Death of a Salesman and the American Dream's Tragic Failure

Introduction: The American Dream at the Center of the Play

This essay examines the connection between the Loman family and American culture in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. William Heyen's essay, "Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and the American Dream," analyzes Willy Loman and compares him with some of Miller's other characters. Ultimately, Heyen's essay describes the play's intricate images of the American dream — a dream that may seem old-fashioned today, but was the heart of American optimism in the 1940s, when the play was written. Heyen writes, "The American dream is rural, not urban, and the perfect world is out there somewhere, and when we can't find it out there ahead of us, we go back to the elm-shaded past" (Heyen 54). Miller alludes to this "elm-shaded past" often throughout the play, from Willy's desire to plant a garden like the one he used to have, to his reminiscing about the elm trees that once lined their street.

Ultimately, Heyen believes that the play represents the American dream — and dreams in general — and that dreams, if attained, leave nothing left to reach for or strive toward in our lives. The American dream, then, is the center of the play and the center of Willy's life. For Willy, it is specifically the dream of success in business and, by extension, wealth. For a small-time salesman at best, attaining it is impossible — but the goal lives in the dream itself, not in finally finding it and discovering it is not what one imagined. Heyen's view of the play is complex, but it centers on Willy and his dreams. Willy's dreams remain applicable in today's world, even though Willy himself is outmoded in his own time. His dreams are what gave his life meaning, and when they are shattered, Willy's life is shattered as well. He chooses death over life, dying in the belief that he has made a difference for his family — the ultimate American dream — but, sadly, just as he was thwarted in his own ambitions, his death proves as meaningless as his dreams turned out to be.

Willy's Wrong Dreams and Poor Choices

Willy's dreams are not dreams of equality or family love; they are entirely about his own success and wealth — things that have eluded him his entire life. His son Biff understands this and says near the end of the play, "He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong" (Miller 1054). Willy believes he was a success in the past — even though this does not appear to have been truly the case — and he refuses to take a new job when one is offered to him. He says, "I can't work for you, that's all, don't ask me why" (Miller 1043). Willy could and should have accepted the job, making at least some effort to keep his family together. Instead, like so many decisions in his life, he makes the wrong choice and kills himself. Throughout his life he makes one poor decision after another, each grounded in his false and "wrong" dreams, and all of those choices return to haunt him as he grows older.

Salesmanship, Success, and Self-Deception

Willy's view of the American dream encompasses his sons' success as well, and he comes to recognize that they are no more successful than he is. This is as difficult for him to accept as the fact that his career is essentially over and that he has accomplished little after so many years of selling. He reflects, "Funny, y'know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive" (Miller 1043). Willy is more dead than alive because he has always let his dreams obstruct his path, yet he can never quite bring them to fruition.

Another critic defines the American dream of Willy's era — and, in many ways, of today. Harold Clurman writes, "The original premise of our dream of success — popularly represented in the boy parables of Horatio Alger — was that enterprise, courage, and hard work were the keys to success. Since the end of the First World War this too has changed. Instead of the ideals of hard work and courage, we have salesmanship" (Clurman 133). Willy's sense of self-worth revolves entirely around his abilities as a salesman. Even as he is losing his position, he lies to his boss: "In 1928 I had a big year. I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions" (Miller 1039). He must make himself sound better than he was, driven by his all-consuming devotion to the ideal of salesmanship.

Rural Nostalgia and Old-fashioned American Values

Critic Heyen also maintains that the American dream in its oldest form was rural, not urban, and that Willy embodies this old-fashioned vision in his longing to plant a garden and to see the elm trees that once lined his street. Heyen writes, "Willy's lost elms, the horrible tearing scene in which he attempts to plant seeds, Biff's desire to work out in the open with his shirt off, the picture of Willy's father banging around the country in a horse-drawn wagon — these are truths of the American heart" (Heyen 54). Willy is therefore a common man of the 1940s: a blend of the old, traditional American values of hard work and decent living, and the new values of wealth and salesmanship. He has a foot in both worlds and is torn between them. Ultimately, he becomes a man of his time who ends up dreaming of the wrong things at the wrong moment. Unable to reconcile these competing visions, he finds himself backed into a corner with nowhere to go.

Conclusion: The American Dream Gone Bad

Death of a Salesman is a tragic story of the American dream gone bad, and of a man who is a complete failure — unable to care for his family or realize his dreams. Instead of providing for those he loves, Willy has made a muddle of his life, becoming a disappointment to his sons and to himself. He also confuses the "true" American dream of possibility and equality for all with the modern version: business success and personal wealth. Willy is a failure not because he has not attained those things, but because he believes they are the most important things in life. As Irving Jacobson notes, citing Miller directly, "The trouble with Willy Loman is he has tremendously powerful ideas. But he yearns toward them more than he lives by them" (Jacobson 44). His values are skewed, and so are his morals — which is why he can bring himself to commit suicide in the belief that he is helping his family. He is, in the end, a portrait of the American dream gone wrong, and a tragic hero because of it.

References

Clurman, Harold. "Willy Loman and the American Dream." Readings on Arthur Miller. Ed. Tomas Siebold. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997. 132–136.

Heyen, William. "Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and the American Dream." Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 47–57.

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Ed. James J. Martine. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1979. 44–52.

Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." Masters of Modern Drama. Ed. Haskell M. Block and Robert G. Shedd. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962. 1020–1054.