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Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

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Student Question

In Death of a Salesman, why does Linda tell the boys to leave and not come back?

Quick answer:

Linda tells Biff and Happy to leave and not return after they abandon their father Willy at a restaurant to pursue women, leaving him humiliated. She is disgusted by their behavior, calling them "animals," and wants to protect Willy from further torment. This marks Linda's transformation from a supportive wife to a strong, authoritative figure willing to confront her sons, though she continues to shield Willy from the harsh realities of his situation.

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Walking out the door with whores in tow, Biff and Happy leave their father to founder in his delusions in the restroom of Frank's Chop House. As they return home later that evening, Happy carrying a conciliating bouquet, Linda confronts her sons over humiliating Willy. Furiously dashing the roses to the floor, Linda castigates them as nothing more than animals and tells them to "get out of here, both of you, and don't come back!" In this pivotal event Linda demonstrates her intriguing character development. Through the course of the play, Linda travels a long way from the timorous housewife, almost mindlessly echoing Willy's fantasies, to a strong, fearless woman willing to stand up to her feckless sons. When the Loman family was younger, Linda was content to support and nurture Willy, but now that he cannot lead it out of its disintegration, she assumes that authority. In essence, she masculinizes her maternal role. But even with this movement, she refuses to sabotage his dignity. Thus, even though Linda knows that he is suicidal, she refuses to confront him.   

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At the end of Act Two, Linda is disgusted that her sons had made off with a prostitute in a restaurant while Willy was in the "men's room" (toilet). In the heat of her anger she wishes them "good riddance," but in the end her maternal love brings her around. The family reconciliation is short-lived, however, since hard on the heels of this event is Willy's "accident," which all of them know is really a suicide.

Extra note:  The Loman sons' philandering is also a sour resonance of Willy's own infidelity and double-faced nature.  While his wife Linda trods around in mended stockings, Willy is offering expensive presents to his "conquests"  -- which besides being a betrayal in itself,  puts an extra strain on the family budget. Linda, who has been fiercely defending her husband up to this point, becomes increasingly aware that more than just one thing has gone awry within the family matrix.

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Although she doesn't know it absolutely, it is already too late to save Willy, but she tries:

LINDA: Get out of here, both of you, and don’t come back! I don’t want you tormenting him any more. Go on now, get your things together!

Oblivious to Willy's deep suffering, Biff and Happy earlier abandoned their father at Frank's Chop house where they were all having dinner together:

LINDA: You’re a pair of animals! Not one, not another living soul would have had the cruelty to walk out on the man in a restaurant!

BIFF (not looking at her): Is that what he said?

LINDA: He didn’t have to say anything. He was so humiliated he nearly limped when he came in.

HAPPY: But, Mom, he had a great time with us...

BIFF (cutting him off violently): Shut up!

(Without another word, Happy goes upstairs.)

LINDA: You! You didn’t even go in to see if he was all right!

BIFF (still on the floor in front of Linda, the flowers in his hand; with self-loathing): No. Didn’t. Didn’t do a damned thing. How do you like that, heh? Left him babbling in a toilet.

LINDA: You louse. You...

BIFF: Now you hit it on the nose! (He gets up, throws the flowers in the wastebasket.) The scum of the earth, and you’re looking at him!

LINDA: Get out of here.

What Linda doesn't know is that without his sons, especially Biff, Willy has nothing. And with his sons, especially Biff, Willy has to face the lies that make up his life. So Willy just can't go on. There is no solution; she can't kick Biff out, and there's no way he can stay. Her husband is hopelessly doomed.

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