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

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Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman naturally brings audience members to reevaluate their perspectives of the American Dream. The main character of the play, Willy Loman, pursues an impossible dream of success and ultimately ends his life when he cannot achieve his pursuit in salesmanship. However, his apparent failures are not brought about to teach the audience about the misconstrued American Dream. Miller's hidden purpose in Death of a Salesman is to make the audience question the undeniability of the Capitalist economic system while not fully abandon it. Arthur Miller was born in New York City, New York on October 17, 1915. Death of a Salesman takes place in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1940’s, and it premiered in February of 1949. …show more content…

While The Crucible is meant to be a direct commentary on the Second Red Scare, Death of a Salesman slyly comments on some of the failures of Capitalism through the failure of Willy Loman. Miller’s secondary argument in The Crucible was for America to stop wholeheartedly attacking Communism. In an interview with CBC, Arthur Miller said, “[The American] political system can’t tolerate real opposition, and especially in the 20th century” (CBCtv). Death of a Salesman underscores The Crucible by giving an example of why America should accept some …show more content…

While Marxism specifically identifies the advancement of the proletariat in its ethics, the basis is that anything is considered ethical if it results in success. Willy Loman’s version of this is that anything is considered ethical when it comes to his or his family’s success. He even sleeps with several women in order to get through to the buyers. Even if Willy wanted to keep from taking any means necessary to achieve his goals, he could not. Bernard tells Willy that sometimes “it’s better for a man just to walk away” (Miller 68). Willy does not even know how to respond to such a statement, and he asks Bernard, “But if you can’t walk away?” (Miller 68). If there is any chance of success, Willy will try to take it, even if that means

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“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.

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He wanted to be successful so badly, that when he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. When Willy was younger, he had great connections in the areas he would sell. The people respected him and he took great pride in the fact that his name held value with those people. However, as he aged, so did the people he used to sell to. When he isn’t able to make the amount of sales he used to, he doesn’t know

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Willy tries to make himself feel better by lying to himself. Although Willy’s death is unfortunate, if one closely examines his pride, bad temper, and his lies, one can see that these flaws will eventually bring him to his demise. Throughout the play, Willy demonstrates his sense of pride while talking to his family and friends. In this quote one can

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From that point on Willy was upset with himself for saying no. Willy saw himself as a failure because he would have been making more money if he would have taken the opportunity of going to Alaska. Although Willy wasn’t going abroad or very far from home, the same idea correlates with Richard Florida’s. In Arthur Miller’s writing, going abroad seemed like a good idea but it was just a regretful

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Death of a Salesman Free Response Essay Throughout the play Death of a Salesman, author Arthur Miller discusses the flaws of Willy Loman and the extent to which they bring about his own suffering and the suffering of others. As a tragic hero in the 1940’s, Willy exemplifies a typical man trying to achieve the very unrealistic American Dream. This dream not only solidified his fate but also threatened the success of every member in his household. Willy Loman first encounters the American Dream after his uncle Ben shares his successes and priorities with him, which in turn, become the basis of Willy’s dreams as well.

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Be liked and you will never want” (Miller, Act 1). Willy says that if one is liked, then one is never going to lack anything ever again. Because Willy was not fully well-liked, He lacked something. That something was success in his own eyes.

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The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is known by many Americans as an epitaph for the American dream. It is about the life of Willy Loman, an aging and failing salesman, chasing after his ambitions to become the most popular and successful individual in his field of work. Surprisingly, the story set behind the curtains also mirrors the lives of many modern Americans today. The play, performed in the 1940s, dealt with how people’s expectations for perfection were insubstantial and impractical, and how these expectations bred dissatisfaction and doubt. Unfortunately, this mentality still persists in the current American society.

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Willy conducts his whole life based on the belief that any man who is good-looking, charismatic, and “well-liked” deserves success and will naturally achieve it (1.30). He attempts to make his mark by working as a salesman because, according to him, “selling [is] the greatest

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Willy Loman's Suffering In Death Of A Salesman

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Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller portrays the last 24 hours of the life of a common man, Willy Loman, as he reflects on the failures of his life. Loman’s success as a salesman has passed now that his old loyal boss, Howard, has died, and he now works as an unsuccessful traveling salesman, scraping by on commision from Howard’s son. Loman goes to the neighbor, Charley, often borrowing money for household payments, but refuses to take a job-offer from him. Willy Loman’s spouse is Linda and they have two boys, Happy and his older brother Biff, who are now middle aged men who live back at home and are trying to find where they belong in life. Bernard is a childhood friend of the Loman boys, and is Charley’s son.

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Miller depicts Willy as a tragic character in his willingness to preserve his dignity. Additionally, Willy’s dignity is tainted in the story because of his flawed philosophy of the American Dream. This along with unjust comparisons leads to Willy’s death. Based on how Willy Loman evaluates himself unjustly, he is a tragic hero because he must do anything to preserve his dignity, and his false impression of the American Dream, which leads to his downfall.

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Willy Loman's American Dream In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller

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In his seminal work, Death of A Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays wretched conditions inflicting the lives of lower class people amid class-struggle in 1940s America. Miller sets the story during the great financial depression in the US , in between times after World War I and around World War II, though his characters hardly speak about the trauma of two World Wars. Miller earns an enormous success by putting an ordinary salesman as the protagonist in his play instead of putting a man of social nobility. In the play, Miller depicts his central character, Willy Loman as a destitute salesman struggling to rise up the social ladder in a capitalist society, who remains deluded by a 'dream of success ' and takes on a relentless pursuit of happiness that eventually brings his tragic demise. Though some critics speak in favor of the popular account of the cause of his death being his excessive obsession with so called the American dream and the 'capitalist oppression ' ; however, many still refuse to ascribe the cause of his death to capitalist oppression, which I will use synonymously with American dream here.

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