Silk Stockings
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 7.5.3
Silk Stockings
The image of silk stockings appears in both acts of the play.
Triggers
- Like cars, silk stockings act as a linking device, connecting past and present, with Linda’s mending of a pair of stockings triggering Willy’s painful memory of his affair in Boston.
Sex
- As such, silk stockings act as a symbol of sex in the play: they are the price that The Woman demands for their ‘transaction’.
Financial troubles
- That Linda has to mend her stockings is another reminder of the Lomans’ day-to-day financial struggles as Willy struggles to make commission on his sales.
Test yourself on Silk Stockings
What are stockings a symbol of in Death of a Salesman?
What memory does Linda’s mending of a pair of stockings trigger?