Death of a Salesman Analysis Essay Example

The play “Death of a salesman” was written by Authur Miller. The play takes place in New York in the late 1940s. The Loman family lives in a house in Brooklyn. Many different characters appear in the play Linda loman which is the wife, Happy loman one of Willy’s son, Biff loman also one of willys, Ben willys older brother, Charley Willy’s friend and next door neighbor, and Bernard Charley's son and biff best friend.  The play is about Willy Loman, the salesman/Protagonist of the story and his desire to accomplish the American dream. He believes that the American dream is the pathway to becoming wealthy. However, neither his sons nor Willy accomplish this dream. Willy is often caught battling between reality and flashbacks to many things in the past. As well as having flashbacks about his brother Ben who is deceased, his brother went to Africa and became rich young. These successes constantly haunt Willy and remind him of his own failures. His mind gives him hope for the future. 

Willy Loman strongly believes that being likable and attractive play a good part in the American dream. He also believes that being well-liked and attractive gives you more success in the business world. He doesn’t think that knowledge will get you anywhere as he explains to his sons about Bernard. He tells his son's biff and Happy  “Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want.” (Act 1) . Essentially this quote is Willy explaining to his sons that Bernard can do as great as he can in school but once he enters the business world they’ll be ahead of him because of them being “liked” which of course is not how things work. This shows how his interpretation of the American dream is different since his interpretation is not based on knowledge, it's more about being known. 

 Willy Loman faces many challenges due to his fixation with the American dream and it somehow affects the ones who surround him. He faced abandonment issues since his father left willy while he was young. He then is left by his brother who leaves for Alaska. The results of these events leave Willy with fear of abandonment which is why he's obsessive about his family achieving the American dream. It is also seen that Willy has fear of abandonment because he doesn't let Charles help him out with a job. Willy's blind face interferes with his reality of life because he constantly has breakdowns and is stuck dreaming of the life that he wants/doesn’t have. He is caught in the past and always thinking of Ben and how successful he was. In the play, he is constantly viewed arguing with his son as well as with his wife about their lifestyle and always seems to be frustrated because he wants to raise them “perfect” or up to the standards of the American dream. 

The declaration of independence did not protect Willy's dream. The reason I state this is because Willy was not able to pursue his idea of happiness which is the American dream and that’s what the declaration of independence is about. In the play, we see how he is constantly stressed about pursuing his dream which is the American dream. Willy tried to get a salary position in New York but due to lack of sales, he was fired. He worked hard to try and pursue this dream for himself and his family. His brother's success was a continuous reminder of how he needed to accomplish the dream that however broke him down as well since it was a reminder of what he couldn't/ didn’t accomplish.  He tried pushing his sons as much as he could to try and make them successful so they too can accomplish the dream which neither they nor him accomplished. This affected willy negatively and he ended up committing suicide in an automobile “accident”. Therefore the declaration of independence fails to protect the people like Willy desires because it makes them lose focus and can cause them damage as we see in the play. 

Willy relates to the statement  “The Founding Fathers put into law the revolutionary idea that each person's desire to pursue happiness was not just self-indulgence, but it was a part of what drives ambition and creativity”  in many ways. As we see multiple times in the play Willy tries and tries his hardest to accomplish this dream. This however was not just by his self-indulgence but more on ambition and creativity. What proves this statement is when we constantly see his brother showing up. This is an ambition for him because his brother is all he ever wanted to be like he wanted to accomplish the dream. Ben (Willy's brother)  pops up in the play often and each time Willy is reminded of how rich Ben was and how he should've joined him to go to Alaska. In the play we see him asking his brother multiple times ``how did you do it ben? how?``. This shows that his brother was a move for him to accomplish the American dream by being a reminder. Another that is shown on how ambition plays in a person's desire to pursue happiness is how willy attempted to get a salary position in New York so that he can work easier but unfortunately he was not able to get the position because he was fired as I mentioned earlier. Lastly, you see Willy repetitively trying to get his son to work and do something with his life so that he can pursue his happiness.

The statement “By legally protecting these values, the Founding Fathers set up a society that was very attractive for those aspiring for a better life” (National Archives: America’s Founding Documents)  connects with Willy and his family because in the play Willy is seen trying to get a better life for himself and well and trying to persuade his sons to better their lives. In a part in the play his son, Biff gives it a try and tells his dad that he is going to meet with Oliver who’s a salesman. Later on, we see Willy bragging about how his sons are gonna make it big and have their own family company. This aspires them to get a better life because of how his dad persistently is talking or mentions the American dream. Willy tries as well by traveling to Boston for his job to gain for his family although it becomes too much because he begins to feel ill he gets suicidal thoughts but tries to hide it. Then he tries to switch his location to New York so that he wouldn’t have to drive but would still be able to work and aspire to a better life. The family was all in different ways aspiring to gain a better life for each other. 

In conclusion, in the play “ Death of a salesman”  the American dream is strongly used in the play. It’s Willy's main goal to accomplish. Throughout the play we see Willy's journey to accomplish the dream. The American dream in the play conveys a deeper meaning by showing us Willy Loman's perspective of the goal to be liked. Overall it shows us the harsh reality of struggling families.