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  • Essay / Themes of Arthur Miller - 1210

    Arthur Miller's playwrights were an astonishing work of art for theater culture. His most notable epic dramas are: A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. During Miller's lifetime, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible were his most popular dramas. Miller's dedication and hard work are evident in the two works that bear his name in theater culture. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, two powerful dramas from Arthur Miller, explore themes of appearance versus reality, politics, and the narrow-mindedness of society. A theme that shows its importance in one of Arthur Miller's works in Death of a Salesman is appearance versus reality. Willy Loman, who is the main character in Miller's novel, is delusional and unstable. Loman goes through terrible memories in his life. Willy's imagined conversations with his deceased brother Ben demonstrate his fragile grip on reality. Willy's mind is full of illusions about his own abilities and achievements as well as the abilities and achievements of his sons (Spampinato 67). Loman has two sons, Biff and Happy, from whom Willy has alienated his eldest son, Biff (Walsh). At the end of the play, each son reacts differently to the reality of his father's suicide. Biff and Happy share their father's tendency to concoct grand plans for themselves and view themselves as superior to others without any real proof that the plans will work or that they are actually superior. Happy, who previously seemed more grounded in reality but still hoped for something better. Happy commits to realizing the dream that his father failed to achieve. In fact, Happy falls into his father's thought pattern (Spampinato 68). "Including Marti... in the middle of the article... criticism of American capitalist society or at least of its moral and social norms" (Walsh). The American dream is what most Americans are meant to achieve. Well for Willy, that's something he didn't realize. Willy worries about how others will think of him. The fact is that people don't take him seriously because of his weight. He is constantly trying to convince customers and become a real success. For Loman, his traits represent the reason for his failure in achieving the American dream (Galens & Spampinato 68). “Despite the undeniable moments of truth, at the center of Death of a Salesman is a deep ambiguity, which must be reflected, ultimately, in the playwright's ambiguous feelings toward American society and the American dream » (Walsh). Miller's dramas were far from the richer scale that pushed his works into history.