This paper examines the theme of the American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman through the story of Willy Loman, a salesman whose belief in economic prosperity through charisma and personal connections ultimately leads to his suicide. The paper argues that Miller presents the American Dream as a valid social goal undermined by flawed methods of pursuit. It then compares Miller's perspective with Mark Twain's ambivalent critique of industrial advancement in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Henry David Thoreau's outright rejection of material prosperity in the "Economy" chapter of Walden, revealing three distinct literary attitudes toward America's dominant ideology of economic success.
Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman tells the story of a man whose deep belief in the American Dream creates devastating conflict within his family. Willy Loman, the play's protagonist, earns his living as a salesman, and the story revolves around his frustrations — particularly the strained relationship with his eldest son, Biff. Willy's frustration stems largely from the fact that Biff cannot hold a permanent, stable job and is frequently dismissed for petty offenses or misconduct. Willy insists that Biff must cultivate personal relationships and develop the charisma needed to interact with people if he is ever to achieve prosperity and success in the working world.
Biff, however, holds a conflicting view. He believes that Willy's reliance on charm and personal connections is not applicable in modern American society, where hard work and perseverance are valued over personal relationships. Compounding this tension is Willy's faith in the American Dream itself — the prevailing ideology that every individual in American society has an equal opportunity to achieve economic success and prosperity.
Unfortunately, Willy's American Dream ultimately becomes the catalyst for his breakdown. The disappointments he suffers — being passed over for promotion at work and watching Biff drift without direction or income — drive him to commit suicide by deliberately crashing his car at high speed one early morning. In Death of a Salesman, Willy's belief in the American Dream, and his dependence on charm and connections rather than hard work, become the primary reasons he finally ends his ambitious yet deeply frustrated life.
Miller's play clearly illustrates how the American Dream became Willy Loman's primary framework for understanding economic prosperity. Miller's broader message is that without hard work and perseverance, the American Dream cannot materialize. Ambition and the right connections are not sufficient to achieve lasting economic success.
The play's final act shows Biff and Happy arguing over the cause of their father's suicide. The question of a man's ambition surfaces when Willy's family and their friend Charley discuss his death. Charley observes that "[n]o man only needs a little salary," while Biff adds that his father "had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong" (Miller 137–8). These statements place the blame not on the Dream itself, but on the flawed methods Willy used to pursue it. Miller treats economic prosperity as a positive and legitimate goal; it is Willy's chosen path — charm, personal connections, and image over genuine effort — that proves to be wrong. The American Dream thus functions in the play as a desirable but mishandled ideal, reflecting the broader American society's hunger for economic success.
When Miller's perspective is compared with that of Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a more critical attitude toward the American Dream emerges. In Twain's novel, the Connecticut Yankee Hank Morgan uses his knowledge of advanced technology and industry to attempt to reshape King Arthur's sixth-century kingdom. Chapters 10 and 33 demonstrate Morgan's efforts to modernize the kingdom: he introduces printing presses, journalism, and various forms of trade and commerce. Morgan essentially attempts to transplant American democratic capitalism into the medieval world, believing that economic prosperity will bring success to the kingdom. He declares: "I believed my system and machinery will be so well developed ... I had the beginnings of all sorts of industries under way — nuclei of future vast factories, the iron and steel missionaries of my future civilization" (Twain 61).
The early sections of the novel appear to endorse advancement and economic prosperity, suggesting that the American Dream — the aspiration toward economic success — is something Twain favors. However, by the novel's end, Morgan's vision of prosperity reveals itself as deeply destructive. In Chapter 43, "The Battle of the Sand Belt," Morgan narrates: "In that explosion all our noble civilization-factories went up in the air and disappeared from the earth. It was a pity, but it was necessary. We could not afford to let the enemy turn our own weapons against us" (Twain 303). Morgan's grand dream of modernizing King Arthur's kingdom has backfired catastrophically, as opposing forces declare war on the kingdom and ultimately on Morgan himself.
Twain employs symbolism throughout the novel to articulate his critique of the American Dream. Hank Morgan represents nineteenth-century America and, by extension, the Dream of economic prosperity that every individual in American society seeks to achieve. The war declared against Morgan by the people and knights of the sixth century symbolizes Twain's assault on that Dream: by destroying Morgan, the medieval society effectively destroys the drive for economic prosperity — a drive that proved ruinous to their welfare. Twain thus rejects industrial advancement because of its harmful effects on ordinary people, effects that deepen inequality, perpetuate poverty, and worsen human living conditions. The novel's depiction of slavery serves as one concrete illustration of the social costs of industrial economic growth in nineteenth-century society.
Twain therefore differs from Miller in an important way. Where Miller regards the American Dream as a positive social ideal undermined only by flawed methods of pursuit, Twain questions the desirability of the Dream itself — though, to his credit, he provides a fair examination of both the advantages and disadvantages of industrial advancement before arriving at his condemnation.
Henry David Thoreau, in the opening chapter of Walden titled "Economy," goes further than Twain by rejecting economic prosperity outright, without reservation. While Twain weighs the benefits and costs of industrial advancement before condemning it, Thoreau disagrees immediately and directly with the premise that economic success is a worthy human goal.
In "Economy," Thoreau criticizes humanity's eternal pursuit of material prosperity. He argues that private property ownership, the accumulation of assets, the acquisition of food, shelter, and clothing beyond basic necessity, and the formal pursuit of education are all unimportant activities that people mistakenly treat as essential goals. Thoreau proposes that economic prosperity is not required for human survival — that simple living is sufficient, freeing people from the self-imposed enslavement that comes with the endless pursuit of material wealth.
"Thoreau condemns economic ambition as spiritual enslavement"
Miller, Twain, and Thoreau each engage with the American Dream from a distinct vantage point. Miller treats economic ambition as a worthy but misapplied ideal — the Dream itself is valid, but Willy Loman's chosen methods of charm and connections, rather than genuine effort, lead to his ruin. Twain offers a more ambivalent critique: he first presents the case for economic and industrial advancement before demonstrating, through Hank Morgan's catastrophic failure, how the pursuit of prosperity can destroy the very society it promises to improve. Thoreau, finally, dismisses the Dream outright, arguing that the pursuit of material wealth enslaves rather than fulfills, and that simple living is both sufficient and morally superior. Together, these three works reveal the American Dream as one of the most contested and complex ideals in American literary and cultural history.
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