In Death of a Salesman, what is the point of the rubber pipe/hose thing that the mom found by the furnace?

Question

I saw the play, and was totally confused by the entire thing,.. but especially this one object, and why it would cause so much uproar in the family. What is its purpose? Why did Willy put it there and what did he intend to use it for?

Answer 1

The most profound secret of the play is of course Willy’s apparent obsession with suicide. He has been involved in several inexplicable automobile accidents, and he has perhaps planned to asphyxiate himself by attaching a rubber tube to their gas water heater. Linda has discovered this tube and has revealed her discovery to her sons, but she forbids them from addressing the subject directly with Willy, for she believes such a confrontation will make him feel ashamed. This secret is hence ironically acknowledged by everyone except the one whose secret it is — Willy. When he does finally succeed in killing himself, his act can be interpreted as a culmination of secrets, secrets which are compounded through lies because they have been created through lies. Welland suggested that Willy’s suicide results from his affair — “To argue that in these days of relaxed social morals one minor marital infidelity hardly constitutes grounds for suicide is, paradoxically, to add weight to the theme in the context of this play: for Willy Loman it is enough.” His affair is certainly one factor in his decision, but it is a factor because he had been found out by his son, and because others are now starting to question him. So although these secrets include his affair(s) and Biff’s knowledge of this aspect of his life, they also include his failure as a salesman and the subsequent failures of his sons.

Answer 2

For suicide. Connect the tube to the exhaust pipe of the car, sit inside the garage and suffocate from carbon monoxide. Or something like that.