Introduction
Arthur Miller´s life
Arthur Miller, one of the leading American playwrighters of the 20th century, was born in October of 1915 in New York City. His father was a ladies-wear manufacturer who was ruined during the economic collapse of the 1930s. As a young man, Miller was shown that beiing surrounded by poverty can mean insecurity of modern existence during the Great Depression. After having finished high, he worked in a warehouse, in order tp earn enough money to finance his studies at the University of Michigan, where he began to write plays.
Miller's first public success was “Focus” (1945), a novel dealing with anti-Semitism. Two years later Miller succeeded as an important playwrighter with “All My Sons”, a drama about a manufacturer of faulty war materials.
“Death of a Salesman” in 1949 secured Miller´s reputation as one of the nation's foremost playwrighters and mixes the tradition of social realism with a experimental structure that includes fluid leaps in time. The protagonist, Willy Loman, drifts into memories of his sons as teenagers. Miller won a Tony Award for “Death of a Salesman” as well as a Pulitzer Prize. The play has been used frequently in film, television and stage versions which included such famous actors as Dustin Hoffman. After “Death of a Salesman” Miller wrote his most politically significant work, “The Crucible” (1953), a tale of the Salem witch trials that contains obvious analogies to the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings of Miller's contemporary society. The next stage in Miller´s life to mention is his marriage with the actress Marilyn Monroe. The two got divorced in 1961, the year of her death. After divorcing Monroe, Miller wed Ingeborg Morath, to whom he is still married. The two have a son and a daughter.
Miller also wrote the plays “A Memory of Two Mondays” and the short “A View from the Bridge”, which were both put to stag in 1955. Other famous works are: “After the Fall” (1964), “The Price” (1967), “The Archbishop's
Ceiling” (1977) and “TheAmerican Clock” (1980). His most recent works include the plays “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan” (1991), “Broken Glass” (1993), which won the Olivier Award for Best Play and “The Last Yankee” (1993).
In some of his plays he deals with the problem of the American Dream, for example in such as “The Last Yankee“ and “Death of a salesman“. Those books will be examined in the following.
B) Main Part
1. Definition of the American Dream
Definig a phrase such as the American Dream is very hard, because it is a phrase describing an entire way of life.
The American Dream contains three main arguments: it is a combination of the ideal of dignity, equality and the chance of personal fulfilment. Nowadays the equalty is sure to every citizen living in the United States of America, but this has not always been this way.
In the time when many slaves were brought to the USA, they did not have the same rights as real Americans had. So it was their dream to be a member of the society without being supressed. The same thing happened to women and blacks, who also had to fight for their position in the society for a very long time in order to get the same equality as the other American citizens got.
The chance of personal fulfilment was not given to everybody because the slaves, blacks and the women always had a lower status in the society.
That is were the American Dream arose from: to free the society of all kind of prejudices and so give everybody living in the United States the same chances and possibilities.
Another very common phrase in combination with the American Dream is the vision of from “a dishwasher to a millionaire“.
This vision tells everybody living in the United States of America that every single citizen can become whealthy if he has just the power and the will to achieve his aims.
The word “dishwasher“ can be seen as a synonym for the lowest kind of social position, which means, for example, someone like an unskilled worker. “Millionaire“ has not to be seen as a real millionaire, it is just another synonym for a person living in a much higher class of society. In order to reach this higher social place you will have to own a lot of money and approval which is exactly what “millionaire“ stands for in the phrase “from a dishwasher to a millionaire“.
In combination with the American Dream you always will have to take a look at a nation´s way of life in order to understand their dreams.
For example, if you ask an American citizen what comes to his mind if you are talking about Bavaria, he will surely reply: Octoberfest, beer and sauerkraut. This is what the Americans regard as the Bavarian way of life.
And what are the things falling into our mind when talking about the Americans? Of Course, you will hear something like the Fast - Food - Country, Thanksgiving, Mc Donald´s, Levis and their cultures and customs.
You will also think about something like the melting pot, which has to be seen as a fundation of the American Dream.
It is a fundation because if you melt several cultures together there will always be a conflict because every culture has different values. Out of this different values the conflict which one is the best arises and this is where the American Dream comes into play: equalty, dignity and personal fulfilment.
