The Role Of Dreams In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller

Barack Obama made history by being elected President of the United States, twice. This is just one more example that the American Dream is without a doubt achievable. Its pursuit is not easy; it requires undeniable hard work, modesty and optimism. Armed with these characteristics, seekers of this lifestyle will undeniably succeed. Success, though, is an interesting concept, for it can entail many superficial qualities. Willy Loman, the tragic hero of the play Death of a Salesman, sees only the superficial qualities of this dream. He views success solely as likeability (linked with attractiveness), and wealth. Ignoring all methods to honorably achieve these, Arthur Miller demonstrates how Willy’s search for the superficial qualities of the

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s character, Willy Loman, is desperately trying to achieve the unattainable American Dream. Throughout the play, Willy encounters many challenges that have derailed his course and his perseverance drives him and his family insane.

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

As the play progresses, one begins to feel sorry for Willy and his problem, but at the same time angry and frustrated with him for his foolish pride. With this trait, it prevented him from accepting a job from Charlie, something that could have saved his life. Also, it is with this false pride that has been sparking the family flame for years, the fact that the Loman name was well known and well-liked. The family lie that was amongst themselves is revealed during the climax of the play. One example is the way in which Willy led Biff to believe that he is a salesman for Oliver, which at the end left Biff disappointed. The reason for this estimation of the truth may be because of Willy’s idea that he has not raised Biff and Happy the right way.

Arthur Miller shows the downfall of the American dream through the eyes of Willy Loman. Willy Loman is an all American family man and businessman that would do anything for his family. In the end of the play Willy Loman committed suicide to save his family from going under. Arthur Miler describe Loman’s tragic story as “a man who did believe that he alone was not meeting the qualifications laid down for mankind by those clean-shaven frontiersmen who inhabit the peaks of broadcasting and advertising offices (Isherwood, 2012) “. The thing I find so innovating about this play is that even though some of the events mentioned are controversial the author never down played the events that

Throughout the whole play the only thing Willy Loman would act upon being his need to fulfill what he thought the “American Dream” was in society. He based his whole life around the concept that being successful only comes if you’re well liked by everyone: (Quote). In a way that is true, due to the fact that people who are well liked tended to have it easier in life. Willy wants to influence his family’s lives with his strong belief. Therefore,

Biff said when realizing the type of house he grew up in. Everyone in the Loman household was unsatisfied, the family left unstable. The top of the causes for the problems in the Loman household lead to Willy. Growing up Willy never had a true support system. His father left him at a early age. And his brother went to Africa. With all this abandonment in life, Willy learns to live on the dependency of being well approved of by others, and following a dream he saw as the “American Dream”. This dream led Willy into more failure than it did success. Willy never knew when to look at reality or chase a dream. When it came to a point in life when he realized he could no longer achieve this American Dream, he tried to live it through his sons. He never held his kids accountable for their faults because they were “well liked” Willy sees how much people like you as an equivalence to a human's success in life. Linda once said, “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.” Willy filled all his actual doings in life, with dreams and visions of a successful him or of anything to make the pain of his actual life

Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend

He fails to realize that he failed as a father and a husband. He can't grasp his true reality because he is too caught up in the illusion of his life that his mind made up. His unwillingness to understand the depths of his failures and that his American Dream is no longer alive leads to his torturous day. His real tragedy is where he completely evaluates himself and justifies his suicide because it gave him sense of personal dignity by leaving an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream. Although Willy still never grasped that his view of the American Dream, which is to be good looking and having a good personality will get people far in life, changed as he got older, he still wishes his sons success and happy lives, even though he doesn't understand that it

In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman acts as a tragic figure and as an instrument of the suffering of those around him, namely his family, because of his unreasonable expectations for himself and his family, his inability to acknowledge his weaknesses, and his dishonesty towards his family. Willy Loman acts as a tragic figure mainly because of the unreasonable expectations he sets for himself. Specifically, Loman believes that the only way to be successful is to be liked: “Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people” (Act 2)? However, Willy Loman is relatively unheard of in the business world, so despite making ends meet for his family, he sees himself as having failed. These expectations are placed on the shoulders of Willy Loman’s two sons as well, and in the case of Biff Loman, it blinded Willy from seeing the reality of the situation: “

I write to you to propose the production of Arthur Miller’s classic “Death of a Salesman.” As the title suggests, the book is about the death of a salesman named Willy Loman. However, through my production, it is not the inevitable ending that will be remembered by the audience. It will be the processes that led to Willy’s conflicted mind that will resonate in the audience’s mind. The underlying values of blind faith in the American dream and the narrow-minded definition of success, which are exemplified in Willy Loman, combine to form an example of a self-inflicted demise. However, through my production, the reasons behind Willy’s adherence to these

In the play once Willy realises he has failed he puts all his hope in

n Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller is able to articulate his portrayal of the elusive American dream in the tragedy of Willy Loman. Miller believes many people, including this said “low man,” are desperately trying to achieve the American dream of prosperity and increased social standing through hard and strenuous labor, but that few succeed. Different obstacles debilitate the personal paths of the American dream. In Willy Loman’s story it is his past that hinders him and his family from societal, financial, and personal growth. The tragic vital focus in the play is that Willy’s past influences the present themes of regret, shame, and guilt, thus affecting the surrounding characters in his life.

More than that, he wanted to become that man that he admired who died “the death of a salesman” in his “green velvet slippers” whose funeral garnered many loving friends and family (Miller 81). Audiences can relate as they too have had an idol in their head that they have aspired to become. Seeing the aspirations of Willy warrants pity in the audience when they see what a failure Willy Loman becomes. Failure is what consumes Willy. He understands that that is his life. But in his deep deluded mind twisted with broken memories and false hopes he can never truly accept it. He never has that point of discovery that a tragic hero does. Willy Loman never realizes the doom waiting for him at the end of his downward spiral. Even his attempts at suicide, and finally his one successful one, were misguided and were attempts to become something greater. No one shows up at the funeral besides his family. He is not great like a tragic hero. Willy Loman is a nobody, he is only a tragic hero to himself, just like everyone in the audience. Everyone sings the song of their own tragedy . That is the American tragedy. Everyone is the American tragic hero with their own tragedy. Arthur Miller captures the Average man with the average family and average dreams, living an average life with no gain in the end.

Nevertheless, Willy has a waning career as a salesman and is an aging man who considers himself to be a failure but is incapable of consciously admitting it. As a result, the drama of the play lays not so much in its events, but in Willy's deluded perception and recollection of them. [1] Miller uses many characters to contrast the difference between success and failure in the American system. Willy Loman is a deluded salesman whose vivid imagination is far greater than his sales ability. Linda, Willy's wife, honourably stands by her husband even in the absence of essential realism.