American dream of success: Arthur Millar

MODERN DRAMA: Arthur miller: death of a salesman: American dream of Sucess

Question : Death of a Salesman is a protest against the American dream of success. Duscuss with reference to the text.
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Answer: Material happiness provides the ambition behind seeking the Arthur Millar’s Death of a Salesman. In Death of a Salesman Willy Loman’s determination to live up to his American Dream and seek material happiness only takes his life.

Historically, the American dream means a promise of freedom and opportunity for all. Anyone who works hard could expect to have a happy and prosperous life. The play is set in twentieth-century industrial society, complete with apartment Nocks, financial difficulties and pressures to succeed.

Willy Loman is a victim of American dream of success. Much of Willy’s suffering is due to the nature of American society. American society is highly commercialized and highly competitive. The society is based on the doctrine of self- help which assumes that a person possessing sufficient initiative can rise from a lower to higher position. Willy loves working with his hands. He dreams of moving out into the country and building two guest houses for his sons. Linda says: “He was so wonderful with his hands.”

The middle – class Americans are always longing for the better future of their children. What really mattered to Willy was bringing up his two sons to achieve the kind of success he had always dreamed of. To this end, he applied what he believed to be the criteria for success in salesmanship: personality, being well-liked, making a good appearance, showing confidence and having contacts in the right places. But his influence over his sons has its drawbacks.

Willy’s life has been founded on dreams and at the end, he has difficulty in distinguishing dreams from reality, Charley says that to dream is part of the salesman’s life; “A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.” But for Biff, his father’s tragedy was that “ He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.”

American dream of success is sometimes faced by impossible odds. To obtain the value of their demand, they become desperate and lonesome. Most of the dreams of the American people nowadays cannot see the light of the day for the inevitable odds of the society. Willy had many dreams: dreams of his being well-liked and successful, dreams to see his sons established in society.

Arthur Miller has significantly drawn the American society in Death of a Salesman. The play shows through the portrayal of Willy how cruelly the capitalist society is suppressing the common people. The American middle- class citizens try their best to uplift their condition, but their effort goes to the dust when they get a bit for their industry.




The play showed how Willy Loman’s longing to be successful controlled his life and ruined his family. Willy also represents a large piece of society. He portrays the people in our culture that base their lives on acquiring money. Greed for success has eaten up large numbers of people in this country. It’s evident in the way Willy acts that his want of money consumes him. This constantly happens in our society.

Death of a Salesman also reflected how families treat people once they are older. Willy raised Biff and Happy when they were completely dependent on him, but the boys aren’t willing to help Willy out when he needs them. This is more effective when looked at as if Willy represents all the older people in our society. It shows how the elderly are looked down upon, are thought to be crazy, and have their jobs taken away for no reason other than age.

This play also represents how Willy’s actions affected his entire family. He always pushed the boys to have to be the greatest at everything they did. This made the children grow up to always feel like they could never do enough to please their father. They ended up doing things against what they truly wanted.

The biggest issue this play imitates is peer pressure. Willy’s pressure on the kids is like pressure form friends to do things you normally wouldn’t do. Our culture thrives on peer pressure. It can sometimes be positive, like when it pushes you to give your best effort, and sometime negative, like when it causes you to conform excessively. Either way, Death of Salesman shows the effects of society’s pressure on normal people. Willy is just a man who wanted to be well off. To him, this meant rich and successful. Many people are just like Willy; they have to be well liked because to them, that’s what success is.

Death of a Salesman shows both family and society conflicts. However, it’s definitely more effective when looked at as an esposing of society’s conflicts. It forces you to evaluate the morals and values of this culture. It shows what kinds of things we hold most important and all the hurt that results from making those the most valued things. The play is a depressing but truthful reflection of our society.

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Amir mohammad kabir

M.A. 2007//+8801912030138