With this point of view for everybody living in a melting pot or in the USA, there will will be no conflict any more as everybody has the same rights and opportunities. This is where the American Dream is rooted in and what made it famous because the Americans succeeded in combining several cultures and nations in one coutry without any struggles between the different members of the classes in society.
All in all you can say that whatever you want to achieve in your life is possible, as long as you keep on going for it and as long as you are willing to fight for, even if you don´t see a real chance any more. The American Dream is for those people who are really convinced of what they expect of life.
Of course these expectations are spread very wide. For some people living the American Dream means going to work every day, going on vacation once a year and be able to own their house. For others this Dream means making enough money to last their life time.
That is why the American Dream has always to be seen under a person´s own point of view as everybody is expecting something different from life.
And this is also the reason why it was interesting to compare what different points of view Arthur Miller uses in his books “The last Yankee“ and “Death of a salesman“ because his characters are quite different and they all do expect other things in their lifes.
Arthur Miller´s “The last Yankee“
Introduction of the characters 18647hve48gtx7q
Leroy Hamilton
Leroy Hamilton is one of the four characters appearing in this play. He is eighty - four years old and he is a carpenter. He loves his job and also his work is beloved by others, as it is very high qualitative. He is married with Patricia Hamilton, who has been in an mental hospital for more than fifteen years now. Leroy is a Yankee, which means he is a deeply rooted American from the northern states. This combined with the fact that his wife is Swedish, causes problems in the Hamilton´s marriage. Leroy himself, comes from an old family, but he doesn´t care. He wants to make it on his own way, even though his ancestors were famous and rich. For example, Alexander Hamilton was a lawyer and one of the “Founding Fathers“. Leroy is satisfied being a carpenter and earning only $ 17 per hour.
Patricia Hamilton
Patricia, or Pat, how Leroy calls her, has been in a mental hospital for more than fifteen years. The reader gets to know that she was at home several times again, but always had to go back because things got worse once more. The reason for her being in this hospital is that she never could imagine a bright future with her husband just working as a carpenter, for she comes out of a Swedish family who used to be quite rich. During her entire life she had problems accepting the status she and her husband were living in. So she is depressed of life and sees nothing what is worth living for. As the play takes place, the reader gets to know that she hasn´t taken her pills for over twenty days now and that she really feels okay with this. Now, after a very long time, she thinks about coming home to her husband and her seven children.
John Frick
Mr. Frick is a sixty year old former business owner. Actually, he has the same problem as Leroy Hamilton. Also his wife is in the mental hospital because of depression. He is a rather rich man who could afford a much better hospital than this one, but doesn´t, because he thinks his wife would not realize it
and it would not help her any futher. The reader gets to know during the play that he does not really care as much about his wife as Leroy does. This is another reason why he does not want to take his wife into a better hospital.
Karen Frick vt647h8148gttx
Karen Frick vt647h8148gttx is John´s wife. She is in the mental hospital for the same reason as Patricia is and the two women have build up a friendship during their residence. She is the only person in this play who really seems to be ill.
She is not able to keep a thought or stay at one theme of discussion. The reader realizes this as Patricia and Karen talk to each other. She seldomly replies to what Patricia says.
Defintion of “depression“
In order to understand why both woman are in hospital, it would be usefull to explain what “depression of life“ means. Depression can be shown in two ways:
Emotionally and physically.
If you are depressed you lose motivation, interest and enjoyment of life. Depressed persons try to avoid contact with other people, they don´t have self - confidence, they feel useless and they feel that no one is around who understands them. These are the emotionally signs for depression and the following are the physically ones. Depressed persons have a high blood pressure, are lacking appetite, can´t get to sleep very well and they can not keep a thougt. As Karen and Patricia have several of this symptoms they are in the hospital.
The content of “The last Yankee“
Act One
The whole story begins in the waiting room of a mental hospital where, Leroy Hamilton and John Frick meet. They start a conversation and they realize that both have something in common: their wifes are in a mental hospital and both because of the same reason. Karen Frick vt647h8148gttx and Patricia Hamilton are depressed of life. As they talk the is informed that Leroy works as a carpenter and that he does a very good job. His work is known and beloved by several people and by John. Mr. Frick had his own business and this is what made him very rich in comparism to Mr. Hamilton, who earns $ 17 per hour and so has to fight for paying his bills. But Leroy Hamilton is satisfied with his job, which he enjoys very much. Later in this conversation John asks Leroy if he was a member of the famous Hamilton family or even a successor of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers. Leroy explains that this is true but he never wanted just to be a person who is proud of his ancestors. He always wanted to lead a life of his own without always being compared to the family he comes from. At the end of act one and in the end of this talk, John asks Leroy if he is satisfied with his life. This makes Leroy explode. He hates people who feel superiour to the ones who have less money and influence.
