Symbols Flashcards
What might Willy’s car reflect?
Willy’s own exhaustion - he’s breaking down like the car does so often, he explains: “I’m tired, to death, I couldn’t make it, I just couldn’t make it, Linda, I suddenly just couldn’t drive anymore, the car kept going onto the shoulder”
What might be representative of the car going onto the shoulder?
That Willy is already suicidal without fully recognising it - Suddenly I’m going 60 miles an hour and I don’t remember the last five minutes, I can’t seem to keep my mind on anything, I was driving along, you understand? And i was fine, I was even observing the scenery, you know, the scenery on the road every week of my life it’s so beautiful up there, Linda, in New England, the trees are so thick and the sun is warm, and then I opened the windshield and let the warm air bathe over me and then all of a sudden I’m going off the road again. So I went off again and five minutes later I’m dreaming again…I have such thoughts, I have such strange thoughts.”
What is the significance of the windshield?
In the late 1940s, cars had permanent windshields, you didn’t need to lower them. But as Willy is driving he loses track of the present, of the car he’s driving, and thought he was in his red Chevrolet (1930s) where you did have to lower the windshield.
-he’s driving compulsively into the past to escape the sense of failure he has in the present
What is the significance of the flute?
-small and fine, the suggestion of grass and trees link to Willy’s past, heard when he’s drifting off into memories > all of his dreams ultimately trace back to his father who made wooden flutes and sold them out of the country, but Willy barely knew him because he disappeared in early childhood
What do the stockings represent?
For Willy, stockings represent a transactional relationship - he believes that he can ‘buy’ validation and being well-liked (which is a little flawed since he also believes that success comes from being well-liked, potentially showing his misunderstanding in the Bootstrap Myth)
“You gave her Mama’s stockings!” Biff in the memory of Boston.
Later in the play they could also be a symbol of his guilt and betrayal, when Linda is sewing her stockings. Could this indication of guilt make Willy more pitiful?
What is the significance of the refrigerator?
Represents the shallowness and flaws in materialism - he hasn’t finished paying for the fridge and it’s already stopped working properly.
