The Role Of The American Dream In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

It is Willy’s blind faith in his ill-advised version of the American Dream that leads to his rapid decline, as he becomes unable to accept the disparity between his dreams and his own

The ambition to fulfil the American Dream is false as the Dream is filled with as much flaws as advantages. Michael Schudson stated that “The American Dream’ is ‘The Great national suggestion’ (171) that anyone, with hard work according to the rules, has a reasonable prospect of succeeding in life,’highlighting that the Dream is not limited to any social of economic class. (566) The dream is open to anyone who is working hard in life. The idea of the American Dream is positive and promising.

“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his children producing even more failures. ¬¬¬¬Both Charley and Willy work as salesmen, however Charley represents what Willy desired to become – successful.

Willy is a quite self-doubting man. He creates a perfect world to himself and to his family to feel better. In his world of delusion, Willy is an enormously successful salesman who makes great deal of money. He deals reality with extreme arrogance .

Death of a Salesman tells the story of Willie Loman, a lower middle class father and salesman in the 1960’s suffering through mental illness while still trying to win love and respect from those around him. The American Dream is a difficult thing to attain due to the unrealistic expectations attached to the idea as shown in The Great Gatsby

It is evident, there is a change in societal values from King Lear’s time period of the eighth century to Willy Loman’s time period of the late 1940s. In Death of a Salesman Willy’s idea of success was not love from his family, but love from the outside and strangers. Willy wanted nothing more from his sons than their participation in his idealistic dreams and for them to be the utter best in everything. While in King Lear, however, Lear’s idea of success was for his daughters to love him and cherish him as their father and ruler. It is evident the major shift in values due to the time period.

Pride Shown in Death of a Salesman In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, there is a constant theme of pride shown throughout. Pride is constantly brought up in various ways in the play and impacts the plotline greatly. Pride is a main point in two scenes in Act One; when Willy borrows money from Charley and won’t tell Linda and when Willy tells Biff to loan $15,000 instead of $10,000. One common idea shown throughout Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is Willy having pride.

In this story, Washington Irving characterizes Rip as a lethargic man, and from my understanding his character is the antithesis of Benjamin Franklin. Rip Van Winkle is a complete contradiction of Benjamin Franklin in almost all aspects of life. Benjamin Franklin was wealthy, ambitious, hardworking, and detailed man who was one of the founding fathers. While Rip lacks motivation, drive for success, and structure in his life.

After Willy’s father passed away he always made an effort to have Ben as a reminder to do better than average. He regularly told his wife Linda the plans he has set for the future; however Linda knew that he had acquired all he could and old age was not a good contribution. He was delusional about his reality and found it comforting to prepare answers to everyone who tried to tell him

Miller uses the contrast of Linda to Willy to focus on the downfalls within him. In both dramas, the tragic hero's are martyrs of their fantasy versus the reality of their situation which goes to additionally characterize them. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman believes that a successful man is one who is profitable and well-liked in the business

During the different eras within the plays Macbeth and Death of Salesman we can observe the differing exhibitions of pathos. In Macbeth, we as an audience to a play, observe the downwards spiral and eventual collapse of Macbeth due to his thoughts being manipulated by supernatural forces into disrupting the Great Chain of Being. The notion that supernatural forces were capable of influencing ones actions and thoughts to such an extent, terrified the English population. This was due to lack of scientific understanding at the time and as such it should be considered an important contextual theme. In comparison, Death of the Salesman features a washed-up sales man, Willy Loman who is blinded by his pride and hubris which in turn prevents himself from recognising his own flaws leading him to denial.

The American dream is a dream of land in which life should be better and richer for everyone. It’s a land where people succeed to accomplish their ambition of a better life. Most of the people have a different way of defining this American Dream. Unfortunately, for some, it could mean wealth,status,or power whereas for others it could mean companionship, good morals,love,and amity. According to our Declaration of Independence, it entitles every man and woman the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is the matter of common knowledge that the American Dream is a conception referring to a desire of having a social regulation in which every male and female individual is capable of reaching the fullest importance that is normally unattainable, and be distinguished by the community for their true substance, despite the fortunate conditions of the status. Moreover, this idea denies any limits or boundaries and provides equal opportunities for people of any age, gender, or race. “The Great Gatsby” and “Bodega Dreams” feature characters that most clearly represent a desire or indifference to join such a society. After all, the American dream is not different for a person of color in “Bodega Dreams” and “The Great Gatsby” because both characters view it as money, love, having a knowing name as well as being successful. There is no reason for the dream to be divergent for a person of another race.