3.3.2 Act Two
The second act starts with Karen and Patricia playing ping pong, which is a sign the reader that the two women are friends and know each other. The reader learns that Patricia hasn´t taken her pills für twenty one days and that she feels better without them. She even feels so well now that the thought of going home rises in her mind. She is the one who talks a lot in this scene. She comes to think about what she did to her family as she has left them for more than twenty years. She knows that she has made it very difficult for her husband as she was never the caring mother around at home. So she is now wondering whether to go home and change things. From the first time the reader gets to know Patricia she seems to be totally healthy and it is quite unclear why she is in this mental hospital. She tells Karen in this conversation that her pills also make her really sick and that she should try it without them, because Karen is the one who seems really ill, as she is not able to keep a thought and always swtiches the theme they have just discussed. Later in this talk she thinks about going home again. The reader learns that the members of Patricia´s family have committed suicide because they were disappointed of life. That is a thing her husband can not understand as he is satisfied with whatever live offers him.
Now Leroy enters the room and they start to talk. Leroy always had his own opinion about why Patricia has gone sick, and now he tells her: Everybody out of the her family was “ ...automatically to go to the head of the line just because your name was Sorgenson. And life ins´t that way, so you got sick.“
This is the real reason for Patricia being in the hospital: she expected a life full of whealth and richness just because of her name, but she has married a man who has another oppinion of life. Her family also shared this point of view: “No Yankee will ever be good enough for a Swedish girl.“ Leroy was told by Patricia´s father on their wedding day. So there is another conflict in her life: the conflict of the past and the presence.
In the past Yankees always were a kind of cruel to Swedish people, as they had to work with minimum wage for them, did real hard jobs and did not have the same rights as the Yankees had. However, Leroy is a person who lives in the presence and so he can not understand this way of thinking.
The next thing they talk about, is Leroy´s hardness to stay with a wife who was longer in hospital than at home. He says “.. I knew it was those damned pills, not you.“ He also replies to that question, that if there weren´t any kids in this marriage he probably would have gone.
During this conversation they again reach the theme of whether their lifes are satisfied or not and Patricia tells Leroy that his life is “...Beaten. Like it´s all gone by.“ Leroy now is really hurt by this and he realizes that the only problem Patricia ever had was an attitude problem. In her view he should have taken the chance he was given just by his name. But as he didn´t act this way, she was really confused because all her life in her family she had never known it in any other way.
After the Hamilton family now has cleared their biggest problem and Leroy prepares to play something on the banjo, Karen enters and she is wondering if she should dress up into the new costume her husband John brought along. Everybody in the room tells her to do so and they even convince her that she could dance to the music Leroy is going to perform, as she likes to dance.
As Karen has gone to dressing herself up, Patricia is talking to John and she tells him that he should give Karen her optimism back, so that she could enjoy her life again. Leroy is totally astonished as exactly this was the problem the Hamiltons had all the time. So this is the indirect proof for Patricia´s health as she realized the illness on other persons as well as on herself. Now Karen comes back, dressed up in her new costume, and starts to dance. She really feels fine until Patricia asks John if he is looking at her and her suddenly screams out “I am looking at her, goddammit!“ This changes the whole situation and Karen falls back in her deep depression after her husband screamed at her. Karen tries to calm him down but does not succeed. So he leaves. Out of this situation Patricia has learned that she “... had nothing.“
But she has just learned it after she saw how rude wifes are treated in other families, where perhaps money does not play such an important role because there is enough of it. The most important thing, however, is missing, the love and trust between married people. So Leroy and Patricia leave the hospital knowing that she really never was ill but just had a wrong view of her situation.
