She is a woman that Willy has met on the road. She insists that she chose him because he made her laugh, re-establishing his sense of self. As they kiss and she thanks him for some stockings he has given her, it becomes evident that Willy had some kind of affair with this woman. This is confirmed when the scene returns to where it was before -still in the past, with Linda darning stockings. Willy returns to the present, insists that his wife will not mend her stockings, and this is the first sign of the great guilt in Willy that runs through and becomes more apparent during the rest of the play. This episodic structure echoes the fragmented state of Willy's mind. Willy's dream continues with him talking to his sons as teenagers and his wife, where they appear to be a happy family. There are however, noticeable cracks already as Happy repeatedly tells his father "I'm losing weight, you notice, pop?- and never gets a response. We see here that Willy plays favourites with his sons. .
This scene is also important because it reveals Biff and Willy's supportive, past relationship, containing so much hope on both sides, juxtaposed with the present conflict between them, and contains many examples of dramatic devices which are all through the play. It shows the financial strain the family is under, the pressure Willy is under to provide more than he seems able and displays for the first time Willy's philosophy that being "well liked- is all you need to get by in life. This is the reason he favours Biff: His high school popularity. The most noticeable thing to the audience in the entire play would be that when plunged into Willy's imagination the characters no longer pay attention to wall lines and doors, which represent the boundaries of Willy's sanity. Any confusion that may be experienced reading the play would not exist if watching the play. It is this; Willy's inability to accept the falseness of his dreams that prevents him from confronting reality.