Power Of Wealth In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

The Power of Wealth Money has the ability to drastically change conditions and ease burdens; to obtain physical wealth is to have power. According to Karl Marx, the drive to attain power is the sole cause of any institutional (societal, political, etc.) change. In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the protagonist, Willy Loman is seen attempting to make the dream of economic prosperity a reality. When things begin to go south for him and his family, he tries to conceal his issues in order to maintain his front of having power. Despite, having opportunities that would change his financial status, Willy denies them for he would rather continue to struggle than shatter his front of being well-off and admitting he is an unsuccessful

Willy discloses to his wife ,“How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? […] It’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!” (1185) Willy is in complete disbelief that his son would choose to make a living on a farm, questioning whether it is even a life. People make humble livings doing manual labor, but he does not comprehend this fact; seeing the job as more of a shortcoming on Biff’s part, than anything else. Willy also bring to the reader’s attention that his son does not even make thirty-five dollars a week. Ironically, it is revealed later in the play that Willy himself barely seems to make that much money as he has been demoted and only being paid through straight commission. (1204). This fact becomes increasingly problematic, since he is no longer selling enough to make a dependable living. Furthermore, he has to resort asking his neighbor, Charley for fifty dollars a week in order to pay for his bills; he is need of covering some of the most basic necessities. Although he clearly has no disposable income, he would never reveal that