Death of a Salesman: Discuss the Importance of Dreams to the Play
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Death of a Salesman: Discuss the Importance of Dreams to the Play
Within Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman there are numerous types of dreams featured. They range from daydreams and fantasies to all hallucination-like experiences and are always components of Willy Loman’s imagination and mind. Arthur Miller utilizes these dreams as a tool to convey Willy’s subconscious longings and desires. Dreams are also vital to the narrative as they convey Willy construction of reality in post-war era America when failure of the elusive American Dream was not conventionally discussed. Dreams are also integral to the play from the audience’s perspective; they explain the plot line and characters past behaviour, as well as the internal structure and the characters actions throughout the play.
The concept of the American Dream is fundamental to the play. It is the extended metaphor on which the whole play is centred around, which in turn becomes the play’s ending moral message. The American Dream is the unattainable notion of perfection that affects each character differently. For Willy he is affected the worse as he constantly strives for it as he has been brought up around the concept. He always needs the best of everything; for instance the ‘Hastings’s Refrigerator’ which breaks down, reflecting the illusion that gaining material prosperity defines success. This shows how the concept has begun to distort his reality with false fantasies and corrupt morals until he has become self-deluded, ‘I’m vital to New England’ and ignorant.
Biff, Willy’s son, is affected in a wholly different way. He perceives his father for exactly what he is and therefore attempts to rebel against his fraudulent expectations. For example he realises that despite his father’s constant reinforcement that he is an ‘Adonis’, he’s just ‘a dime a dozen’. His father naturally does not accept his perspective, as it does not run in accordance with the American Dream’s ideals.
Happy Loman, Willy’s...
Within Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman there are numerous types of dreams featured. They range from daydreams and fantasies to all hallucination-like experiences and are always components of Willy Loman’s imagination and mind. Arthur Miller utilizes these dreams as a tool to convey Willy’s subconscious longings and desires. Dreams are also vital to the narrative as they convey Willy construction of reality in post-war era America when failure of the elusive American Dream was not conventionally discussed. Dreams are also integral to the play from the audience’s perspective; they explain the plot line and characters past behaviour, as well as the internal structure and the characters actions throughout the play.
The concept of the American Dream is fundamental to the play. It is the extended metaphor on which the whole play is centred around, which in turn becomes the play’s ending moral message. The American Dream is the unattainable notion of perfection that affects each character differently. For Willy he is affected the worse as he constantly strives for it as he has been brought up around the concept. He always needs the best of everything; for instance the ‘Hastings’s Refrigerator’ which breaks down, reflecting the illusion that gaining material prosperity defines success. This shows how the concept has begun to distort his reality with false fantasies and corrupt morals until he has become self-deluded, ‘I’m vital to New England’ and ignorant.
Biff, Willy’s son, is affected in a wholly different way. He perceives his father for exactly what he is and therefore attempts to rebel against his fraudulent expectations. For example he realises that despite his father’s constant reinforcement that he is an ‘Adonis’, he’s just ‘a dime a dozen’. His father naturally does not accept his perspective, as it does not run in accordance with the American Dream’s ideals.
Happy Loman, Willy’s...