The Jagged Edges of a Shattered American Dream in Death of...

The American dream is an ideal for all Americans to get the best out of life. It stands for an easy and comfortable life, which makes you independent and your own boss. Historically, the American dream meant a promise of freedom and opportunity, offering the chance of riches even to those who start with nothing. This is something that Arthur Miller conveys in his play Death of a Salesman. Before the Depression, an optimistic America offered the alluring promise of success and riches. Willy Loman, Millers main character suffers from his disenchantment with the American dream, for it fails him and his son. In some ways, Willy and his older son Biff seem trapped in a transitional period of American†¦show more content†¦Nevertheless, Willy has a waning career as a salesman and is an aging man who considers himself to be a failure but is incapable of consciously admitting it. As a result, the drama of the play lays not so much in its events, but in Willys deluded perception and r ecollection of them. [1] Miller uses many characters to contrast the difference between success and failure in the American system. Willy Loman is a deluded salesman whose vivid imagination is far greater than his sales ability. Linda, Willys wife, honourably stands by her husband even in the absence of essential realism. To some extent, she acknowledges Willys aspirations but, naively, she also accepts them. Consequently, Linda is not part of the solution but rather part of the problem with this dysfunctional family and their inability to face reality. In restraining Willy from his quest for wealth in the Alaska, the New Continent[2], ironically the only realm where the dream can be fulfilled, Linda destroys any hope the family has of achieving greatness. Even so, Linda symbolically embodies the plays ultimate value: love. In her innocent love of Willy, Linda accepts her husbands falsehood, his dream, but, in her admiration of his dream, she is lethal. Linda encourages Willy and, in doing so, allows her sons, Biff and Happy, to follow their fathers misleading direction in life. [3]Show MoreRelatedThe Ballad of the Sad Cafe46714 Words   |  187 Pageson the second floor there is one window which is not boarded; sometimes in the late afternoon when the heat is at its worst a hand will slowly open the shutter and a face will look down on the town. It is a face like the terrible dim faces known in dreams -- sexless and white, with two gray crossed eyes which are turned inward so sharply that they seem to be exchanging with each other one long and secret gaze of grief. The face lingers at the window for an hour or so, then the shutters are dosed once