“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller is a trenchant disclosure of the American Dream on the one hand and disillusionment and tragedy on the other, the catastrophe of Willy Loman, who is taken captive by his delusions. It is designed to be distinctively set against appearances and reality by checking societal expectations with the individual cost of following an unachievable god. Through Willy’s eyes, we know what it is to fight an ever-bigger battle for ideals that tear one’s sense of self. This essay examines how Miller’s narrative resonates personally, emphasizing the importance of authenticity over societal approval.
In “Death of a Salesman,” Miller bemoans the destructive effect of appearance versus reality, which Willy Loman personifies in the crazed pursuit of a warped American Dream above all else. Willy feels that being charming and popular works better than hard work and being good, and he even says, “It is not what you say, it’s how you say it—because personality always wins the day” (Miller, 46). It is this corrupt set of values that Wily will gladly take on, which will quickly lead him to ignore substantive life and work to put up a front to be liked and to be outwardly successful. Consequently, Willy’s life tends to go wild, experiencing miserable failure to score the illusory goals. This leads him to lose his job, fail in his family life, and end up taking his own life. In such rendering, Willy is a moral dilemma set for society’s warning of safety owing to the risks of life. This led to fallacy-based overemphasis, hence the necessity of being genuine whether society likes it or not.
“Death of a Salesman” has struck a chord in me at a fundamental level since, ideally, it considers the risks of pursuing societal definitions of success at the cost of personal values and authentic belonging. The tragic journey of Willy stands as a very poignant reminder that in the pursuit of an illusory dream—this one highly breeding its own in seeking outer validation through material success—profound disconnection and loss may be born. This reflection has made me question and look into some of my very own definitions of success and accomplishment. For instance, are they not derived from the number of achievements or man’s positive opinions? Instead, I am inspired to find success attributed to the righteousness of my actions and the value of my connections. It even takes life as a result of not taking it seriously. Willy’s story is poignantly tragic, yet on the other hand, more the wake-up to the fact that life goes on ad infinitum. One is left with nothing else but to start at square one and a new look at whatever is needed to be considered requisite in life, looking behind the facade of hunky-dory. This affected my train of thought and directed me toward the road of consciousness and well-being.
A quotation that profoundly resonates with me is when Willy asserts, “After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive” (Miller, 71). However, as a painful realization comes to the forefront, it is tragic that Willy’s life is finally the bitter irony. I find that very telling, loud and clear, of a society construct oriented towards where a person’s value is what they have in money—not richness of character, whatever that shall be, or depth in human experiences. This produces very piercing commentaries, mainly from the wording, on how dehumanizing capitalism is: that more life is worth more dead than alive in their economic success. This quote sets out to answer the very temporary characteristic of material success—a deeply founding meaning in life that is not pegged on achieving success through culture or financial undertaking. The quote refutes customary success metrics that question everything one is supposed to achieve, encouraging a reevaluation of personal desires to more respective and meaningful objectives. Facing Willy is the realization of the play’s denunciation of the American Dream, catastrophically reminding the audience that the intangibles of life have to come first, for it is all about human worth. Automatically, this will bring a straitened approach to measuring success and value in life. Living honestly and appreciating relationships and personal growth over wealth will be significantly emphasized.
In conclusion, Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” perhaps an echo of the pitfalls residing within the American Dream, poignantly calls in full for deep conflict between the ideals societies have set and the very essence of human fulfillment. His tragic fall shows to a startled world how profoundly important authenticity is—a world that altogether too often views appearance as more important than the very truth. Identity, value, and existence undergo scrutiny because the play insists that its readers reconsider how they define success and value. If anything, it is more than touching that Miller’s tale touches a feeling in the deepest parts of the soul by bringing forth new conceptions of personal ambitions, a life built on genuinely intertwined relationships and self-acceptance, rather than a life built on regiments.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman”. Penguin Books, 1998.
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