Apearences of the American Dream in “The last Yankee“
In Miller´s “The last Yankee“ several signs of the American Dream do appear. The first sign is that Leroy Hamilton is a successor of the famous Hamilton family. So it would be clear for him to use his good and well - known name in order to make his life for him very easy as everybody would know and accept him. So, he wouldn´t have to work as much any more to make it to a lot of money because he has advantages through his name. Leroy is a person who tries to make the best out of his life without just looking at his ancestors. He has a normal paid job and he is satisfied with it. So he is a person living the American Dream because he uses his ways and means to let his way of the chance of personal fulfilment come true aund build up a lifestyle for himself he is content with.
The only person in the Hamilton family who is not satisfied is Patricia. She also comes out of a famous family, the Sorgenson - Family, but in here everybody used the name in order to keep the social standard they were used to. Not one of them really tried to build up something on his own and they all were proud of this fact, but not very happy. In the Sorgensons family several members commited suicide because they were depressed of life and they did not see any chance to change this situation.
It is obvious to see that the Sorgenson family did not interprete the American Dream right. They are convinced that it would be enough in life to have well known ancestors and that´s it.
However, this is not true and so they got depressed of life.
That is also why Patricia is in this mental hospital. She is a person who always thought you would need a certain social standard in order to enjoy her life. But her husband always had another idea of enjoying life. For him it was satisfying enough to have a job he liked, to have a family who loved him and cared for him. That´s all he needs to have a fulfiled life, but Patricia does not think so.
The next two characters who have to be examined about their behaviour towards the American Dream is family Frick.
John Frick is a typical member of the higher society: he is rich because he used to have his own business. That is why he feels superior about Leroy Hamilton, who never owned a business, but always was just a simple worker.
However, John Frick has the same problem like Leroy Hamilton, both do have their wifes treated in a mental hospital.
But the difference between the two is that Mr. Frick could affort a much better hospital, but he does not. This is worth questioning why he does not.
He thinks Karen would not realize the changed treatment and it would improve her situatuion, which surely would by a much better medical care. But he regards the cheapest one as sufficient enough for the person he seems to love.
The comparism between the two husbands shows something very interesting:
There is a difference between John and Leroy how they care about their wifes. John, who would be rich enough to give Karen the opportunity for a better hospital does not and Leroy, who is just able to pay the bills, gives his wife the best mental hospital he can affort.
So it is abvious to see that both have different views of what is important in their lifes.
Leroy regards the social backround as much more important than the fact of having much money. He feels that a working family is more important than any money, which he could certainly make by using his name.
John, on the other hand, thinks that money plays a much higher role in life and the social backround of a working family just is in second place.
The reader can find out that Leroy´s point of view is the right one because he and his wife Patricia find out that she had just an attidude problem towards her expectations from life. This is the only reason she was in the hospital. That she is healthy she realizes as she gets to know how rude Mr. Frick treats his wife and that she has really a caring husband at her side.
Arthur Miller´s “Death of a salesman“
Introduction of the characters 18647hve48gtx7q
Willy Loman
The main character in the book is Willy Loman, a elderly salesman who is about sixty years old. He is a man who has hopes and illusions in his life, but he does not seem to be able to put them into reality. His hopes are to become welthy and rich because he is an comission worker with low income who can not afford to pay his bills.
Willy has a wife, Linda, and two sons, Biff and Happy, who both are not succesful in their own lives. But Willy does not want to accept that, as he is living in his world of illusions and he thinks that both of them are great persons. He especially wants Biff, who he favours, to succeed in life because he himself never did. A major source of conflict exactly lies exactly in the problem of realizing that the boys both are not successful.
Later in his life, when this play takes place, Willy has problems to distiguish between past and present - for him: between illusion and reality - which puts the reader to the beginning of the familie´s problems by using flashbacks.
The beginning of the mentioned problems is an affair Willy has with a woman he meets on one of his business - trips. One day he is caught by Biff, who does not want to accept this affair and so does not respect his father any more. From now on, Willy and Biff cannot get along with each other any more and Willy commits suicide, so that his vision of his son getting rich becomes true, because Biff gets his father´s life insurance money.
Linda Loman
Linda is the person in the Loman family, who always wants to keep away trouble. Espiacially when Willy and his sons are arguing about their lives she is the one who is calming down the whole situation. She knows about Willy´s problems but stands behind him as she knows that he is tired and sick of life. She also knows that he had tried several times to kill himself and she knows that he will do it again, but she tolerates it because she knows how tired of life her husband is.
