You know that little rubber pipe I told you about? That he connected to the gas heater? I finally decided to go down the cellar this morning and take it away and destroy it. But it’s gone! Imagine? He took it away himself, it isn’t there!
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy’s suicide is foreshadowed by Linda’s reference to her husband connecting the rubber pipe to the gas heater. Speaking to Biff on the phone, Linda is at first happy that the pipe has been removed and thinks that Willy did this himself. But she is disappointed when she learns it is Biff who took away the pipe.