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3.3.1 Objective Reasons. 10
3.3.2 Subjective Reasons11
4 The Lessons from Death of a Salesman13
4.1 Lessons from Willy Loman and His Sons13
4.2 Lessons from Charley and His Son Bernard14
5 Conclusion. 15
Bibliography. 16
1 Introduction
Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, New York City, the second of three children of Isidore and Augusta Miller, Polish Jewish immigrants. His career as a playwright began while he was a student at the University of Michigan. As an American playwright and essayist, he was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman(1949), The Crucible (1953) and A View from the Bridge (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956), as well as the film The Misfits.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe. In 2002 he received the Prince of Asturias Award and in 2003 the Jerusalem Prize. “Arthur Miller’s upbringing was solidly Jewish, providing him with a strong moral and ethical center that is evident in his works and life.” (Abbotson, 2007:57)
They say that a person’s life experiences and social environment can mold one’s personality. When Miller was fourteen years old, the family went into bankruptcy. At first Arthur Miller hated his father’s incapability of retrieving the situation. With hindsight, Miller finally realized that it was not his father’s fault but the system’s. In particular, the basis for the dramatic conflicts in Death of a Salesman lies in Miller’s conflict with his maternal uncle, Manny Newman, who was an unsuccessful salesman. Furthermore, Miller is also influenced by the Wall Street Crash. “Many American could not subscribe to the degree of social conformity and the ideological and cultural orthodoxy that a prosperous, blooming, conservative suburban middle-class championed.” (Ward, Greaves, 2003:3) Therefore, their own values, beliefs and morals changed rapidly.
Due to the above reasons, Miller wrote Death of a Salesman. The story of Death of a Salesman tells us the last twenty-four hours about the life of Willy Loman, a diligent elderly traveling salesman, whose values, ideals and vanity are smashed into pieces by the fact that he is a total failure both in his family and the society. In the play, Miller describes Willy’s daydreams, private conversations and soliloquies, to unveil past family expectations, betrayals and lies, and elaborates Will’s road to destruction led by those past experiences, intertwined with the present.
Miller transformed the story into one of the most successful dramas in the world, which premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances, and has been revived on Broadway four times, and helped Miller win three Tony Awards for Best Revival. “Many critics described Death of a Salesman as the first great American tragedy, and Miller gained eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the United States.” (Sun, 2002:81) Furthermore, “Death of a Salesman is a play written along the lines of the finest classical tragedy. It is the revelation of a man’s downfall, in destruction whose roots are entirely in his own soul. The play builds to an immutable conflict where there is no resolution for this man in this life. The play is a fervent query into the great American competitive dream of success, as it strips to the core a castaway from the race for recognition and money.” (Hotti, Azizpour, 2010:15)
2 The Concept of American Dream
The American Dream is the national ethos of the United States, which provides the chances for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard working. In 1931, James Truslow Adams said, “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement,” (Net.1) and paying no attention to the social class or circumstances of birth.