Happy Loman
Happy is the younger one of the two Loman sons. Though being the younger one, he is not favoured by his father because he is not very self - confident, which can be proved by the fact that he always changes the women he lives with. He lives in New York, but during the play he is at home to visit his family. He never wants to get in trouble with his dad and so he tries to keep the illusions his father believes in, for example he always says he is going to get married though this is not true at all.
Happy is a boy who is very similar to his dad. He thinks the way his father does, and also he believes that having a dream is enough in an man´s life, instead of fulfilling this dream.
Biff Loman
Biff Loman is Willy's son. The story mainly deals with the conflict between them. Biff was a star football player in high school but he failed in math in his senior year and so he was not allowed to graduate. Biff then changed his jobs several times and so was lost for fifteen years. He was even in jail because he stealed but now he has come home and the problems begin.
Willy always wanted Biff to become a business man what he himself never succeeded in. Biff himself, on his side, has the problem of either doing things his father would like him to or doing what he thinks it is right. Biff wants to lead a cattle ranch on his own, and Willy wants him to be a man of respectable business. By seeing the world through his illusions, Willy does not realize that Biff is a nobody in the real world. This conflict between the real world and Willy´s illusions is the main problem in the plot.
At the end of the play, Biff realizes that his father always lived in a illusionary world and he finds out, that it is not his destiny to become very successful in his life.
Other Characters
Charlie: He is the neighbour of the Loman family and he is also the one, who wants Willy to become more realistic and does his best to reach his aim. But he always refuses to listen and so they are not real friends, but they get along with each other.
Bernhard: He is Charlie´s son and a friend of Biff, who always wanted to learn with him because Biff should have been able to graduate High School. Bernhard in his life has studied and now he is a lawyer, a fact Willy has problems with because now Bernhard has reached a higher position in life than his son has.
Uncle Ben: Ben is Willy´s dead brother, who always appears in Willy´s flashbacks. Ben became a rich man in Africa as he had a diamond mine. He offered Willy to join him, but Willy refused and preferred to be a salesman.
The content of “Death of a salesman“
Act One
The Story starts as Willy Loman, a salesman who works on commission, returns home from a business trip on which he didn´t sell very much. He is tired of life on the road. Biff and Hap, his two sons, returned home to visit.
Biff returned home after 15 years of trying everything but really doing nothing constantly.
Happy, who lives in a appartment in New York, also came home, but just in order to visit his parents and not like Biff, in order to stay.
Willy, when the conflict in the story takes place, cannot understand why Biff has no job and so he is lost in his own world, he thinks. Willy thinks about the past and the reader gets to know for the first time that Willy somehow lives in two different words, the past and the future. Linda, his wife, suggests Willy to eat something and the go to bed and have a rest.
During this, Biff and Happy are talking to each other in the bedroom they once lived in. They discuss about their father and recognize that he has become an old an tired man. They talk how both of them imagine their own lifes and we get to know that Happy has a low moral standard, because he often changes the women on his side. Meanwhile, Willy stands in the kitchen having a monologue. Willy has a flashback, where he is set into another time and sees and hears things which are gone for several years now. Now he sees a scene 15 years ago, when Biff still went to High School and the leader of the football team, which made Willy being very proud of his son.
Biff is in training with a football, which he has borrowed from the team, he says, but he took it without knowledge of the coach.
Willy tells Linda that his look is responsible for the fact, that he doesn´t sell so much any more because Willy thinks he looks in a way foolish. In this flashback we also get to know that Willy had an affair with a younger woman who he met on one of his business trips.
Now, Bernard, the next-door neighbour boy, reaches the scene and tells Willy that Biff should learn math with him. Otherwise Biff would fail in math and so not be able to graduate High School. Willy starts to go around looking for Biff and during this search, the scene comes back to presence and Happy enters the kitchen, finding his dad talking to himself.
Willy now starts talking about his brother Ben who has died several years ago. Ben is a person, Willy admires for his strength in mind, because he became wealthy by going into the jungle of Africa and building up a mine in order to find diamonds. And exactly this strength in mind and the fact that he makes his aims become reality, regards Willy as higher and more important than knowledge in life.
