In Death of a Salesman Miller offers a critique of American society. What is this critique and how is it conveyed to the audience?
In Death of a Salesman Miller explores and exposes modern American society in a brutal and scathing manner. His analysis and critique is conveyed clearly to the audience concluding that society is based on a corrupt and immoral capitalist dream. Miller implies this through the Loman family and their struggle to survive and compete. Techniques Miller employs to illustrate this are symbolism, characters and structure.
Capitalism had an effect on every aspect of the 1940s’ American society. McCarthy witch hunts were rife and creating a fear of communism, many American artists and authors felt disenchanted by society as their individualism was under threat. The play was written and performed post WWII, in a period where everyone was anxious and worried on a daily basis. The audience knew they were living in a capitalist country where everyone was out for themselves however Miller was one of the first dramatists to confront and display a working-class family struggling in the face of cruel and heartless business society. Such criticism of American society was rare during this period however Miller still presents us with a scathing criticism of modern American values.
In Death of a Salesman the realization that Willy cannot accomplish the American Dream becomes apparent to the audience from an early stage in the play and is consistent throughout the play. The incident that defines this is when Willy gets fired. In the morning Willy says “I will get the job and won’t be on the road anymore.” He strides in to Howard’s office with purpose and hope but soon that is shattered. Howard clearly sees Willy as...
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...lly immediately jumps to the conclusion that because they have tennis court and play tennis –a posh game- they have to be wealthy, pleasant people when he hasn’t even met them but the simple fact about playing tennis. Willy and the audience know in a capitalist environment means his friends have accomplished the American Dream.
A capitalist structure clearly defines that you have to do anything to get to the top. The society is uncaring, ruthless and pressures people to reach unrealistic aspirations. “You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.” Miller represents this as the capitalist society fault; once they have the best out of Willy, they “spit” him out and leave him with nothing. The audience recognizes this and Miller’s critique is conveyed clearly through Death of a Salesman by the use of symbols, character and setting.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman exploits the notion of the American Dream and the promises made by the American Government towards its citizens. Throughout the play, Miller makes references to dreams that each character carries but the failure in the fulfilment of the same. He recaptures the disappointments and disillusionments that the American nation suffers from for the American Dream is as well as death. Miller was the first playwright of his time who sheds light on this fact that the dream that every American carries a torch for is dead and gone.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream. This American Dream, fueled by money, is the main source of anxiety in Willy’s life. The anxiety of income is reflected today in the issue of minimum wage. James Sherk, a writer of the Tribune News Service, plots thoughtful points against raising the minimum wage. However, his use of over-exaggeration and odd comparisons leave his argument less than convincing.
A white picket fence surrounds the tangible icons of the American Dreams in the middle 1900's: a mortgage, an automobile, a kitchen appliance paid for on the monthly - installment - plan, and a silver trophy representative of high school football triumph. A pathetic tale examining the consequences of man's harmartias, Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman" satisfies many, but not all, of the essential elements of a tragedy. Reality peels away the thin layers of Willy Loman's American Dream; a dream built on a lifetime of poor choices and false values.
One of the themes used in this play by Arthur Miller is the American Dream of success, fame, and wealth. Furthermore, traditionally, the American Dream should be achieved “through thrift and hard work (Warshauer).” However, due to industrialization during the nineteenth and twentieth century, the American Dream of success, fame, and wealth through hard work was replaced by easy or quick success. The people of America no longer cared ...
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, primarily focuses on the flaws and failures of Willy Loman, Millers’ main character in this story. Willy’s distorted and backward views of the American Dream, paired with his inability to let go of the past lead him down a road of regret and in the end his biggest failure which was his wasted life.
In post-Depression America, the United States endured internal battles in political ideologies between capitalists and Marxists, which is the focus of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. According to Helge Normann Nilsen, author of “From Honors At Dawn to Death of a Salesman: Marxism and the Early Plays of Arthur Miller,” the Great Depression had a profound impact in forming the political identity of Arthur Miller: “The Great Depression created in him a lasting and traumatic impression of the devastating power of economic forces in the shaping of peoples’ lives” (146). This lasting effect on Miller is embodied in the character of Willy Loman, an unsuccessful salesman whose life collapses from the strain of his competition for wealth, demonstrated by Nilsen as she claims the fault lies in the “Impairment of [Willy’s] conscience and sanity by intolerable economic pressures” (155). Because of his focus on material success, which Marxists view as a critical flaw in capitalism, Willy loses his sanity battling the corruption within himself and the American free market system. I believe, however, that while Miller embraced and promoted Marxist values and that the messages in Death of a Salesman are directed at capitalists, Miller was not condemning all aspects of capitalism. Although his portrayal of Willy may seem politically biased, Miller’s portrayal of Charley as a generous and kind man contradicts the notion that Death of a Salesman is purely Marxist propaganda. Miller, therefore, was not denouncing capitalism, but calling instead for reforms within the existing system.
Murray, Edward. “The Thematic Structure in Death of a Salesman.” Readings on Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1999.
Introduction Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross are two plays which attempt to validate the key values that have been strongly advocated for by capitalism. The two plays dwell on somewhat similar themes, but these themes are presented in different styles. Both Miller and Mamet hold a similar interpretation of success in that the success of the main characters in the two plays is measured from a material standpoint. According to Miller and Mamet, these characters will do anything within their reach to stay ahead of other members of the society (the system/principle of capitalism), but as fate would have it, tragedies befall them in the end. Nevertheless, Miller and Mamet interpret these themes from different perspectives.
Eisinger, Chester E. "Critical Readings: Focus on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: The Wrong Dreams." Critical Insights: Death of a Salesman (2010): 93-105.
“Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller in 1948 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of a Willy Loman, a mercurial 60-year-old salesman, who through his endeavor to be “worth something”, finds himself struggling to endure the competitive capitalist world in which he is engulfed. Arthur Miller uses various theatrical techniques to gradually strip the protagonist down one layer at a time, each layer revealing another truth about his distorted past. By doing this, Miller succeeds in finally exposing a reasonable justification for Willy’s current state of mind. These techniques are essential to the play, as it is only through this development that Willy can realistically be driven to motives of suicide.
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” The Norton Introduction to Literature 10. New York: W. W.
Miller, Arthur “Death of a Salesman” Literature: Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 205-13. Print.
Willy Loman's definition does not differ greatly from mine, although while trying to pursue this dream, Willy's mind slowly drifted further and further away from reality. The "American Dream" is the idea that any man or woman can make his or her own fortune, despite his or her past. Willy is trying to achieve success through this thought, believing that being "well liked" and working hard will be enough to ensure his success. Willy was wrong. Social class is a major factor in the death of a salesman.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream". Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
Capitalism was alive and well, and by living in a capitalist society, everyone in America was supposed to have a chance to become rich and successful. Miller makes the reader realize this dream is a falsehood, because it doesn’t always work for everyone as planned. In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a prime example of someone trying desperately, yet unsuccessfully, to pursue the false hope of the American Dream, directly resulting from capitalism’s effects. Based on the philosophies of Karl Marx, Marxism has developed into both a political direction and a social theory. There are two social classes: the proletariat (blue-collar) and the bourgeoisie (white-collar).