“You’re wrong!” “Be quiet!” “Stop that!” Every family experiences conflict; some even may have ‘family meltdowns” or arguments where everyone is talking and no one is listening. Family meltdowns are very common within dysfunctional families, such as the Lohmans, in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman. The reader hears many family meltdown within the course of the play, many dealing with the family’s overwhelming preoccupation with being well-liked, which is the eventual downfall of Willy. In The Death of a Salesman, Miller uses symbols, such as stockings, sneakers, and diamonds, to help the audience of the play see further into the Lohman family’s meltdowns.
Throughout the play, stockings appear in many contexts. First, Willy gives stockings to the woman he has an affair with, then he repeatedly lashes out at Linda for mending her stockings in front of him. “Willy (noticing her mending): What’s that? Linda: Just mending my stockings. They’re so expensive! Willy (angrily, taking them from her): I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out! (Linda puts the stockings in her pocket)” (26). Stockings remind Willy of how he isn’t providing for his family and his betrayal of Linda, which is similarly represented with Biff’s sneakers.
In the beginning of the play, Biff is very proud of his bright future, represented by his University of Virginia sneakers. At one point, he shows them off to his father, “Oh pop, you didn’t see my sneakers!” (32). Biff, football star of his high school, already received scholarships to a few universities, and the only thing standing in his way is failing his math class. He actively gives up on his future and destroys the sneakers once he finds out about his father’s affair. Bernard describes what happened after Biff returned from Boston to visit Willy: “…remember those sneakers with the University of Virginia printed on them? He was so proud of those, wore them every day. And he took them down into the cellar and burned them up in the furnace.” (72). In destroying the physical representation of his future, Biff shows the breakdown and ultimately the end of the promising future that was once in his hands, much like Willy’s diamonds.
The diamonds that make Ben rich symbolize concrete wealth in Death of a Salesman. Diamonds, unlike sales, which reveal nothing tangible to show for Willy’s work, represent pure material achievement and are also representative of “get-rich-quick” schemes that seem to be the solution to all of Willy’s problems. When Willy considers killing himself, Ben tells him that “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds.” (107). This jungle proves to be a risk (physically and, here, morally) which has the potential to yield wealth. In deciding to commit suicide, Willy perceives himself as going into the jungle to get diamonds for his sons.
The many disappointments in the Lohman family are well represented by symbols, such as stockings, sneakers, and diamonds, throughout The Death of a Salesman. Many of these are made important because of the Lohman’s belief in the American Dream. While their overly trusting manners are what leads to the downfall of Willy, and therefore relevant in the setting of the story, they also hold a question for the people of today’s era: Is the American dream alive, dying, or already dead?