Willy now begins to discuss with his son about Happy´s way of life and that he spends to much money, has to many women and that his car is too expensive.
Charlie, the neighbour, enters to see what's wrong because the two have a loud discussion. When they sit down around the table and begin playing cards and Happy goes upstairs again. During this card game, Charlie, who owns a sales firm, offers a job to Willy which he refuses to accept once more. He starts once more to talk of his brother Bernard. Another flashback appears and soon the scenery has changed once more to the year Biff was about to graduate High School. On this day, Ben visited the family. Willy and Ben talk about their father, who has left the family alone. Willy ,although he never got to know his father, regards him as a strong and successful man. Ben tells Willy how he became wealthy and the leaves for his business trip. Ben explains to Willy, that everything you need are two things to get a lot of money: a vision and the strength to make this vision become reality. Now, the scene switches back to presence and Willy is yelling, "I was right! I was right!", because he always told his sons exactly what Ben just told him. When Linda, who woke up by Willy´s shouting, enters the kitchen, Willy decides to walk around the house, still crying out “I was right!“. Now also Biff enters the kitchen. He wants to know how long his father has been in this strange mood of talking to himself. Linda tells Biff that Willy is just happy, when Biff is at home or writes something to his family. Everything is fine for Willy because he always just wanted his boys to reach a position in the society he never had.
During this conversation the reader gets to know that Biff and Willy haven´t had a good relationship since the year after Biff´s High School any more, because Biff has not respected his father any more after his affair. Willy has not respected his son any more after not having graduated. Now also Happy enters the kitchen and joins the discussion. Linda accuses Biff and Happy of not thinking of the family, especially their dad. She tells them that Willy is tired of life because all he wanted was that his boys could lead a better life than he does. She explains that he has worked for his boys all his life, and they do not even think about their old dad any more. Linda also tells the boys that Willy has been trying to kill himself either by his car accidents or by gas.
Biff now feels sorry for his behaviour and he wants to do something to make his dad happy and proud of him again. Biff and Happy start an conversation about how each other´s life became a failure and Willy comes to the door. Now Biff and Willy begin argueing. As things start to get hot and heavy, Happy tells Willy that Biff will ask Oliver, his former employer, if he will borrow the Loman brothers money to start a business for sporting goods. Happy now has a vision of how to become rich and Willy suddenly is cheered up. Now his boys are talking the way he wanted them to. But Biff is not happy with this suggestion because he always wanted to have his own farm, but he agrees because his dad is pleased by the idea of his sons starting their own business. In the end of the scene, Biff and Happy start argueing again and Willy once more is depressed and goes upstairs in order to sleep. The boys also go upstairs to cheer him up.
Act Two
Act Two starts in the morning at the next day. Willy is totally lucky as his sons are going to start their own business, and nothing can can lessen his happiness. Willy leaves the house together with his boys in order to meet his boss Howard to ask him whether he may work in a store in and not making business trips any more. The boys are going to see Oliver to borrow money from him.
Willy talks to Howard who tells him that he would lose his job as the firm is going to fire him. Willy now really is confused because he never would have Howard, the son of his friend and former boss of the firm expected to fire him. He starts a monologue about sales. During it Howard leaves the room and in Willy´s mind Ben appears and he is set back to Biff´s senior High School year. He is taken to the day the football game took place. At this day, Willy again refuses to accept Ben´s offer to join his business. Still in this flashback, Willy leaves Howard's office and he walks down the street to Charlie.
Having arrived there, Willy meets Bernard and they begin to talk about what has happened to Biff after High School. Biff failed in math and so he never
graduated. Bernard also tells Willy that Biff was completely changed after he once visited his dad on a sales trip, but Willy refuses to talk about that theme.
Now, Willy and Charlie have a talk where we get to know that Charlie gives Willy fifty dollars in order to tell at home this was his pay. Willy gets off, nearly crying, and the reader is taken to Frank's Chop, a restaurant where Biff and Happy are waiting for their dad.
In the evening of that day, Willy, Happy and Biff meet in that restaurant for dinner. Happy is already there and once more he talks to a woman when Biff comes in. Biff is totally depressed as he does not get the credit and now has to tell this to his dad. Worse than that, he stole Oliver´s pen and when he wants to tell his dad all the truth, Happy interrupts him because he does not want his dad to become unhappy. Willy is falls into another flashback, taking the reader once more in Biff´s Senior Year, while the boys leave the restaurant in company with some women.
