Willie Loman’s Perception of the American Dream in Arthur Miller’s Play Death of a Salesman

Abstract

The current trend of the famous American Dream has been literalised to imply a character’s relentless spirit in earnest desire to achieve their total imaginings. Miller is among the outstanding 20^th century American literary dramatists who seems to suggest that though the American Dream is core to American human existence, the achievement of this dream is not assured. This is despite a character’s soldiering on, to enact the action of the play in the context of societal experiences that present them with either obstacles or channels of achieving the dream.  Therefore this article has focused on Willie Loman’s perception of the American Dream as portrayed in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. Miller presents the world audience with the 20^th Century literary drama worthy not just for reading and watching but for empirical investigation. The query at the heart of objectives is, one, to find out Willie Loman’s dream. Two, to examine whether he achieves it and three to examine the aftermath of his having or having not achieved his dream in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. The case study design has been adopted to give a comprehensive representative view on Willie Loman’s perception of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman. This design compared to others was preferred in order to give an extensive and qualitative analysis in this study.The basic instrument to be used will be content analysis guides. Using this instrument, the researcher is able to intensively delve into the American Dream as portrayed in the selected text.

Keywords: American Dream, Drama, Perception, Character, Playwright, Aftermath