Essay on Symbolism in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Setting high expectations is a double-edged sword, serving as motivation while pushing individuals into despair. In Arthur Miller’s award-winning play, “Death of a Salesman”, Willy, an elderly salesman, experiences the downfall of his career, pushing him to his tragic death. From Willy’s speech and behavior, his death is foreshadowed and anticipated. Willy’s hope slowly shatters through every rejection. As much as he wants to deny the hardship, it reaches a state where it can no longer be ignored.

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.

Willy admires Ben as his older brother and tries to be everything like him, however he lacks some of the characteristics like self-esteem. Ben’s success creates an illusion for Willy to be connected to him somehow. Most importantly ben represents all the fantasies of success that Willy desires for himself and his sons. Ben eventually leads willy into committing suicide to receive the insurance money because by making him believe money is

No one remembered Willy in the business world he was just another travelling worker, no big shot, someone who was soon to retire. As Willy thought about this more all he could hope for was the success of the two good-looking boys he had raised, in hope that they would be the next big thing. But

The eyes of the reader are opened wide after reading Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor and applying it to a text. There are many elements in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman that go unrecognized by the normal reader. Using the tactics presented by Foster, one can realize that there is much meaning and symbolism in Death of a Salesman. The overall theme in Death of a Salesman is the American Dream and how many people of the time period were desperate to achieve it.

Thomas Edison, an American inventor and businessman, says, "There is no substitute for hard work." In other words, Thomas Edison believes individuals cannot cheat the process of success to get to the top, they must work for it. In the play, "Death of a Salesman," the author, Arthur Miller, uses the narrative techniques of imagery, motifs, and symbolism to show how success and social acceptance can be deceptive for Willy Loman and his family. Willy Loman is a troubled, self-defrauding travelling salesman. He genuinely believes in the American Dream of easy success and prosperous wealth, but he cannot achieve it. Neither can his sons fulfill their dreams which Willy feels is a reflection on himself and his parenting skills and the values he

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses motifs and symbols to express some of the problems of the main character, Willy. Miller motivates Willy to start a garden in the backyard of his apartment, even though the garden won’t grow. This showed Willy to be the type who does not accept defeat, as he believes he can grow a garden, but to the reader, it’s obvious that he can’t. Although filled with the desire to grow a garden in order to start anew, Willy is unable to do so due to his apartment and his thoughts.

The success attained by Willy?s role models, his father, Dave Singleman, and Ben, is what he envisions to be the American Dream. He only visualizes the end product, being successful, and not the process they may have gone through to achieve that success. Willy?s father sold flutes and made that his living. In an encounter with his thoughts of the past, Willy listens to Ben, his brother, who refers to their father by saying, "Great Inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime" (49). Willy assumes that by being a salesman, like his father was, he is automatically guaranteed success, and that it wasn?t something that he would have to work for. Material success, such as money, luxury, and wealth, and popularity are his goals and his definition of success. On the other hand, self-fulfillment and happiness through hard work is not. By only focusing on the outer appearance of the American Dream, Willy ignores the

Death of a Salesman is a play that was written to take place in New York City in the late 1940’s. Willy Loman is the main character of the play who is the father of his family. The play focuses on Willy, his wife Linda, and two sons. The family lives in an apartment that is now surrounded with many buildings, which starts to make Willy feel closed in. The play focuses on Willy and the struggles he has with his family, work, and life. Willy has come to the point that he is so unhappy, he seems to lie about everything in his life. He feels the need to make his family believe that he is very successful, well-liked, and makes a lot of money. When in reality, he isn’t successful at all. His lies start to overcome his life and especially the guilt he feels from his past mistakes.

One of many important literary devices is symbols, which bring deeper meaning to otherwise unimportant items. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, we see very distinct symbols which help us better understand the points Miller is trying to get across. One of the many important symbols

His formula for success, as pointed out by Centola is something that stands for “success incarnate” (33), something that allows Willy to fantasize about a dream (going to Alaska) that he could have, except he realizes that his ideal dream requires him to remain in New York. And, if he did decide to leave New York and go with his brother to Alaska, he would be leaving his imagined world and entering reality (). Thus Ben represents the fantasy of where Willy desires to be in terms of wealth, while Dave represents the dream Willy actually desires to pursue. However, this Dream of Willy to be a Salesman only takes on an effect, in that the full impact of the goal will only be realized after he dies.

    In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, Miller probes the dream of Willy Lowman while making a statement about the dreams of American society. This essay will explore how each character of the play contributes to Willy's dream, success, and failure.

As though to recreate the connection in life, literature often shows the relationship between past events and a character’s present actions and values. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy is haunted by memories of his older brother, father, and salesman Dave Singleman. Willy’s character and values are constantly influenced by the memory of the three men, compounding upon his deliria throughout the play. Willy considers these men the epitome of success, thus explaining his dependency on all three. Miller’s view on society, men, and the success of the American Dream are portrayed through Willy’s interactions with the men. The American Dream is synonymous with the phrase “the world is your oyster,” but Miller uses Death of a Salesman to criticize the American Dream through Willy Loman and his interplay between the past and present.

In his play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller employs many symbols to illustrate the themes of success and failure.  They include the rubber hose, the tape recorder, and the seeds for the garden.  These symbols represent Willy's final, desperate attempts to be successful and the failure he cannot escape.

    In Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman and Edward Albee’s The American Dream, Willy Lowman and Mommy possess the trait of superficiality. Their priorities are to look good and be liked, and this contributes to their misguided paths to reach success. This attribute is one of many societal criticisms pointed out by both authors. Arthur Miller criticizes society for perceiving success as being liked and having good looks. He illustrates society’s perception through Willy, who thinks the keys to success are being popular and attractive. Willy transmits this philosophy to his sons by ignoring their education and personal growth and setting an example that popularity is most