He is in hotel with the woman he had an affair with, as Biff comes in in order to talk to his father about his uncomplete High School. This is the moment he finds out, that his dad has an affair with another woman. Short after this, the reader is taken back to the Chop House when Willy leaves the restaurant.
The two, Biff and Happy return home very late and Linda is still awake, argueing with their sons about their behavior to their dad, while Willy is talking to Ben in the garden during another flashback. Willy has an idea how his sons still can start their own business. He thinks about comitting suicide so that Biff gets enough money to start with. As the discussion goes on, Biff enters the garden and wants to tell his dad that he has decided to leave the family so that no trouble will occur any more.
Both are now argueing in such a strong way they never did before. The climax is that Biff leaves this conversation right in the middle, again telling his dad that he will leave forever.
They all go to bed now, except Willy, who talks again to Ben. Ben tells him that this plan, to kill himself would solve two problems of him. First of all Biff would have enough money to start his own business and the next thing would be that Willy could show his son how much he is loved, as hundreds of people actually will visit his funeral, he thinks. Ben and Willy walk out and Willy uses his car to commit suicide.
The last scene, also called “Requiem“ by Arthur Miller, takes place right after Willy´s funeral and only Biff, Happy, Linda, Charlie and Bernard are present. Biff gives the most shocking, but also the most true statement in the whole play: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.“
The play closes with just Linda on stage talking to her dead husband Willy.
Appearances of the “American Dream“ in “Death of a salesman“
Comparing to the definition of the “American Dream“, several aspects are fulfilled in this play to say that it is dealing with this theme.
At the name of the protagonist, Willy Loman has to be mentioned.
If you compare the pronounciation to the spelling, there is no difference:
Loman is pronouced the same way as low man, which does not have the meaning of a name any more, but describes a person in a low social position.
And this is what Miller wanted and what is in some aspects is what the “American Dream“ is about: to become whealthy and a member of the higher society out of a low position.
This vision dominated Willy Loman´s life in such a strong way that he was ready to die for it, as he wanted his vision to become reality. But he was never able to put it into reality and that is why he always tried to push his sons, espicially Biff in this role of the succeeding business man.
He has choosen Biff because he is a person who is liked by others and who he himself loves more of his two sons. But Biff never wanted to be pushed into this role, he always wanted his own farm and he just played the game of being the son his father always wanted him to be because he knew how tired of life his dad is. So he tried to bring his father´s vision into reality but he also failed like his father did all his life.
This is what Willy gave the idea of being responsible for his son and trying with everything he could affort to make his vision at least in his son become reality. This is what the American Dream also is about: taking care of one´s family and trying to help them whenever possible thorugh the mean of the chance of personal fulfilment.
Willy always had the dream, but not the will and the strenght to put his vision into reality. That is why he tried to push his sons in the role of the successful business men.
But in Willy´s mind the vision of being a member of the higher society is more important than his own life and this is why he regards his death as the only possible chance for his son Biff to build up his own business and to get those things, he himself never had.
So “Miller points out that „even the death, the ultimate negative“, can be “an assertion of bravery. “
This was, however, in Miller´s younger years and it is obvious to see that his oppinion has changed through the years. Later in his life, as he wrote “The last Yankee“ he changed his own oppinion. This will be shown in the following comparism.
Comparism between the appearance of the American Dream in Arthur Miller´s “The last Yankee“ and “Death of a salesman“
In order to understand the changing outlook of the American Dream in the two books written by Arthur Miller, you have to see that “Death of a salesman“ was written much earlier than “The last Yankee“. Between the two books there is a difference of 44 years, (“Death of a salesman“ was published in 1949, “The last Yankee“ in 1993!) which means a lot in a persons life. So there was a change in Miller´s own attitude towards life and what he expected of it.
These are the facts appearing in “Death of a salesman“:
Willy Loman is a worker who has the vision that he can make it to real whealth. But he has just the vision and is not ready to work real hard for it.
He would have had the opportunity to go with his Uncle Ben, who has the same vision, but he was ready to give something for it, so he went to Africa and startet in the mining business, which made him quite rich.
