The American Dream Failure

Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, suggest the idea of the American Dream as a way for either success or, ultimately, failure. The belief of the American Dream is such that given the state of freedom, one can use that freedom towards prosperity and success if they so choose to work hard in order to achieve that success. There is a fine line, though, between prosperity and failure. The person working towards their American Dream must give everything he/she has in order to achieve everything he/she has ever wanted. If he/she does not put in the needed effort, failure is awaiting them like a venomous snake stalking its prey. Miller uses the American Dream to describe just that, the fine line between success and failure within the character

Linda displays the American Dream with her successes and failures in life, shown by her unrelenting faith in Willy and her love for him and her sons. Linda is seen as a very complex character throughout the play because of what she says but also of what she holds back and keeps to herself. This entails her idea of the American Dream of being able to create a home for oneself and she is almost able to call her house her own as she states in the play, “I made the last payment on the house today” (139). Linda only needed to call something her own in order to have achieved her American Dream which came from paying off her house. Linda realizes her dream before her sons or husband because after Willy dies she sits at his grave and mutters “we’re free….we’re free….”(139). Throughout the play, Linda had only wanted to pay off the house which became a force of stability and success in her life even if Willy did not view it as such. From the beginning, Linda and Willy always suffered from lack of money as Linda explains to her sons, “ he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a week and

In her arguments with Biff she explains that “a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid” (56). This implies that Linda contains a further knowledge of the insight on Willy and even with his faults, she still married him and made the oath that until death do they part. She understands that Willy is not himself and she holds the belief that she can help him as “he’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog”(56). Linda comes clean with Biff and tells him that he “can’t just come to see [her], because [she] love[s] him…. He’s the dearest man in the world to [her]”(55). Linda has hopes that Willy can fight through his suicide attempts and he is just going through a rough patch as a “man who never worked a day but for your benefit”(57). This is why, when she finds the rubber hose, she leaves it there, in hopes that Willy will finally find his American Dream and stop with the nonsense of his supposed lack of success. She wants Willy to take away the hose with dignity which is what she explains to Biff when she says, “how can I insult him that way?...he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him”(60). Linda thinks Willy can still find the American Dream of success if he just focuses on paying off the house which is why she leaves him to take the rubber hose off himself, so he can discover the dream with dignity. Even though Willy is