CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

Arthur Miller has been recognized as a major playwright of America endowed with

dramatic talent of a high order, he also evolved unsurpassed theatrical insights by his

long practice. He is a playwright critic who combined drama and theatre criticism. He can

be very well placed among the playwright critics like Leign, Hunt, Dryden, Goethe,

Shaw, Brecht and Artaud. Miller‘s writings in the New York Times in periodicals and his

lectures have always attracted the attention of critics. He examines the problems in which

he is involved as a creator and evolves certain principles. As it has been said, he was self

critical critic. He always kept on learning.

During the last three and half decades, Arthur Miller has been studied from different

perspectives as a critic, as a moralist, as a socio dramatist, as dramatist of ideas and so on.

But his contribution to modern American drama has been universally accepted and

applauded. Miller‘s central theme in almost of all his plays has been integrity—the

integrity of the individual towards himself and towards his fellow human beings but the

cost of integrity for most of his characters has been life itself.

With Miller the post war American drama acquired new dignity. Miller central

connection was that as man is seldom defined by his social and political milieu, he cannot

escape the important forces which affect his image of himself. This conflict of images

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energized his circle of loyalties. It was therefore, natural that Miller planted his characters

firmly within a family structure, which reflected in turn the pressures of society at large.

The idea of ‗American Dream‘ is older than the United States dating back to 1600s when

people began to come up with all sorts of hopes and aspirations for the new and largely

unexplored continent. Many of these dreams focused on owning land and establishing

prosperous business. And all struggles were to generate happiness. It was James Truslow

Adams who first coined the term ‗American Dream‘ in his book, The Epic of Drama in

1931. But this term is used in a number of ways. However essentially ‗American Dream‘

is an idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work and that all

people have the potential to live happy, successful lives. During the ‗Great Depression‘

several people wrote about ‗American Dream‘ codifying the concept and entrenching it in

American society. For people who believe in the American dream, anything is attainable

through hard work. The idealistic version of the ‗American Dream‘ also assumes that

people are not discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, gender etc. Critics of

the American drama also point out that many versions of the dream equate prosperity

with happiness and that happiness may not always be that simple. These critics suggest

that the American dream may always remain tantalizing out of reach for some people,

making it more like a cruel joke rather than a genuine dream. But the ‗American Dream‘

has become a question under constant discussion. In the 20th century, the ‗American

Dream‘ had its challenges. The depression of 1930‘s caused widespread hardship during

1920s and 1930s and was almost a reverse of the dream for these directly affected. Racial

instability did not disappear and in some parts of the country, racial violence was almost

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common place. Thus the ‗American Dream‘ was nothing but as an illusion Miller took

this as one of the major concerns of the American people. In almost all plays closer for

the study reflect Miller‘s concern for the illusions of the American dream. Pursuing the

goals of the dream of success, society has lost its ethical moorings. Miller believed that

American morality had no solid base.

The play, All My Sons, is a criticism of the American dream. Joe Keller, a representative

type who would be considered as ordinary American has lived through the depression

and despite a lack of education he has been able to own a factory which he hopes his son

would inherit. However, Joe Keller‘s quest for money leads to his responsibility for the

deaths of twenty-one American pilots. Thus, the play All My Sons is all about the

disillusionment.

The play is an assertion of the need for the individual to accept full responsibility for his

actions, to acknowledge the reality of the world in which the idea of the brotherhood is an

active principal rather than a simple piety. The play All My Sons is an assault on

materialism which is seen as being at odds with human values, on a capitalistic drive for

profits. Joe Keller defends himself by insisting that his own values are those of the world

in which he moves. In a way he has chosen the path which misleads him to gain quick

success, money etc at the cost of lives of many pilots. He did not understand the real

meaning of the American dream and hence the undesirable end!

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In comparing All My Sons to the ‗American Dream‘, the play employs a pattern that is

fundamental to most tragedies. Protagonists in tragedy must, in some degree, be held

accountable for their actions. When faced with a moral dilemma, they often make a

wrong choice. The wide gap between Joe Keller‘s dream of a happy and wealthy future

for his family and the reality underscores the ironic nature of the situation. His hopes are

frustrated by his own sons for whom he worked. Larry, as a result of the ignominy, feels

on account of his father‘s culpability, kills himself. Chris turns violently against him

when he discovers the reality. Joe is ironically destroyed by his own weapons. Both his

sons, whom he loved more than the entire world, become the instruments of his

punishment. Larry‘s deliberate suicide is a mode of revenge upon his father. Joe Keller

achieves the realization, however crudely, and admits ‗they were all my sons‘. This

realization is too strong to keep him alive. He goes inside and shoots himself. His

ultimate suicide is an act of self-purification.

