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The death of salesman character analysis essay
The failure of the american dream of success depicted in arthur miller's plays
Arthur Miller on the American Dream
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The American Dream is an idealistic and abstract concept, yet the goal of many. It is rooted in the idea that through hard work, fortitude, and perseverance, one can obtain wealth, success, and happiness. Both Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby embody the tireless pursuit for the auspicious, yet elusive, American Dream. They discover, however, that their efforts to achieve this dream bring no gratification, no real peace or joy. Instead, it only creates tragedy for themselves and other characters.
Through Willy, Arthur Miller demonstrates that misguided ideas and premises can thwart the coveted American Dream. Willy Loman is an aging, low-income travelling salesman
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whose misconstrued vision of the American Dream stems from his belief that success and popularity are inextricably intertwined. Willy vehemently believes that in order to be successful, you must be not just liked, but “well liked” (2426). He considers being well liked as a way to open doors in business and charm his way through life. Throughout the play, Willy’s belief that success is intimately connected with reputation is challenged. For instance, when Willy is reminiscing about his son Biff’s past, he says, “I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school?” (2421). Willy is reassuring himself that because Biff was so well-liked and popular in high school, he will inevitably be a successful salesman. However, as we have known since the start of the play, Biff is an unsuccessful, “lazy bum” (2421). His popularity was not beneficial to his career, contrary to Willy’s misconceived ideas. Bernard, Biff’s former classmate, has great success as a lawyer.
This further debunks Willy’s concept of the American dream. Willy sees Bernard as a pedantic nerd who does not value his own reputation. Later in the play, Willy discovers that Bernard, nevertheless, has a prosperous career. Willy can only help but wonder at life’s ironies, in which his well liked son turns out to be a failure, while Bernard is a success. On occasional lucid moments, however, Willy recognizes that his grand plan for success has deteriorated for himself and his sons. For instance, he tells Linda, “You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me” (2431). Furthermore, he recognizes that “Biff Loman is lost” (2421). These realizations provide valuable insight into the fundamental nature of the American Dream. Despite Willy’s brief acknowledgements of failure, he always returns to the American Dream, suggesting how alluring and intoxicating it truly is. In a desperate attempt to salvage Biff’s business career, Willy commits suicide in hopes that Biff can use his life insurance money to jumpstart a business. This however, is merely another plan destined for failure. Willy measures success by how many people attend your funeral, which in his case, were very few. Arthur Miller uses the tragic demise of Willy Loman as a father, a husband, and a salesman to illustrate that there are no short cuts in attaining the American Dream. Popularity and likeability, while perhaps pleasant …show more content…
attributes, are no substitute for hard work and diligence. In The Great Gatsby, F.
Scott Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby as a vivid representation of the quest for the American Dream. Gatsby has an extravagant mansion, opulent clothes, and an expensive car, albeit acquired through dubious methods. While on the surface, it may seem that Gatsby has achieved the American Dream, this accumulation of wealth is not the primary objective of his dream. Instead, he hopes to use his wealthy lifestyle and extravagant parties to rekindle his love with Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby, Daisy represents a coveted ideal: his dream. Like the American Dream, Daisy serves as a form of hope and optimism, as symbolized by the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. One night, Nick Carraway, the narrator, sees Gatsby “stretch[ing] out his arms toward…nothing but a single green light” (21). To end the book, Nick concludes that “Gatsby believed in the green light...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180). As Gatsby moves towards his desiderated dream, the current pulls him back. The green light represents Gatsby’s inspiration, motivation, and aspiration. Gatsby demonstrates tremendous drive and ambition when he recreates himself from nothing, successfully acquiring great wealth. He represents a quintessential rags to riches story, yet despite this superficial success, he is unable to attain his ultimate goal and never will. He will never again know the happiness of being with Daisy because this dream is unattainable, as
he was not born into money like Daisy and her husband, Tom, were. Through Gatsby’s life and decisions, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates that the hope of the American Dream is a very real concept, but the sole pursuit of it can result in tragedy. This is a fundamental irony. Both Willy and Gatsby ardently strive for success, affluence, and prestige as part of their American Dream. In this respect, Willy fails, and Gatsby succeeds, even though he merely imitates what he thinks wealth and prestige look like in his effort to coax Daisy. Still, however, they are both left unhappy. Whereas Willy has brief moments of self-reflection, Gatsby never ceases to perceive his dreams as attainable. Both Willy and Gatsby demonstrate destructive patterns of behavior because of their unilateral and unyielding focus on the American Dream. In their unwavering pursuits of their dreams, they both lose sight other aspects of life that could bring joy, happiness, and contentment. In both Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is portrayed as a complex, often even illusionary ideal. These two works demonstrate that the paths taken towards this dream may differ from person to person, yet can still be cumbersome. Through Willy, Arthur Miller demonstrates that there are no shortcuts for hard work. In addition, obsessing over money and success does not bring happiness. Through Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals that achieving wealth and status does not guarantee happiness either. There may be social forces that are impenetrable barriers to one’s dreams. Willy and Gatsby embody the fundamental contradictions inherent in the American Dream: its high aspirations and its more problematic realities.
Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.
The thrill of the chase, the excitement in the dream, the sadness of the reality is all represented in the green light that encompasses Jay Gatsby’s attention in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The meaning contained in the green light consumed Gatsby in ways that demonstrated an unhealthy obsession in which five years of his life was spent attempting to get Daisy. The moment that dream became attainable to him, she fell right into his reach only to crush his heart. Five years were wasted on a dream that he really could not see. His life was spent changing himself to achieve “the dream.” Everyone needs to be able to say they lived their life to the fullest and have no regrets when it becomes their time. Do not waste it on an unrealistic
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
Everyone has a dream of their desired future, they dream of the one thing that makes them happy that they do not have now. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman and Gatsby are characters dominated by an American dream that destroyed them. Their dream comes from a fantasy past. These dreams were made outside from who they truly are. Gatsby tried to repeat his past, while Willy attempted to create a new past. The lack of control over their goals and dreams lead to their downfall at the end. The two novels show the various points of the American dream; either to pursuit of happiness, or to pursuit of material wealth.
Even though the play Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller and the book The Great Gatsby are completely different, these two also share a lot of common similarities. Both of the characters in these two literary works, Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby, are both trying to achieve something in their life even though it can seem as illogical or amoral. Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby told lies, exhibited betrayal and are both trying to achieve their versions of “The American Dream”.
Gatsby’s dream of winning Daisy has been deferred for long enough, that it seems impossible to everyone else around him. He pursues the past while he is in the future. He pines for Daisy after losing her to another man. Gatsby’s elaborate parties were all thrown in hopes that someday Daisy would wander inside. Nick finds out Gatsby’s intentions when he says, “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he has aspired on that June night. He became alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (Fitzgerald 83). All the extravagant spending, the house, the new identity, the illegal activities, were all for Daisy. He throws everything he has into this charade as he tries to adapt to Daisy’s world of high society. The problem is that Gatsby is so close, but yet so far away, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way... I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 25). Gatsby tries to embrace the light that emits from the end of Daisy’s dock. The light is something that he cannot hold, just like he cannot hold Daisy Buchanan in his arms. He attempts to pursue his dream that is nothing more than an illusion. Despite being blinded with his infatuation with her, “He hadn’t once ceased looking at
The American Dream is a concept that has been wielded in American Literature since its beginnings. The ‘American Dream’ ideal follows the life of an ordinary man wanting to achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The original goal of the American dream was to pursue freedom and a greater good, but throughout time the goals have shifted to accumulating wealth, high social status, etc. As such, deplorable moral and social values have evolved from a materialistic pursuit of happiness. In “Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity”, Roland Marchand describes a man that he believed to be the prime example of a 1920’s man. Marchand writes, “Not only did he flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of skyscrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure- seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pastimes.” (Marchand) This description shows material success as the model for the American Dream. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the characterization of his characters through the use of symbols and motifs to emphasize the corruption of the American Dream.
