From the line:
Stanley, calling to Happy indignantly: Mr. Loman! Mr. Loman!
The symbolism of the stockings is finally explained through the Willy’s memory of the event that he believes led to Biff’s downfall. His act of adultery with “the woman” not only drives him mad with guilt for the rest of his life but also shatters his son’s image of his father. Biff admired his father and “[knew] that the way [he] could talk” to others would bring them to like him. He believed in his father’s definition of success being how much you were loved and valued by others. However, his world was destroyed when he found out about his father’s affair with another woman who Willy gave Linda’s stockings to. Biff then proceeds to call his father a “phony” and a “fake”. Miller uses this flashback as a turning point in Willy’s behavior in which we are filled with pity for Willy and Biff. Also we are finally able to understand Willy’s strange hatred for Linda’s mending of her stockings. These stockings serve as a reminder of Willy’s adultery and unfaithfulness to Linda and his family.
One thing that I noticed is that when things get difficult, Biff tends to run away. In Willy’s flashback of when Biff found out about “the woman”, after Biff calls his father a “fake”, he “turns quickly and weeping fully goes out with this suitcase” leaving his father shocked and dumbfounded in the hallway. When Biff was angry at the fact that Oliver pretended not to know who he was, he ran away with Oliver’s fountain pen. And when Biff is frustrated at Willy for not understanding that he didn’t get the deal and couldn’t “even bear to look at his face”, he “hurries out” of the restaurant. Perhaps Miller includes this constant running away to indicate Biff’s lack of confidence and the dysfunctional relationship between father and son.
Biff’s relationship with his father shows the failure of the promise of the MISLEADING American Dream. For Willy, the message of the American Dream was that if many loved you, success would come your way. However, by continuously looking to impress others, Biff realized that he was “so full of hot air” that he couldn’t listen or cooperate with anyone, causing communication problems between him and anyone else, especially Willy who believed that the American Dream was the way to live from the very core of his heart.
After his flashback, Willy detaches himself from all materialistic things. He gives Stanley money saying that he “[doesn’t] need it anymore”. He looks for seeds to plant and goes back home to start planting them. Willy is confused by his dreams and aspirations and the reality of the state of his family, although I am unsure as to whether this is due to something psychological or not. But the important thing is that Willy is only able to fully believe a couple of things by the end of the play. Willy believes that Biff is spiteful for his adulterous act and that Biff blames Willy for his lack of success. However, Biff loves his father and just wants his father to see him for who he really is. He does not want to hear his father’s expectations of him that are years old and outdated. Biff simply wants his father to see him for the “nothing” that he is. Biff is able to realize and is set free from the phony American Dream that his father Willy holds on to unknowingly as if it were his sole possession. The other thing that Willy believes is that his death will bring his popularity back and impress Biff. Willy in his speech to Ben states that he will have people “from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire” and that through this Biff will realize that his father is “known”.
Linda’s final phrase in the play “we’re free” as well as the fleeting music of the flute represents the catharsis of the family from Willy’s imposing dream. Although they are all mourning Willy, any glory or respectability that Willy’s death might have had was stripped by the lack of people at his funeral and his family’s and neighbor’s lamenting over Willy’s sad life as an unconfident salesman who “[rode] on a smile and shoeshine”.
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