Everyone wants their own version of the perfect life with a successful job, family, and a good standing in society, but limitations put in place by society hamper the dream and Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are examples of how the average person who is striving for this seemingly unattainable dream ends up striking out due to the failings of their society. Arthur Miller gives this message in a time where the entire country was in a flurry about communism and the American Dream was thought to be the glue holding America and its citizens together and keeping them safe from the horrors of communism. Miller used Death of a Salesman and The Crucible to make a statement against the troubles being ignored by society, and the ludicrous idea …show more content…
This is meant to represent the average citizen and their struggles, because a play that doesn’t let its audience connect to it on a personal level is just another tall-tale instead of an meaningful work that will make an impact on their state of mind. The fact that the two plays highlight the Average-Joe image of the main characters gives the audience a personal connection to the story. It lets them find their own struggles and hardships in the storyline and characters, and displays it in a manageable format that is easy to relate to and empathetic to their woes. This drives Miller’s message home about the great dream that everyone has and the near impossibility of successfully achieving the goals that dream sets …show more content…
Their desire to have more and be more than they currently are is what breathes life into Miller’s characters Willy and John, and it gives the audience the feeling that they aren’t alone in their struggle. The idea of the “American Dream” or any variation on the hope for success and being well off has long been something that everyone strives for, but it’s so very rare for the average person to turn that dream into a successful reality, Miller gives the people a story that strikes a chord within their hearts because it isn’t a story of triumph and success; it is a story about real struggles and heartache. This gives Miller’s message about the hardships of the average person a more effective vessel by which to reach the audience’s feelings of empathy;thereby, making his plays’ messages more effective and
The almighty American dream, commonly misconceived as the property of those who reap great materialistic wealth, has been analyzed and sought after through generations. However, this dream, “could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country” (Goldberg), and the numerous success stories of impoverished beings proves this. This subjectiveness stems from the great diversity within human nature and the variation of goals and pleasures. The characters in novels such as The Glass Castle, To Kill a Mockingbird and the play, The Crucible, act to portray several attempts towards achieving this dream. Ultimately, the almighty American Dream manifests itself through the novels as the desire to accomplish stability and content within one’s
The successful and what could have been successful societies in both Lord of the Flies and The Crucible eventually decayed and fell apart. There were struggles with good and evil in Salem and on the island that were the result of three main elements. Fear, misuse of power and fanatical religious beliefs were the cause of the two societies failure.
Point by Point Comparison In 1953, author Arthur Miller released his newest play, “The Crucible.” Set in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1692 Salem Witch trials, Miller’s play connects the effects of perjury in Puritan Massachusetts to Communist fearing America in the 1950s, a severe crucible for both Puritans and Americans alike. In 1996, a film version of Arthur Miller’s play was released, starring Daniel Day Lewis as John Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, and Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor. The release of the film not only further enhanced the original storyline with added suspense and drama, but also enabled the reader to more clearly comprehend the storyline.
Comparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden. The fathers in the two plays are comparable because they both have conflicts with their sons as a result of living in the past, and they die in the end. Willy, in Death of a Salesman, is never respected for his occupational status, so he places very high expectations on his son, Biff. Willy lives in the memory of past events to such a large extent that he cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, and he passes this trait onto Biff.
He never realizes what he has lost by chasing after inconceivable dreams; however, Wilder’s Emily reflects on her life after she dies and begins to understand that her lack of appreciation for the little moments took away from the fullness of her life. Even though Wilder and Miller tell two unique stories, they use similar methods to show their thoughts on living and essentially convey the same message about how dreams can ruin people and how not appreciating the little things takes away from the quality of life. After seeing both his father and brother find success, Willy attempts to prove himself to his family by chasing after his own version of the American dream. Willy grew up in the “wild prosperity of the 1920’s” when rags-to-riches tales inspired everybody, making them believe that “achieving material success [is] God’s intention for humankind” (Abbotson, Criticism by Bloom).
The phenomenon of the American Dream has been engraved into the American culture since perhaps the beginning of post-revolutionary America itself. The classic belief that if you work hard, you would be able to reap the material benefits of what you sowed, at least enough to live comfortably is a myth that has been propagated in many literary works, deconstructed in many American literary works as a mere myth. And in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, we see such deconstruction of the American Dream take place through both plays’ showcasing of the many complexities of the American life, complexities that are not taken into consideration with the black-and-white narrowing of the American Dream. While hard work does make up a part of the equation, it does not make up the entire equation of a comfortable lifestyle. That manifestation of the many facets of the American Dream is shown in both Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream.
