Death of a Salesman': American Dream and Moderm Tradegy

Researching the topic 'Death of a Salesman' essay: american dream and moderm tradegy' we let's get acquainted with the concept of tragedy and its varieties and also analyses Arthur Miller's ‘Death of a Salesman as a modern, social tragedy and the concept of the American dream in the novel.

Introduction:

The tragedy is a type of literature, especially drama, dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character. It is basically the downfall of the hero, for the actions he has taken in the past, or some fallacy in him, causing him his misfortune. As defined by Aristotle in his work ‘Poetics’, ‘Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude’ through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions'. Tragedy has notably evolved through the ages, from the classical Greek tragedies, including ‘Oedipus Rex’ to the more modern forms of tragedy as seen in the ‘Death of a Salesman’. Tragedy can belong to any age but with the change of time, the subject matter and the style have changed according to the demands of the age. This essay explores the different kinds of the tragedy of the ages and analyses Arthur Miller's ‘Death of a Salesman’ as a modern, social tragedy.

CLASSICAL TRAGEDY:

As a literary device, tragedy originated in ancient Greece with religious rituals and performances. Aristotle defined Classical tragedies as a unified work that covers a one-time span, story, setting, and the main protagonist. The plot of the drama consists of one great, complete action in which a hero of high status or prominence falls from fortune to misfortune due to a tragic flaw or the influence of a divine power. Fate also plays a major role in classical tragedies. Aristotle also stipulated that the purpose of tragedy is to evoke fear and sympathy as a result of the hero's fall, leading to catharsis or healthy emotional purge for the audience. Some examples of classical tragedies include Oedipus Rex, Agamemnon, and Prometheus Bound.

RENAISSANCE TRAGEDY:

One of the chief characteristics of renaissance tragedy is the tendency of tragic heroes to transcend traditional systems of morality. Renaissance tragedies end with a morbid twist, that is, the protagonist dies. This is in stark contrast with Greek tragedies in which the protagonist often lives. The main character in a renaissance tragedy was a person full of complexities, ambitions, and potential. During the Renaissance, various forms of tragedy emerged; like the Tragedy of circumstance, the Tragedy of miscalculation, and the Revenge tragedy. Some of the examples include ‘Hamlet’, ‘Macbeth’.

RESTORATION TRAGEDY:

Restoration Tragedy is a term commonly used to imply all types of tragedies written during the Restoration period. Restoration Tragedy is also known as ‘Heroic Tragedy’. The theme is mainly based on the conflict between love and honour or love and duty. The fashion of writing this type of drama was certainly under the influence of French tragedy. The heroic tragedy demands heroic characters without fatal flaws and showed great nobility. The plot mainly consists of heroic characters who are trapped in the irreconcilable conflict between their passion as lovers and their honor as friends or rulers also they give vent to their emotions and agonies in high declamatory speeches or highly stylized meditations on life and death before meeting their spectacular end. John Dryden, also a master of mock-heroic poetry was the main practitioner of this type of drama.

MODERN TRAGEDY:

Modern drama refers to tragedies that were written and performed from the twentieth century. Modern tragedies are typically centered around ordinary people and their problems, ambitions and aspirations therefore they are more realistic and relatable to the modern man. The modern tragedy is also more likely to focus on society rather than fate or fortune and the downfall of the character is caused by his own tragic flaw. Fate and divine power rarely play a role in modern tragedies. It may also have multiple plots and more than one central character. The protagonist may be a white, black or grey character. The action in the story may also span several weeks, months, or years, and the differences in time are managed by elements such as flashbacks, pauses, flash-forwards, and narrations. The elements such as irony and sarcasm are also used by modern playwrights to highlight the flaws in the characters.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman falls under this type of tragedy. Death of a Salesman was written in 1948 in a small studio built by Miller in Roxbury, Connecticut. A critique of the cultural and economic myths of American capitalism, the play unfolds the tragic denouncement of the sixty-year-old Willy Loman, who has been working as a salesman for almost half of his life and has blind faith in the American Dream. But having aged now, he is fired from his job. The drama revolves around the family's economic struggles and Loman's dream world, as he shamelessly lies about his success in spite of being a failure all throughout his life. There are various aspects that make this play a modern, social play.