‗The American‘ Dream is simply to grow up, become wealthy, and own lots of property.

Though there are many different variations of the American Dream yet this is the general

gist of it. The part of the ‗American Dream‘ which is contradicted in this play is only the

last part of it which states that after growing up, becoming wealthy and owning lots of

property, one cannot live happily ever after. Joe Keller surely grew and became wealthy,

yet his life turned into a disaster in the short period of time that took place in this story.

Arthur Miller is trying to convey two different points in his play All My Sons: the

‗American Dream‘ is fake and only pertains to certain people and even with money life

can turn into a disaster in true sense.

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Death of a Salesman primarily deals with the myth of success in America. Willy

Loman‘s fidelity to the great American dream of success is at the very heart of the

conflict in the drama. The myth of success in America had its root in America in the

seventeenth century. But Miller projects the American industrial society distorted by the

agonizing aftermath of the Great Depression. It is a bitter complaint about the American

socio-moral system Willy Loman subscribes to a different and later from of the myth. He

believes that success is the reward of making friends and influencing people, being

impressive. The various formulations of the idea of success have contributed to the state

of mind that makes a failure a crime. Success is a requirement that Americans make of

life. In this context Willy Loman‘s catastrophe is, one of the poignant and inevitable

misfortunes of our society and our time. The play criticizes the social system which gives

birth to dreams and disillusions.

Arthur Miller‘s Death of a Salesman was written after the Second World War while

society was becoming very materialistic, and the idea that anyone could ‗make it‘ in

America was popular. These societal beliefs play a large part in Death of a Salesman, a

play in which the main character, Willy Loman, spends a lifetime chasing after the

‗American Dream‘. Willy was nurtured by the wrong dreams. He was enamored with a

myth of American ideals and chose to put aside his real talents in pursuit of a fantasy. In

several instances of the play, we see that Willy is a skilled carpenter. He wants to redo

the front step just to show off to his brother, and he is constantly fixing things around the

house. However, he does not see carpentry as an acceptable occupation. It entails hard

work and there is not any glory in it. Instead, he chooses to follow the dream of being a

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successful salesman. The problem is that Willy does not seem to have any of the skills

needed to be a salesman.

Willy Loman is a man on a mission. His purpose in life is to achieve the so-called

‗American Dream‘ but is this what Willy Loman really wants? In Death of a Salesman,

Arthur Miller analyzes the American Dream by portraying to us a few days in the life of a

washed up salesman named Willy Loman. The ‗American Dream‘ is a definite goal of

many people, meaning something different to everyone. Willy never becomes part of the

‗American Dream‘ because he tries to become successful and wealthy rather than

spending his life doing something that would bring him and his family joy.

‗The American Dream‘ is a term used to summarize the basic ideals held by the

American public. Death of a Salesman focuses on this dream and analyses the dreams

significance in the American social order. The basic principal behind the ‗American

Dream‘ is the belief that if people have an aspiration and they work for it they will

achieve their dreams. Arthur Miller‘s Death of a Salesman is a demonstration of the

affliction with which America has been stricken. It is an affliction of false idealism, but

also a birthing of the consumer. It is this consumer society which is the affliction and the

protagonist of this drama is unable to cure himself and his family. Willy Loman is the

manifestation of the consumerism which is destroying society. He is the corporeal

manifestation of this myth, and the ‗American Dream‘ is the myth itself. This myth can

be broken down into several parts itself. First is the belief that situations, commodities,

etc. improve with time, which is a technological misconception. Second is the

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understanding that hard work is necessary to bring about this sort of improvement. And

third, the coming together of these amounts to the belief that commodities brought about

by hard work will help in the betterment of our lives, and that this never ending

accumulation of wealth will generate a truly happy life.

Pressure to conform to the societal norms of a culture can often be so weighty that those

who balk against it are likely to be crushed. Usually the world wins in a very few cases

though, the individual comes out the victor, beating the odds, a stronger human being as a

result. In the case of Arthur Miller‘s Death of a Salesman, the world devours Willy

Loman in his search for the ‗American Dream‘. It broke him down and eventually

destroyed him.

There is a wide range of dreams throughout the play. Every character is living a dream

and these dreams are what affect and change how the play flows. The main dream is the

great capitalist ‗American Dream‘. The dreams dramatically affect relationships, jobs and

even threatens lives, and these dreams are usually unachievable so, are never going to be

reached. This however does not ever stop the Loman‘s from dreaming and eventually at

the end of the play it gets the better of them.

Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman, is a play to examine with respect to its reflection of

the impact of American values and mores as to what constitutes ‗success‘ upon individual

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lives. The play marks a brilliant fusion of the ideas and problems central to Miller‘s

artistic and creative life; among those problems are the relationship of selfishness to

altruism and the need to define an achievable code of morality for oneself. Willy Loman,

the dominant central character of the play, has defined morality in terms of his capacity to

provide financially for his family. Willy Loman is an outgrowth of a Depression

ambiance which suggests that he defines ―success‖ with respect to income, retaining a

job, and fiscal security. Arthur Miller‘s play Death of a Salesman is about a man, Willy

Loman, whose life is going downhill and coming to an end. Willy Loman was a good

salesman because he cared and was honest and through his personality he sold his goods.

Time has moved on, but Willy has not. The business world has moved ahead and the way

of selling goods had changed, but Willy cannot see this.

Willy Loman has never come to terms with reality. His life is a dream and derives all his

pleasures from the past and he always assures himself that all is well. His problem is that

his role models are out of place in the modern business where heartlessness and hostility

win the battle in business.

The pursuit of the dream of success has distorted Willy‘s vision and flawed his concept

of morality. A victim of his own delusions, he is forced to adopt a double standard of

morality. While preaching clean living, friendliness and honesty to his sons, his own life

denies these qualities. Thus Miller displays a remarkable grasp of contemporary life and

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issues in Death of a Salesman. The play penetrates the mythology of America whose

illusions lead Willy‘s ruin, as salesman, husband and father and his ultimate ruin as man.

A View from the Bridge has power and substance. It is based on a story that Arthur Miller

once heard in the Brooklyn. A View from the Bridge compromises between the remote

moral history of seventeenth century Salem and contemporary Brooklyn. Miller wanted

the play to be without suspense or theatricalized life based on a true incident, as a number

of his plays are, he did not wish his actions to depend on ‗psycho-sexual romanticism‘ or

‗mere sympathy‘ for a ‗misunderstood victim‘. Suspense is there only in so far as the

audience knows only too well how events will turn out. The basic feelings would be the

desire to stop this man and tell him what and how was really doing to his life. That is to

educate him and therefore, the audience is presumed to be able to educate Eddie Carbone.

Eddie, a worker indistinguishable from his neighborhood type depends for his good name

on being at one with the community standard. His final that he wants his respect is the

heart breaking cry of a man whose self-esteem had depended entirely on society unlike

John Proctor‘s inner direction in The Crucible. Miller‘s presentation of Eddie‘s

inarticulate life is brilliantly written as his terrifying bewilderment increases Eddie as

responsible for the violation of the law of the culture and the conflict of laws in A View

from the Bridge becomes the laws of the city streets of America. Like Proctor in The

Crucible, Eddie will die for his name and like Joe Keller; he has been betrayed by the law

of his own nature into breaking the law of his duty to humanity. He has violated the

accepted mores of his people out of necessity created by an illegitimate passion. Thus the

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protagonist of A View from the Bridge is both frightening in his aberrancy and awesome

in his total and irrevocable commitment to his concept of self. In Eddie Carbone, Miller

has created the dark mirror image of John Proctor. Both of them clash violently with their

societies, where as the society in The Crucible is the transgression against the

individual‘s society. In A View from the Bridge, the protagonist is the violator of the

communal codes which are view as just.

A View from the Bridge manifests a deepening complex moral outlook. On the part of

Miller, it illuminates his awareness that the total commitment to personal inviolability

which he previously admired without being serious about its consequences.

Eddie, the main character because of his blindness did something wrong and felt sorry for

that. He had not meant to act the way he did. As Alfieri believed, Eddie was possessed

with ‗passion that has moved into his body, like a stranger‘ and was unable to control

him. The passion, unreleased and suppressed in his unconscious was a stranger to Eddie‘s

conscious self that actively denied any thoughts of incest, or otherwise. Miller was

successful with showing how a man can easily destroy himself by jealousy. He did this

by increasing Eddie‘s jealousy for Rodolpho. This increase of jealousy reveals the

strength Eddie‘s desire for Catherine. His protectiveness is too strong, and his jealousy

shows it. His theme of incest is considered, but is not the only problem. The problem is

how his affection for Catherine shows another theme, loyalty, through. Eddie breaks a

community‘s trust, which had a cultural rule for the Italian community in America.

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America was seen as a golden land, where the majority of the immigrants considered it

as the land of many opportunities. The immigrants thought new doors would open for

them and settling would provide a better life. The statue of liberty conveyed a welcoming

protective feeling of America civilians. When many people migrated to America

sometimes they brought fate upon themselves. Either people had to work very hard to

survive or their lifestyles became difficult. Many Italians migrated to America mainly

from the Sicilian region. Sicily was a poor area, where there were low paid workers, the

land was infertile and people were close to starvation state. In order for Americans to

increase wealth and power they had to do certain jobs. In turn the Italians did jobs and

were often cheated and exploited.

