Arthur Miller
An Analysis of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and The Price When people accept an ideal to live by it can be a glorious and noble thing unless they become so obsessed wi the the ideal that it becomes a yolk and they are unable to realize their dream.. This is especially true for two characters in Arthur Miller's plays Death of a Salesman and The Price. In these two plays Miller portays two lower-middle class men , Willie Loman and Victor Franz, respectivelly, who each live by an ideal that ultimately is self-defeating. Willie lived to pursue the American dream rather than living the American dream and Victor lived to serve and be decent rather than living a noble and decent life. They pursed their ideal rather than living it and thus they are unable to succeed. Willie Loman, in Death of a Salesman,, has lived his life in pursuit of the American dream. Traditionally the American dream meant oppurtunity and freedom for all, and Willie believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything that he wanted or thoght he deserved. Willy judged himsel and those arround him by theit material accumulation, as is demanded by capitalism and the protestant work ethic. The ethic demands accumulation and work as signs of favor i
There is also a manner in which he pusues the Dream. The consumer oriented society in which Willy lives will not allow him to live the American Dream. Thus in order to please god and himself he had to accumulate wealth and objects. Willy's obsession with acquiring wealth and being a salesman made it impossible for him to do so. During the time period portrayed by the play Victor is still selfless as he constantly calls tries to make arrangements to include his brother in the business deal to sell off their families estate. Similarly in Miller's The Price the main character is a man who tries to life for an ideal and not the ideal . He struggled to achieve something that he could not; he did not have the talent to be a salesman. He became so obsessed with living the dream that he was unable to be content with his talents in carpentry and with his family. By not achieving for himself he hurts those he is trying to help, his family. Willy thinks that he needs to buy his wife a new refrigerator and new stockings even though she is content with what they have. That is to say that his inability to please himself and to struggle to achieve his goals hurts his family. It is ironic that he dies for his ideals although they are misconstrued. As a result they both fail to accomplish what they had intended, hurt the ones they love, and themselves. While his brother Walter was in school Victor cared for their aging father at a great expense to Victor econimically and emotionally. Although Walter does not return Victor's numerous phone calls Victor still refuses to rake the whole amount of m oney for himself although no one would blame him for doing so.
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Acceptance Essays
