American dramatist Arthur Miller wrote about the moral predicament of the working class. Playwright David Ives uses the last twenty-four hours of his protagonist’s life as a montage of dreams and recollections to explore the theme of identity loss. The play’s central plot revolves around the American Dream. Many people see the American dream as one of the biggest illusions in American culture. The conviction that anybody may attain social and economic success regardless of their origins is so magnificent that many immigrated to alter their existing position. The fact, though, is that many suffered and were rapidly disillusioned. The play “Death of a Salesman” wonderfully shows this socioeconomic illusion skillfully weaved by a legion of politicians and speakers, luring in many naïve and optimistic families such as that of the Loman household. One of the play’s many central themes is that the American dream itself acts as a barrier to resilience. Resilience appears as the socioeconomic ambition to achieve the American dream, as the binding power behind the family’s rebounding from numerous explosive arguments, and finally, as it is shattered in the form of Willy’s disassociation with reality.
The perseverance of the Loman family is shown by their dogged pursuit of the American dream despite their repeated setbacks. Because they have put in so many years and so much work to achieve the goal that others have taught them, they should. They get perplexed when they find themselves unable to do so. In the first act, Miller emphasizes, in particular, the wide-open spaces and homeownership that symbolize the American ideal (Miller 1). The Loman household is depicted as under the terror of the American dream while juxtaposing against the bigger structures encircling it. This does not stop them from planning for the future and hoping for a better life in the future. Furthermore, following Willy’s sad death to aid his family, Happy is still enthusiastic about obtaining the American dream.
According to the notion of psychological resilience, the family recovers to a pre-crisis condition after each fight. For instance, Willy moaning about Biff not making anything of his life and the boys being upset with their father’s words juxtaposed with both of them thinking about their joyful daydreaming and fantasizing. Willy regularly criticizes Biff for his profession (Miller 12). Despite the disagreement, Biff and Happy immediately turn things around by envisioning a bright future for themselves. Rather than dwelling on their parents’ tense fight, they are channeling their energy towards planning for a bright future for themselves, which speaks volumes about their ability to bounce back from adversity. In addition, Happy’s idea that they get into the sports goods company together lightens Willy’s mood after he has yelled at Biff for his financial failures (Miller 44-45). In each and every case, the family members do not allow the gloomy mood to linger but instead quickly shift their focus to something else, showing perseverance in their pursuit of the American dream.
Willy’s mental strength is eroded during the play as he begins to entertain more bizarre ideas and lose touch with reality. Willy’s continual nightmares and delusions erode his perspective of reality, leading him to ruin himself. When Willy and Charley are having a chat, Willy often imagines Ben entering the room and having a conversation with him, even though Ben is not there. Willy is so fixated on realizing his potential and living the American dream that he confuses the two. As a further example of his lack of imagination, Willy concludes that Biff still wants to become a businessman and that in order to assist with that, he has to die in order for his family to receive the money from his life insurance policy (Miller 100). Willy is not resilient since he would rather give up his life than work for what he wants. Willy’s capacity to recover and return to a reasonable mind frame, as in act one, is damaged by the extreme nature of these irrational conclusions and the repeated overturning of reality and a recollection to the point where both timeframes become muddled and hard to follow.
In conclusion, the play illustrates the businessman’s mental breakdown as he frantically seeks to escape his ever-worsening circumstances. The audience witnesses resiliency every time the American dream is spoken, giving rise to a childlike optimism in everyone who thinks it a possibility. The resilience of the family unit is also on show in the fact that, after an angry exchange, everyone quickly returns to friendly conversation. Willy’s sad lunacy, with his persistent hallucinations and his ultimate catastrophic solution to his family’s economic predicament, is a magnificent representation of this. There are many aspects that contribute to success, but one of the most important is resilience; people like Biff, who adhere to hope through thick and thin, often get a deeper understanding of themselves and their actual aspirations as a result. While Kate was able to shrug off her hardships, William’s resistance was broken, and he eventually succumbed to his mental anguish and physical pain.
Work Cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. Penguin Books, 2000.