Arthur Miller is an influential realistic playwright in contemporary American literature. Death of a Salesman, one of his representative plays, was an immediate success after its first performance in New York in 1949. It won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Drama Critics Circle Award. It also made him accepted as one of the three greatest American dramatists in the 20th century, along with Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams.
Profoundly influenced by the Depression and the war that immediately followed it, Miller managed to use a more practical and vigorous way to portray the working class and their lives. Death of a Salesman successfully unfolds the social problems and family crisis in the period of the Great Depression, shows the common people’s problems, and arouses resonance of those Americans who have suffered from the Great Depression and the failure of the American Dream.
Death of a Salesman tackles large issues regarding American national values. It examines the cost of blind faith in the American Dream. Miller charges America with selling a false myth constructed around a materialism nurtured by the postwar economy. The American Dream under materialism misled individual ideals and morality of ordinary people. This play explicitly demonstrates that he, who is deluded by the materialistic American Dream, is bound to be sucked in and reduced to a victim of consumable merchandise and false values. The play examines the living plight of common Americans in modern society. It provides readers with contradictory conflicts and revelation of serious social problems in modern western civilization.
This paper consists of five parts. Chapter One provides a brief introduction of Arthur Miller and the researches on Death of a Salesman. Chapter Two describes the social background of the American Dream and the influences of Miller’s growing background on this play. Chapter Three demonstrates the origin and development of the American Dream together with its reflection in this play. In Chapter Four, the author analyzes the reasons of the disillusionment of Willy’s American Dream from different roles he plays in society. Finally, this paper confirms Arthur Miller’s position and his great contributions to American literature and summarizes the social significance of the disillusionment of the American Dream and its enlightenment to people.
Key words: Arthur Miller; Death of a Salesman; American Dream; disillusionment
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Backgrounds of Death of a Salesman 3
2.1 Growing Background of Arthur Miller 3
2.2 Social Background of Death of a Salesman 4
Chapter 3 The American Dream in Death of a Salesman 6
3.1 The Origin and Development of the American Dream 6
3.2 Willy’s American Dream 7
3.3 Biff’s American Dream 8
3.4 The Essence of the American Dream 9
Chapter 4 Reasons of the Disillusionment of Willy’s American Dream 10
4.1 Willy’s False Values 10
4.2 Willy’s Failure as a Salesman 11
4.3 Willy’s Failure as a Father 12
4.3.1 False-teaching as a father 12
4.3.2 Biff’s failure 13
Chapter 5 Conclusion 14
Notes 15
Bibliography 16
Acknowledgements 17
