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Discuss the Death of a Salesman as a Modern Tragedy

        Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman" was written and published in 1949, when the United States was booming with new economic capabilities and new found power. However, the American dream was turning out to be quite different than that of the originally idealized by their founding fathers. The play is centered around Willy Loman a husband and father of two sons, who is searching for success and happiness based on self centered ideals and illusion and ruining his life and his families lives at the same time. It is a controversial play of a typical American family and their desire to live the American dream .The story is told through the delusional eyes and mind of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman of 34 years, whose fantasy world of lies eventually causes him to suffer an emotional breakdown. Miller's play is seen by many as a tragedy.

         
        Willy Loman is at the bottom of the totem pole in a capitalistic world. He develops the theory that if a person is well liked and has a great deal of personal attractiveness, then all doors will automatically be opened for him. Willy built his life around these dreams. However, for Willy to live by his ideals necessitates building or telling many lies, and these illusions replace reality in Willy's mind. Willy then fills his sons so full of this concept of being well-liked .

        Eventually, Willy perceives himself as a failure: He is not Dave Singleman as a great salesman, and now that he is growing old and less productive, the company he helped to build fires him. He regrets being unfaithful to his wife, even though he will never admit the affair to her. He is no longer a respectable father in Biff’s eyes. Biff recognizes Willy’s tendency to exaggerate or reconstruct reality and is no longer a willing participant in Willy’s fantasy. By the end of the play, Willy is overwhelmed; he can no longer deny his failures when they become too many to deal with. Instead, he seeks a solution in suicide.

        Willy’s suicide cannot be justified because it defies his own intentions. Willy believes his suicide will resolve the disorder in his life by assuaging any pain he caused Linda, winning Biff’s respect, and demonstrating his popularity as a salesman and individual. In reality, he denies Linda a debt-free husband, Biff a reconciled father, and Happy an improved role model.

        This play gives us a look at the great American Dream failing miserably and depicts the shortcomings of the capitalist society. In this play, the social system was not ready to take care of the old people yet and might still learning to improve by making laws to protect the labor.  It was a pity that Willy was fired without any compensation after 34 years hard work for the company. If he had the retirement pension, he might not resolve on suicide. 

        However, Willy’s self-deprecation, sense of failure, and overwhelming regret are emotions that an audience can relate to because everyone has experienced them at one time or another. Individuals continue to react to Death of a Salesman because Willy’s situation is not unique. This play is so successful and durable because it also forces the audiences to scan through their own tragic flaws, and find a way to resolve them properly (if any), before the tragedies might happen to themselves as well.