbolizes Willy’s lack of freedom. The car is meant to be something which can take Willy away to the far away places he dreams of- however the fact that it’s constantly breaking and he continually owes money for it provides a sharp contrast with his dreams of freedom with the blunt reality that he has a lack of independence. Again the car for Willy, is a way to symbolize his wealth and reputation, however the fact that he believes everyone has a car, shows how he is constantly striving for something unrealistic instead of facing up to reality. His inability to maintain the car, only lessen what people think of Willy.
The tragic death of Willy is further conveyed by the symbolic reference to seeds. The seeds for Willy represent the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. They symbolize his dreams for growth and success. However his desperate, nocturnal attempt to grow vegetables on a concrete patch signifies his shame about barely being able to put food on the table and having nothing to leave his children when he passes. "Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground" The seeds also symbolize Willy’s sense of failure with Biff. Despite the American Dream’s formula for success, which Willy considers infallible, Willy’s efforts to cultivate and nurture Biff went awry. Realizing that his all-American football star has turned into a lazy bum, Willy takes Biff’s failure and lack of ambition as a reflection of his abilities as a father. The seeds are significant towards the end of the play when Willy attempts to plant them in a concrete patch. By doing so, Miller presents Willy’s desperation to leave something behind- something that he was successful in and ultimately something that will maintain his falsely created good reputation. This deluded sense of reputation combined with his desperation successfully engage feelings of pity and sympathy for the reader, the key to creating the tragic death of Willy Loman.
Throughout the play, diamonds are symbolic. To Willy, diamonds represent tangible wealth and, hence, both validation of one’s labor (and life) and the ability to pass material goods on to Biff and Happy, two things that Willy desperately craves. Correlatively, diamonds, the discovery of which made Ben a fortune, symbolize Willy’s failure as a salesman. Despite Willy’s belief in the American Dream, a belief unwavering to the extent that he passed up the opportunity to go with Ben to Alaska, the Dream’s promise of financial security has eluded Willy. At the end of the play, Ben encourages Willy to enter the “jungle” finally and retrieve this elusive diamond—that is, to kill himself for insurance money in order to make his life meaningful.
Similarly the symbolic reference to Stockings contributes to the feelings of sympathy the reader feels when Willy meets his tragic end. Willy’s strange obsession with the condition of Linda’s stockings foreshadows his later flashback to Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room. The teenage Biff accuses Willy of giving away Linda’s stockings to The Woman. Stockings assume a metaphorical weight as the symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. New stockings are important for both Willy’s pride in being financially successful and thus able to provide for his family and for Willy’s ability to ease his guilt about, and suppress the memory of, his betrayal of Linda and Biff. The stockings also represent this lavish lifestyle of hotel rooms and new items that Willy thinks he leads and provides the reader with a stark contrast with the actual life Willy leads.
Finally the rubber hose is used throughout the play to act as a symbol and a constant reminds to the audience of Willy’s desperate attempts at suicide. He has apparently attempted to kill himself by inhaling gas, which is, ironically, the very substance essential to one of the most basic elements with which he must equip his home for his family’s health and comfort—heat. Literal death by inhaling gas parallels the metaphorical death that Willy feels in his struggle to afford such a basic necessity.
Collectively, the symbols used and the sheer amount that they are used, reinforce Willy’s tragic dream and deluded sense of what is real and what is not, by doing so the blur between reality and dreams are brought together and the audience is allowed to not only see what brought about Willy’s downfall but feel a sense of pity, sympathy and to a certain extent fear (for Willy health) these, Aristotle claims to be the key to a tragedy, therefor they convey the tragic death of Willy Loman.
by
rjzlbj (student)
