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Teatrul intre text si spectacol American Studies

2nd year

Final essay
Death of a salesman represents one of the best and most complex plays of the 20th century. It was
awarded multiple times and it represents, in my opinion, the peak type of play writing from that
period.

The American dream is what drove people to that continent since its discovery by Columbus. The
freedom and the land offered by the new world was something that attracted millions of people
seeking freedom of religion and seeing moving to America as an opportunity to start a new
beginning.

Willy Loman represents the man who has worked his entire life trying to achieve the American
dream, but still hasn’t succeeded up to his old age. His faith is, instead, put into his son Biff, whom
he supports and has a clear bias for, compared to his brother Happy.

Compared to his brother who achieved the American dream by finding a diamond mine, Willy has
remained working at his boring job, thinking that this could be the way to live up to the dream.
His vision was that any man who is good looking and charming would have much bigger chances
of living the dream compared to someone who would just work hard.

During his life, Willy and his sons fail to reach the requirements of the dream. He has forgotten
the moral code he used to guide himself by and chooses that he would do anything for money, so
he ends up killing myself for the insurance money. He turns himself into the product of his dream.
He gives his family financial wealth, but pays the most expensive price anyone can pay for
anything.

In the first act, he gets home and complains about the fact that he did not remember much of the
driving he had done during that night. He is getting paid only a commission of what he sells, so he
doesn’t make enough money to pay the bills. He feels like he lost control of everything in his life.
The financial security he once had is just a good lost memory, the family that loves him is
something he takes for granted. All he can think about is money. He decides to end his life by
driving, reaching the last resort to control a little part of his life. He died doing the thing that offered
him the feeling of being able to control something in his life.

The American Dream is based on making it on your own, going from rags to riches. Coming up
with an idea that should make money by any mean. Willy was following his father who was making
money by selling homemade flutes all over the country, so, naturally, he also wanted to be a
salesman.

“The American Dream can be roughly viewed as the belief in the ability to attain whatever success
wanted through hard work and dedication. This concept has many versions, which are represented
in the play through several characters. Willy, for example, is an example on the idealistic version
of the dream that is based on fantasy and blind adherence to outdated principles of success. Ben,
on the other hand, is a man who is able to combine elements of orthodox as well as modern values
to attain success.” Mgamis, Majid Salem. “Death of a Salesman: Critique of the American Dream.”
Http://Ijll-Net.com/, 2017, ijll-net.com/journals/ijll/Vol_5_No_1_June_2017/9.pdf.

This play portrays perfectly how individuals from America have tried to live up to the national
dream. Each and every one of them has attempted achieving it, some of them successfully, some
failing. The ones who managed to go through and make it have been set for a life of fortune and
wealth, while Willy, being the one who failed, ended up paying with his own life for some paper
that he could not even enjoy.

I think as much as this is a critique of the American dream, Miller took to extreme the
consequences of failing the American dream and, in reality, I don’t think there are people who
would actually kill themselves for their family to claim money from the insurance.

To conclude, yes, I think “Death of a Salesman” is a socio-cultural critique of the American Dream,
but made in such a way that would only portray the life of a character from a fictional piece, not a
real case and person.