The bigger question is what we’re sacrificing for this big, glittery dream.
#Death of a salesman play tv
For many of us, it’s a big-screen TV and a bimmer in the garage. What has the American Dream come to mean, anyway? For Willy Loman, it was popularity and demeanor. Sound familiar? In 2004, surveys found one-third of Americans adamantly insisting they were not living the American Dream, with half of them saying it wasn’t even attainable for them. Death of a Salesman is often considered an attack on the American Dream. He’s delusional, thinks everyone loves him, and is depressing in an "I’m manifesting everyone’s fears about obsession with material success" kind of way.īut now that we’ve gotten a flashy pop-culture reference out of the way, let’s get to the bigger picture. Better? Great-because that’s Willy Loman in a nutshell. Think about Michael Scott from The Office.Having trouble picturing him? Try this. What is Death of a Salesman About and Why Should I Care? Its harsh criticism of American capitalism may not be quite as shocking as it was when the play first premiered, but we have a feeling that every modern-day audience member knows exactly what Miller is getting at-whether you agree with him or not. Like all classics, Death of a Salesman's themes still ring true today. It's often ranked right up there with classics like Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Thornton Wilder's Our Town, and Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
However, with Death of a Salesman, Miller's career was launched into a whole new level.ĭeath of a Salesman is widely considered even to this day to be one of the greatest American plays ever written. By this point in his career, Miller had already proven his chops with his hit play, All My Sons. It won Arthur Miller the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. When the play version appeared on Broadway, it was a total hit. His interest was renewed later on however, by an uncle who was a salesman. The idea for the play first manifested itself as a short story, which author Arthur Miller initially abandoned. The storyline features Willy Loman, an average guy who attempts to hide his averageness and failures behind increasingly delusional hallucinations as he strives to be a "success." The play is a scathing critique of the American Dream and of the competitive, materialistic American society of the late 1940s.
On the other hand, ambition can keep us from recognizing our own limits, trapping us in the delusional grandeur of imagined achievements.įor Willy Loman, ambition is the ultimate foe-the Darth Vader to his Luke Skywalker, the Voldemort to his Harry Potter, the Cruella to his Pongo.ĭeath of a Salesman is a tragedy about the differences between the Loman family's dreams and the reality of their lives. On one hand, ambition can motivate us to get out of bed in the morning and follow our dreams. It's one of those things that can be either your best friend or your worst enemy.