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” shows how materialism destroys a person and drives them to insanity. Willy, the play’s protagonist, is a man who is obsessed and addicted to work and money to the point where he is going mentally ill. The play shows Willy growing steadily into a man who ends up killing himself because his mind won’t rest. By not letting his mind rest, Willy in the beginning almost gets into a car accident. Although the first scene with Willy is when he almost crashes the car, it’s also when we see his relationship with his wife Linda. Linda and Willy have a very unhealthy marriage fraught with stress, anger and infidelity. Willy in “Death of a Salesman” is a man who constantly belittles and disrespects his wife and cheats on her. Willy is also the type of man who can be classified as someone who wanted to be a hero, especially to his two sons who resent him and who he also resents. Willy wanted to be the dad who his sons loved and inspire to be, but he ends up pushing them away. Willy’s sons Happy and Biff resent their dad because of how he treats their mother, and how he has respect for everyone except his family. Willy is a man who is not only addicted to work and money, but women. In the play “Death of a Salesman” we are introduced to the idea of the “American Dream” which is a gorgeous home, two to three children, good paying job and a supportive spouse and as Americans this is the most common dream we all share. Willy thought he was living the “American Dream”; two sons, a wife and a nice house, but he had a secret of being a fraud. Willy was living the “American Dream” on the outside, but on the inside his life was unorganized and most of all filled with anger. The reasons Willy was not the man w...
In brief, it is apparent that Willy’s own actions led to not only his own demise, but his children’s as well. The salesman tragically misinterpreted the American Dream for only the superficial qualities of beauty, likeability and prosperity. Perhaps if Willy had been more focused on the truth of a person’s character, rather than purely physical aspects, his family’s struggles and his own suicide could have been avoided. On the whole, Arthur Miller’s play is evidence that the search for any dream or goal is not as easy and the end result may seem. The only way to realize the objective without any despair is the opposite of Willy Loman’s methods: genuineness, perseverance and humility.
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the cost of selling oneself to the American Dream. Willy Loman, the central character, is madly determined to achieve affluence that he overlooks the value of his family and himself in the process. He instills in his sons, Biff and Happy Loman, that being charismatic will hand them a prosperous lifestyle. Happy trusts in his father’s ideology while Biff’s beliefs contradict them. Biff deems that success is a product of happiness and contentment, not a paycheck. Out of all the sociological theories, social conflict best emphasizes the author’s perspective of how conflict, through class and family, can deteriorate the American dream. By analyzing the play’s themes- social class and family- through the sociological perspectives: structural-functional, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist, we can predict what drives these characters to behave and perceive things the way they do.
The American dream described in the play can be achievable, but Willy’s ways of achieving that American dream leads him to a failure. According to an article published by the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, the play builds the idea of American dream that it is harmful and immoral as long as it is based on selfishness and greediness. However, the dream us described realistic when it is achieved on values that ar...
Both Miller and Lorraine created a theme of achieving goals, Willy Loman just wanted to earn the respect of the people around him while Walter Younger wanted to get rich quick and support his family. American politician Reubin Askew once said, “We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.” What this means is people like Willy Loman and Walter Younger like to talk about the American dream and how it is their right, but they won’t go anywhere unless they actually go out and follow their own dreams. “Yes, [he is] a fine man—just couldn’t never catch up with his dreams that’s all.” (30). Both Willy and Walter think they have it all figured out, but they are sadly mistaken. Willy believes that to succeed in life all you need to do is be well liked, but all it got him was a lack of respect from coworkers even younger than he. Walter was sure he had found the answer to his families problems by investing in a liquor store; as a result one of his co investors and alleged friend ran off with all the money Walter had invested. Both Walter and Willy have the idea that all of the pressure in on their shoulders and no one else understands what its like. “Man, I’m a volcano, a giant surrounded by ants. Ants can’t understand ...
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman criticizes the American Dream and the means some (i.e. Willy Loman) use to achieve the Dream through many different symbol and motifs; however, the title Miller selected for his play is an overlooked aspect of his criticism towards the Dream. He uses the title to build layers of understanding for his denunciation of the American Dream.
What do you want? Do you want a job? Do you want to be wealthy? Do you want to start a family? Do you want the American Dream? In the novel, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the play, Death of a Salesman and the other play, Fences by August Wilson are all depicting ways to get to the American Dream by struggling and trying to survive under America’s competition. In the two of the sources, Death of a Salesman: Novel and play (Source A) and Fences (Source B), they are filled with characters that have a moment or moments of enlightenment that are directing them to what they want, but the only way that it could be done is by striving and taking action. Not only is it about work however, it is also about family and what is ideal in their
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.