In the 1940s the American dream was one that everyone possessed. The American dream

promised wealth, happiness and pretty much everything that any citizen could ever want.

This concept of the perfect life is one that both men try their very hardest to live by so

that they can provide for their families, most importantly their children. When Joe Keller

says that he did all only for his son, Chris—this shows very clearly that he feels it is his

duty to provide for his son. In A View from the Bridge the scenario is very similar with

Eddie trying to provide for his niece Catherine who he feels it is his duty to bring up

because he promised her mother on her death bed that he will be responsible for

Catherine.

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In literature as in life, there are some events which affect the relationships between parent

and child. In both plays Death of a Salesman and A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller

depicts the possessiveness of human nature through the eyes of Willy Loman and Eddie

Carbone. Willy and his son Biff exhibit an undoubtable strain in their relationship.

Willy gives all his dreams to Biff in hope that he will carry on or create success for

himself. Eddie wants the best for his niece, Catherine, but is unaware of his over

protectiveness which in actuality is an element much more repelling. The relationship

between father and child characters place tension upon everyone and ultimately is a

factor in the protagonist‘s common tragedy.

The character of Eddie is linked to historical context by the poverty in Europe, the

immigration into America and the Italian ‗man of the house‘ profile. The ‗American

Dream‘ tells us about why the immigrants are coming to America, The ‗American

Dream‘ believed in plenty of jobs, money and streets paved with gold. The reality is

different. A View from the Bridge tells us that there were a lot of jobs available but only if

you were paying someone back and if you were not, you will have to search for them.

This shows us the deeper side of Eddie as he seems to know all the rules and can see that

the system is unfair.

The tragedy in A View from the Bridge is based around people‘s unwillingness to accept

reality. People do not accept reality. This has been taken to its fullest extent in this play

as it ends in the demise of Eddie. Eddie‘s reality contains a secret, a secret lust for

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Catherine; this to Eddie is something disgusting something depraved as to him she is a

daughter and some conflicting inner voice tells him that is the only way it can be. For her,

he has an intense love but maybe this love arises from lust.

The problem Arthur Miller‘s play After the Fall as in A View from the Bridge is not only

psychological. It has a social aspect too. In After the Fall, Quentin‘s traumatic childhood

experiences and the relationship between his parents play a crucial part and give him

early lessons in human betrayal and selfishness. Later its impact is reflected in Quentin‘s

own relationships with his two wives. Viewed from the social aspect the theme of

innocence has much wider implications than the purely biblical ones. It suggests not only

the innocence that belonged to man in his prelapsarian state but also its political

counterpart which the political moralists try to exploit by hurling suspicions on the

innocent, intellectual thinkers and independent minded people. In spite of focusing these

imprisonment aspects in the play After the Fall people criticized Miller for the

autobiographical parallels. Of course, Miller defended himself by repudiating all

autobiographical allusions and intensions whatsoever. For paltry discovery of few facts

resembling the author‘s life, the critics have generally ignored the truth about the human

situation represented in the play.

Reading the play closely one can find two threads running side by side in the play. One is

that of Quentin‘s relationships with his former two wives and the other thread is that of

vital social relationships between other characters such as Lou and Mickey, Lou and

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Quentin and others. In Lou, a professor of law, there might be a shadow of Miller‘s own

communistic associations in the past that what is more significant in the play is not

whether Miller was once communist or not but the tragic repercussions of social

relationships.

Another important aspect of the play is, it is a social drama but of a new kind. Some

impersonal social themes are projected through the dilemmas of the individual. Social

issues are turned into personal issues, which in turn, make it more effective as a tragedy.

The form of the memory play and the confessional monologue help enhance its tragic

effect.

Time, space and action are as freely used in the play as they are compressed in the

framing action. The action takes place in the mind, thought and memory of Quentin. This

gives to Miller‘s After the Fall a richness and the dramatic intensity. Through the pool of

individual consciousness, a vital human experience in terms of its longer social

implications. Has been dramatized, imparting universality to a private-looking drama of

the soul.

Each of these four plays— All my Sons, Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge

and After the Fall, has a personality of his own, an action and an intention that separate it

from the other three. But all of them are variations on the same theme. The basic premise

of all four is that society is an image-making machine, a purveyor of myths and

prejudices which provide the false faces and false values which modern man wears.

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Moreover, the protagonists suffer from the American dream—the dream of success,

money, name and fame, integrity, peaceful life etc. But all of them meet with the

shattering experience of the illusions and unfortunately each one has to pay the heavy

price for its realization.

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