"You can't just come to see me, because I love him [with a threat, but only a threat, of tears.] He's the dearest man in the world to me, and I won't have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue. You've got to make up your mind now, darling, there's no leeway any more. Either he's your father and you pay him that respect, or else you're not to come here. I know he's not easy to get along with - nobody knows that better than me - but..."
Linda is on the verge of an emotional upheaval, brimming with tears
defending her husband from her sons' disaproval. There seems to be a lot of tension between everyone in the family, but there is a great deal of tension within Linda, who bottles up her emotions to please others. I believe she does love Willy very much, and she gets very offended when others disapprove of him, which in turn reflects on her lack of approval. Perhaps she feels that she needs to support her husband to keep her own identity in high status, or maybe she truly has faith and naivity that her husband is greater than he actually is. Her identity is within him, and if he is nothing, than so is she.
