Death of a Dream Arthur

Death of a Dream

Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" raises poignant questions about what it means to be promised a slice of the American dream, only to have those promises turn out to be empty and full of false hope. Thus essentially, this play is not just about the demise of one man, but about the death of the American dream.

The play has a notably strong focus on the false perceptions that opportunity will be beating down your door as long as you look and act 'the part.' To the main character, Willy Loman, the American dream of the 'good life' was always just around the next corner. But every time he made that turn, he was only met with disappointment.

In essence, Willy has the same mentality of a high school adolescent: that being popular is the number one priority. This is blatantly evident when Willy proclaims "Because the men who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me for instance, I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. 'Willy Loman is here!' That's all they have to know, and I go right through" (Miller, 1998, p. 33).

The second main priority for Willy is making money. If you are popular and making good money then you have truly made something of yourself. These are the values that he has instilled in his sons Biff and Happy throughout their lives. Early on in the play, when speaking about Biff, Willy tells his wife, Linda: "In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it's good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it's more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week" (Miller, p. 5). Because of these 'shortcomings,' Willy considers Biff to be "lost."

Willy expresses great disappointment in his sons for not living up to his expectations, but this disenchantment is really just a reflection of his own frustration with himself and the workings of the world. What is really "lost" to Willy is not his sons, but his belief in a system that promised him that hard work and a smile will get you everything you want and need. In fact, when his wealthy neighbor Charley says, "The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell," this essentially sums up the perspective that materialism has pervaded society to the point where a person's entire worth is based on how financially successful they are. Since Willy is only moderately successful at best, he therefore feels like a complete failure, unable to see the other valuable aspects of his life like a wife and two healthy sons as anything but superfluous.

This is actually a fairly accurate reflection of American culture during the mid- 20th century time period in which the play takes place. In a post-war society in which the goal was to refurbish America, outward appearances of success became as important to the individual as they were to the nation as a whole. Because the play brought attention to the fact that much of the propaganda being disseminated about the American dream was artificial, it was often "cannonaded as a piece of Communist propaganda" (Bloom, 1991, p. 36). This is not surprising considering that following World War II the American people needed to feel safe and hopeful. The American dream was their security blanket and anyone who tried to rip that blanket off of them was destined to receive a fair amount of backlash.

One of the most enigmatic parts of the play is the notion that the American dream was never an actual reality, but still we all strive to achieve it. Throughout the play, Willy longs for the wealth, privilege, and equality the America was alleged to have been built upon until he can no longer deny that the promises of the American dream are just an illusion. While this is without a doubt a scathing critique of capitalism, at the same time, the play seems to be trying to show that nothing is truly real and once you remove all of the 'bells and whistles.' In other words, 'real' people, just like the American dream, are a myth. No one is immune to putting on a 'front' for other people, but when the opinions of others dictate your life and your decisions, this is when the human soul begins to deteriorate. Willy Loman is the characterization of this corrosion.

The death of the American Dream portrayed in the play, as well as the constant comparisons between the rich and the poor are evident. The reason for this strong focus on consumption of only the best and the finest appears to be that those who do not have the best clothes or the shiniest cars are considered to be less valuable or less worthy of respect than the "leisure class" who places such high values on these things. Ultimately, it is not just about 'looking good' - it is just as critically about not 'looking bad'. The irony of this perception rests in the notion that the more characters such as Willy strove to look good on the outside, the more they began to lose their true identity; of who they truly were on the inside.