Preliminary Analysis of the Distortion and Downfall of American Dream in Death of a Salesman

【Abstract】Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller is his most famous play with extremely tragic feature. Taking American dream as the clue through the whole play， the author mainly analyzes the protagonist Willy. Under the collision of illusion and reality， the tragic death of Willy reflects the distortion， downfall and even the disillusion of American dream in the big circumstance.

【Key words】American dream； Death of a Salesman； Willy

【作者簡介】朱斯雨（1997.7.16- ），女，汉族，现就读于华北科技学院外国语学院2014级英语专业，主要研究方向：英语语言文学。

1. Introduction to American Dream

The play Death of a Salesman was written by Arthur Miller， published in 1949. Arthur Miller is one of the greatest American playwright who is good at picturing the nobody living in the big circumstance under great pressure. He witnessed the dreadful scenes during the Great Depression. Thus the characters he created reflect the fact that many Americans especially the lower class were struggling to survive， some of whom were even carrying a fantastic dream， that is， America is a dream land and anyone who works hard would become wealthy which means successful. This is the American dream twisted by the worship of wealth. The early American dream means democracy， freedom and liberty， which means all men are created equal and share the same opportunities， and anyone who is diligent and keeps pursuing their dreams would become successful （Wang and Feng）. It was a positive， inspiring and fantastic dream. Yet the luxurious lifestyle and the worship of money during the Roaring Twenties were corrupting peoples mind， which led to a twisted American dream， a pursuit of money， therefore to a certain extent this twisted American dream was doomed to be disillusioned.

2. Analysis of the twisted American dream

The plot of Death of a Salesman was set in this kind of twisted American dream. Willy Loman was a middle class salesman， who believed in his whole life that he could gain wealth as well as reputation through endless hard work. He dreamed about becoming an excellent salesman like Dave Singleman， who was a noble example of a successful salesman. Dave was a concrete image of Willys dream and Willy considered “salesman” as the greatest job man can ever do， thus he spent his whole life pursuing his dream， hoping that he would become a famous salesman with great wealth and reputation （Liu）. The American dream represented by Willy showed its twisted pursuit of wealth and reputation， which was the reason why Willy did not even have a single chance to feel the joy of achievement. He had been working as a salesman for over 36 years but when he reached his 60s he was still struggling for all the payments and barely unable to afford his family. He was always exhausted but never successful. However he was deeply drowned in his illusions and memories， and deeply trusted in his belief that he would become a successful salesman through hard work. One of the most impressive features of the play is the mix of illusions and reality. Willy was stuck between his illusions and the real life. His illusions showed that his dream， a miniature of the American dream， was indeed fascinating， while the reality was cold and cruel. Willy seemed to be living in his illusions and was somewhat afraid of facing the reality， thus why at the end of the play when his illusions disappeared， he finally was ready for the last act， killing himself. The death of Willy and the disappearing of the illusions stand for the downfall or distortion of American dream.

3. Conclusion

During the play the state of exhaustion repeats again and again， which indicates firstly， how exhausted Willy was. He spent all his life pursuing the twisted dream， money and reputation without gaining satisfaction and happiness. Secondly how desperate the situation was. Even the death of Willy was related to wealth， that he wanted to give up his poor and old life for insurance. From the above point of view， the state of exhaustion and the desperate situation reveal the fragility of the twisted American dream， predicting its downfall， that blindly pursuing wealth would lead to a tragic ending. To sum up，the tragic death of Willy reflects the distortion， downfall and even the disillusion of American dream in the big circumstance.

References：

[1]Wang shufei，fengyue.The tragedy of the American Dream[J].Journal of Harbin Commercial University（Social Science Edition）， 2007，94（3）：124-125.

[2]Liu jixin.The American Dream from the Perspective of Culture[J].Journal of Xian Foreign languages University，1994，16（1）：98-102.