Of Salesmen and False Beliefs

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman offers a distinct commentary on the American Dream, best explored in the death of its protagonist, Willy Loman. Almost immediately before Willy and his wife Laura are to make their final payment on their twenty-five year mortgage and take full ownership of their house, Willy, crazed and desperate, commits suicide. As his family mourns and praises him, Willy’s eldest son, Biff, bemoans, “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong…He never knew who he was” (Miller 111). This occurrence sheds light on the truth Miller hoped to convey: The American Dream – what should be equated with home, family, and happiness – may all too often be corrupted into something much more superficial. It may be warped into the

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

Although the play is mainly concerned with money, whether it’s owning it, paying it or earning it; Wilson uses vivid language to develop different themes. Some of the themes he uses to develop commerce are the desire to escape, and betrayal. The next few paragraphs will discuss these themes and how Wilson uses language to develop them.

Throughout history, authors and playwrights have used their writings as a way to add social commentary. Voltaire and Kurt Vonnegut wrote scathing satires; Harper Lee and George Orwell wrote detailed accounts about both the nuances and overt sides of social injustice. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller continues the tradition and gives his two cents about capitalism and the American Dream through the life of Willy Loman, the story’s protagonist. Traditionally, the American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen has an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

In 1949, Arthur Miller wrote a play called “The Death Of a Salesman”. This play is known for its compelling view on the mind of the middle class working man. The characters in “The Death of a Salesman” all have various dimensions of development throughout the story. These characters can all be seen as components one collective mind using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory; the Oedipal, Id, Ego, and Superego. These characters all strive for success by way of the American Dream and all of it’s inconsistent factors and betrayal that personify it so well.

In a capitalistically inclined economy, the influences of wealth and social esteem are rooted deep within the ideologies of such a system. Value of an entity is prescribed by these facets, those without wealth or esteem are belittled and depreciated, while those that come to acquire said commodities are prioritized above others in societal outlets. This is such that instills a drive within those under the governance of a market economy, the desire for immense affluence, as well as incontestable social influence. Duddy Kravitz in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller thoroughly exemplify this drive for excess wealth and power. When analyzing the characters of Duddy Kravitz and Willy Loman, it is made distinctly evident that Duddy Kravitz is successful to a greater degree, when compared to Willy Loman, in achieving the generic and superficial capitalistic views of success.

The line between reality and illusion is often blurred in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. Whether it is incorporated in the content or the actual structure, this struggle between recognizing reality from illusion turns into a strong theme; it eventually leads to the downfall of Willy and his family. Willy is incapable of recognizing who he is, and cannot realize that he, as well as his sons, is not capable of being successful in the business world. Happy and Biff both go through some battle between reality and illusion that cause a collapse in some part of their lives. The line between Willy’s flashbacks and current time also send him into turmoil when he cannot distinguish between the two.

The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.

This is an example of the importance of a person’s appearance and how it’s values more highly in comparison with intelligence and kindness and that is always the case in a demanding society of popularity.

In the drama, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays Willy Loman, an average traveling salesman in Brooklyn who wants to live the dream. In the late 1940’s, the American dream was not so much of having an enormous amount of money, but a comfortable wealth and to be able to live a perfect modern American life. Willy Loman’s dream is to be successful in business and be someone who is “well-liked” by everyone. “Willy believes that personality, not hard work and innovation, is the key to success.”("The

Published in 1949, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a tragic commentary on the hollowness and futility of the American Dream. This paper will explore Willy’s obsession with achieving material wealth and prosperity and how his yearning for the American Dream ultimately caused him to deny reality and lead the breakup of his family. Ultimately, Miller’s message is not that the American Dream is by necessity a harmful social construct, but simply that it has been misinterpreted and perverted to rob individuals of their autonomy and create inevitable dissatisfaction.

All throughout America, competition flows through the people’s blood like an epidemic there’s no cure for. From the age Americans are infants, it is bred into them. They are taught that there are winners and there are losers, and not to be a loser. Although some believe this kind of competition can lead to success and happiness, the outcomes are quite the opposite. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman when the main character, Willy Loman, not only lives his life by the myth of competition but also drives this myth into the minds of his family. This causes one of Willy’s sons to be led down a path of misguided aspirations, leads Willy to have very low self-esteem, and evokes poor relationships with others. Through this, Miller shows that competition is just a widely believed American myth which doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life.

Arthur Miller’s moralistic play Death of a Salesman has become a milestone in American theatre and literature. Miller's play is an intimate study of the tragedy one family faces and their singular reaction to it. Through the unique personalities of the characters, Miller teaches a dramatic lesson in the individual tragedy of a man pursuing materialistic success at the expense of the higher values of personal, emotional growth and fulfillment that can only be achieved by truly knowing oneself. It is an eye opening collision of idealism and the American Dream with the harsh realities of everyday life.

Throughout Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Lowman sought to attain the American Dream, but his distorted view of Marxist control ultimately provoked his physical, material, and mental destruction. Lowman, a middle-class salesman, husband, and father of two shared the ideology of many American’s, an ideology that hard work, dedication, and likeability was attainable regardless of social class, or life circumstances. Yet, the multiple distortions Willy associated with this dream combined with regressed emotions eventually led to his demise. It is easy for one to assume that mental illness is simply a disease, but the debate surrounding its correlation to social status and the unattainability of goals has never been so vividly

In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is