I’m – I’m ashamed to. How can I mention it to him? Every day I go down and take away that little rubber pipe. But, when he comes home, I put it back where it was. How can I insult him that way? I don’t know what to do. I live from day to day, boys. I tell you, I know every thought in his mind. It sounds so old-fashioned and silly, but I tell you he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him. (She is bent over in the chair, weeping, her face in her hands.) Biff, I swear to God! Biff, his life is in your hands!
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Linda Loman is the classic enabler, whose passive ways contributes to the dysfunction of the Loman men. She supports their bad decisions and fails to call them out when they are wrong. Her enabling is very obvious when she learns of her husband’s suicide attempts. He has been attaching a rubber pipe to the gas line and inhaling the deadly carbon monoxide. Instead of urging her husband to stop, Linda says nothing out of fear of insulting him, but simply removes the pipe each day. She admonishes her sons Biff and Happy for turning their backs on their father, insinuating that their abandonment is linked to his suicidal thoughts. This passage foreshadows Willy’s suicide.