The American Dream, as depicted by Arthur Miller in Death of Salesman, is an abstract concept, one in which is invented by the individual who is chasing after such. Rather than penalizing his son for his offensive behavior, Willy is more concerned with the reaction that of Biff’s classmates, “Willy: (laughing) you did? The kids like it? Biff: “They nearly died laughing!” Willy’s unique almost laughably version of the American Dream does not work out, as it turns out Biff grows up to be a vagabond and a worker of a ranch. Biff and Willy simply brush Bernard off and Willy asks, “Bernard is not well liked, is he… Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world…you are going to be five times ahead of him…be liked and you will never want.” Another example of Willy’s distorted view of what success is when Biff confesses to making fun of his teacher’s lisp. In Act I, Bernard enters the Loman’s home and pleads Biff that his time should rather be spent studying for the regents. For Willy, hard work is not necessary for a prosperous, successful life, but instead personality wins it all. Often times he wants to confirm that his sons, Biff and Happy, are well liked and popular.
He often mentions that being liked is not equivalent to being “well” liked. Willy’s way of attaining the American dream is to become prosperous by being charismatic. For Willy, the American Dream meant popularity and demeanor. Both Miller and Williams provide conventional protagonists that lure the modern audience into the play the audience themselves share the experience that of Willy Loman or Blanche Dubois have, both represent the fallout of “the American Dream.” Despite the scenarios, the setting, the plot, or playwrights, both stories aim at the core of today’s human sentiment.ĭeath of A Salesman attacks the notion of the idealistic and unattainable American Dream. Sure, Sophocles’ “Oedipus The King” screams out catastrophe, but in modern era, a new kind of tragedy has emerged, the modern tragedy. Similarly, in Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman, Willy Loman, a self-deceptive man, attempts to feel better of himself and his family by being arrogant and consistently reminiscing times of his once-upon-a-time success as a salesman. In A Streetcar Named Desire, we learn of the protagonist, Blanche DuBois, a once very attractive young woman who cannot separate what real is versus what is not. Both plays embarked on an issue many of the stories or drama of that time did not, what Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams did was that they incorporated real life scenarios and personas, which spoke to the audience and in which the audience related to. After World War II, Arthur Miller’s “Death of A Salesman” (1949) and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) became renowned worldwide, and for good reason.
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