SETTING OF THE PLAY:

The play, ‘Death of a Salesman’ has a modern setting. The Lomans live in Brooklyn, and most of the play's action occurs at Willy Loman's house, but other places in New York and Boston are used as well, including hotel rooms, Willy's office, a restaurant, and Willy's gravesite. Therefore, the setting of the play differs from the setting of classical tragedy as the play is set in poor Willy's house instead of a royal palace. Though the play is set in the year 1949, but the times of the play fluctuate between a point in 1942 and another time in 1928. The play interweaves scenes of the past and present, depicting events in a sequence at odds with its chronological progression. This shift of time is presented through a series of flashbacks. By using the ‘timeswitch’ Miller streamlined the nineteenth-century narrative technique and made it possible to dispense with lengthy explanations. In ‘Death of a Salesman’, the audience needs no explanations because they become aware of both past and present as the story unfolds. These ‘timeswitches’ occur inside Willy's mind which is observed by the audience. Sometimes there is a change of location as well as of time, as when Willy ‘slips back’ to his last meeting with the woman in Boston while he is talking to Linda in Brooklyn. This is in fact a 'double-time switch, occurring inside a time switch back from the 1948 present to the 1931 remembered past.

There is also flute playing in the play which gives the play a modern touch. This is the replacement of songs and spectacle that were played in the classical Greek tragedy which added beauty to the play and helped create the environment of the play.

THE TRAGIC HERO:

In Arthur Miller's essay, ‘Tragedy and the Common Man’, Miller says that a tragic hero does not have to be a king or of a noble background, but instead a common man can be considered a tragic hero. Miller believes that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were. As a hero, Willy Loman does not fully fit into the traditional definition of a tragic hero but instead comes out as a ‘modern tragic hero’.

Willy Loman was an average salesman who had a dream of being rich and well-liked. According to Aristotelian definition of a tragic hero, a tragic protagonist has a flaw in his character, most frequently of Hubris, which is overweening pride, haughtiness, or arrogance which eventually leads to his downfall. A tragic hero is often of noble birth, and a reversal of fortune is brought about by the hero's tragic flaw. In the classical concepts of tragedy or tragic hero, derived from Aristotle, tragedy is well defined as the fall of a man of high rank or a man of great importance in the world. However, Willy Loman is not of ‘noble birth’, quite the contrary he is a common man, though certainly has hamartia, a tragic flaw or error in judgment, his downfall is that of an ordinary man, which indeed makes him a tragic hero of a modern tragedy. Loman's flaw comes down to a lack of self-knowledge like Sophocles' Oedipus in ‘Oedipus Rex’. However, Loman's downfall threatens not a city unlike Oedipus, but only a single family, the Lomans. In light of this perspective, Loman may not be considered as a tragic hero in terms of classical definition. Still, Miller places his protagonist as a tragic hero: not a classical but a modern tragic hero. Willy combines both good and bad qualities. He loves his family and also wants to see his sons at great positions, but at the same time he also has an extramarital affair with a woman which is certainly a modern problem.

THE AMERICAN DREAM:

Willy's tragic flaw lies in his false belief in American Dream. Traditionally, the American dream is based on the principles of freedom and equality. It is the belief that through the pioneer virtues of hard work, perseverance, ingenuity, and fortitude, one might find happiness through wealth. Nevertheless, as industrialization develops, the value of the American dream has deviated from its original connotation and been degraded. Willy says that there was respect, comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it's all cut and dried. He says this because he was fired from his job as he became old and less productive than before. ‘Death of a Salesman’ is a typical modern tragedy that shows the social reality of a common man. It deals with the common theme of individual vs society. Much of Willy's suffering is because of the nature of American society. He is caught by the evils of capitalism and is ruined by the social forces. Willy runs obsessively after his ideals for reaching his goals. He tries to be like his brother Ben who was successful in realising his American Dream. Willy wanted to get rid of his position as a ‘common man’ and be rich. Here, Willy seems to give us the corrupt version of the American Dream as he believes that the route to success is not paved with hard work but by having a charismatic personality. This factor is evident as he gives his opinion on Charley's business- ‘bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not liked. He’s liked, but he's not well liked'. He also rejects the job offered by Charley and also refuses to do any other job. If he had a more realistic understanding of the American Dream, he would have accepted Charley's job offer and worked his way up the ranks instead of chasing his unrealistic vision of wealth and success until his death. After losing his job and realizing that at this age he had no way of being successful, he thought of committing suicide as the only way of achieving the American Dream.

To be a salesman in the United States in the 1940s was a typical occupation of its time, therefore, Willy could be seen as a representative American accepting the current American beliefs, especially that success is open equally to all citizens. His dreams of material success dominate his thoughts to the point that he becomes completely unable to distinguish his hopes from realities in the present. In the Requiem, Linda says, ‘he was so wonderful with his hands’. With this, we come to know here that, Willy inherited a manual skill from his father but refused to use it in his working life. For some reason, he always regarded the skills of a builder as being inferior to those of a salesman. This self-deception soon turns out to be self-destruction as he chooses to commit suicide because he believes the insurance money offered after his death can help his sons to achieve their success and his unfinished dream. Moreover, in this ordinary man, the general audience is likely to find something similar to them and contemplates about their situation, which is exactly the essence of the ‘Modern tragedy’.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Macmillan Master Guides -Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
2. Blooms Modern Critical Interpretations
3. Wikipedia