Although, his narcissism exhibits the common issue with American capitalism-it leads to greediness, unhappiness, and anger. This yearning for success can also cause an obsession with appearance and the self, which is a main focus in Willy Loman’s life. He says that to get somewhere, it is good to be “built like (an) Adonis,” which he tells his sons. At one point in his life, he felt he never had to ask for anything, and that when he walked in a room, he got what he wanted because “‘Willy Loman is here!’” Eventually, Willy ages and lacks the flair that he once had, and is left with unimpressive salesman skills. Due to America’s obsession with appearance, old-age is a plague to American society. The superficiality causes those to enjoy charisma over passion. This leads to arrogance, a common American worker to be. Willy Loman is a mirror being held up to the faces of American worker-bees. He avoided risks, and continued living a monotonous, easy life. Miller is attempting to say, monotony is a dangerous habit America has. This play intends to steer readers into a direction of following their own path, rather than following the norm; the norm is nothing new, and fails to reach anything
The American Dream has been a figure of hope for the American society for generations, seemingly ever since the declaration of independence by the founding fathers all those years ago. The central theme of ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ is the path towards a perfect life, driven by the American Dream. Both characters Gatsby and Willy have a hope, and both texts illustrate how it ‘prolongs their torment’, as neither achieve their goal in the end. Gatsby’s strive to become among the civil and well respected part of society is in vain for he will never be able to fully change himself, and his mistakes by trying to fulfill such a dream has him murdered in the end. Similarly, Willy’s desire to become a better salesman like his father
Both Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby had a similar dream they wanted to accomplish, ‘The American Dream.’ But the pursuit of a dream based on deception and false illusion can be the cause for tragedy. Reading Miller’s ‘Death of a salesman’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, we can know that both of these characters had a goal of achieving an unrealistic dream which later leads to their downfall. Willy Loman is so much determined to achieve success and happiness that he isn’t satisfied with his present state. He loses his mind out on the road selling. He doesn’t earn the way he used to and the lifestyle is wearing him out. The dream has so much of significance in his life that his actions are justified in a wrong way to achieve it. It comes down to when he commits suicide not specified for which
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream". Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
As people go throughout their life, they strive to make dreams they believe are unachievable, come true. The iconic American Dream is a symbol of success within the United States that many people aim to secure throughout their lifetime at any cost, even compromising their true identity. In Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, both authors work to display how Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger work towards obtaining their dream, but fall short due to society and timing. By attempting to reinvent themselves through money, gaining power within their personal life, and their image, Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger aim to complete their American Dream to become successful in their lives.
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller give different aspects to the failed American dream. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is the main character who believes that the American Dream can come true if he uses his wealth, luxurious parties, and belongings to gain Daisy’s interest back. Essentially using luxury to win Daisy’s heart over. This characteristic binds in to the characteristic of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman wanted to be wealthy and prosperous, but instead should have been looking for happiness. Willy feels guilty about not being able to provide for his family but does not feel guilty for cheating on his wife.
Though success lies at the heart of the American dream, Fitzgerald deftly portrays the ease with which this sacred idea can become tainted by commenting on the corruption of wealth. Gatsby exemplifies the American dream in his ideals, in this case the desire for success and self-substantiation; however, this dream become corrupted because he is not able to distinguish the acquisition of wealth from the pursuit of his dream, embodied by Daisy, and is tainted by the illicit foundations of his wealth as well as his desires for an unsuitable married woman. Fitzgerald uses the symbol of the green light at the beginning of the novel to represent Gatsby’s dream and even uses the light to introduce him for the first time. “He [Gatsby] stretched his arms out towards the dark water in a curious way, and as far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing but a single green light, minute and far away”(Fitzgerald 26). The author uses the light to represent the American dream; initially the color green represented fertility, which plays a prominent role in the dream, but as the story progresses the green light grows to symbolize money. In his essay “Money, Love, and Aspiration”, Roger Lewis discusses the means by which Gatsby amasses his wealth and poisons his dream.
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.