In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel recounts the horror of witnessing his own father physically disintegrate after they together have endured so many months of suffering in Nazi death camps. During the last days of his father's life in a death camp, Elie desperately tries to comfort his father by telling him that "this was not the end, that we would go back to the house together" (102). Elie tells his father that little white lie, just as Willy Loman's wife Linda indirectly does in the Death of a Salesman and just as Catherine's husband David indirectly does in The Garden of Eden. In a modest way, Linda "lies" to Willy by saying soothing words to him, words that he wants to hear, and by never confronting him about his continuing denial of reality. Likewise, David "lies" to Catherine at the beginning of their marriage by going along with her wishes rather than giving honest, straightforward answers. David thus enables Catherine to believe that nothing is wrong, that she is indeed stable. Neither Linda nor David "lies" spitefully or intentionally; however, because of their tolerating silence, they enable their spouses to come closer and closer to their collapse and ruin.
             Although Linda consistently exhibits her care, love, and loyalty for Willy, she hinders Willy from being true to himself. She becomes for him more of a mother than a wife to Willy, "Just rest. Should I sing to you?" (67). But to make matters worse, she becomes a weak, spoiling mother. "He's the dearest man in the world to me, and I won't have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue" (55). And so, Linda becomes an enabler. Because of her inability or unwillingness to say "No" to her "child," she allows her husband to physically and mentally disintegrate, "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?" (60). Instead of facing the problem, she tiptoes a
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