Willy was offered this chance but he denied and so it is obvious that he is not really willing to invest something in his dreams, he just wants them to become reality by doing nothing.
The only thing he was proud of in his life is that he was liked by the shopkeepers he went to in his younger years on his business trips, but also this situation changed during the years. And even as this situation changed, he was not ready to spend something so this would change again. After realizing that he has lost everything he was proud of, he began to live his vision, but just in his mind, which means he put himself back in the times when everything was still okay for him. But as this is no real solution, he always got into conflicts with the reality that surrounded him.
The same thing happend to his son Biff. Willy always sets himself back into the year of Biff´s senior year at High School, and so he forgot that Biff did fail in math and he never finished his High School. But Willy imagines Biff always as his son who is a member of the famous football team and so everybody else does also have to like him, which is quite wrong as Biff stole several things.
After continuing for several years with his life in a vision, he got more and more tired of life. And this is why he commits sucide in the end. This is the only possible chance for his son Biff to get enough money to start his own business.
So we can see what Miller meant by this final solution: It was more important for him to have enough money in life than having a working social backround without money in masses.
This point of view changed completely 44 years later. Miller wrote “The last Yankee“ and here there is a totally changed view of what the American Dream can be.
Leroy Hamilton would have had the chance to use his name in order to lead his the live more easily, but he does not. He is someone who wants to stand upon his own legs, build up something by his own work. And this is what his wife can not understand as she comes out of a famous family where every - body was used to have a certain position in the society just because of their roots.
Out of this misunderstanding, she got so worried about her own life so that she had to be treated in a mental hospital, where she gets to know Karen, the wife of a quite rich former business owner.
The reader has the chance to compare both women while they are talking to each other. And then the feeling arises that Patricia is a totally healthy person and just Karen seems to be ill because in all the dialogues she is not able to response to what Patricia has just said.
So it is not understandable for the reader why Patricia is in this hospital, but he can find out in the end.
It was the conflict between what she was used to from her family and the attitude her husband has. She always wanted him to use his name in order to make life for them more comfortable, but he refused to. So she got in a mental conflict about the knowledge and traditions of her past and what happened in the reality. But as this is just a mental problem, she only had to think about Karen´s situation to find out that she is healthy.
Karen can be found in the opposite situation: she has a quite rich, but not a caring husband. He is a person who had success in his life and so he regards his family as not important.
The reader gets to know that Leroy´s view of leading his life is the right one because he had the chance of using his name in order to make life more comfortable for himself and his family, but he refuses. This is why there is to say: he is a man who truely lives the American Dream.
Leroy Hamilton used his own chance of personal fulfillment.
He had the wish to lead a life just doing the things he likes to. And this starts with searching a job you like, and not searching a job others respect you for. This made Leroy a real sympathic man. He always had his own vision of life and he made it come true. Even more, he was so convinced by his idea of leading one´s life that he even made his wife believe in, which is quite difficult because she had a totally controversery pint of view. But as she feels healthy in the end, the reader gets the impression that Leroy´s attitude is right.
Compared to Mr. Loman, there is a little difference you have to see.
Willy Loman never had the chance of using his name in order to achieve a better life. But Arthur Miller gave another solution in “Death of a salesman“: this solution appears in form of his dead brother Ben.
He had the same wish, to be rich and whealthy, but he was ready to work for it, which Willy certainly was not. Willy preferred to think that his dreams would become reality by time without doing anything for it. So he escaped in the times when the future seemed still okay.
So you can say that Willy never made it out of his low position because he was no ready to do something for it. And Leroy, who had the chance of making it to a higher social position, did not use this chance because it was not what he wanted in his life.
So Leroy is the only person in these two books by Arthur Miller who really lived the American Dream.
He used his chance of personal fulfilment combined with his equality and dignity to make his life for himself satisfying and worth living for. This is what Willy Loman never managed to and that is also the reason why he commited suicide in the end.
D) The American Dream and his changing face
The fathers of the American Dream had a vision that one day all people living in the United States of America will be treated equal and all have the same rights. This Dream has now become reality.
Slavery is abandoned, blacks do have the same rights and women do have the same social status men do have.
So the American Dream with it´s ideal of equality, dignity and the chance of personal fulfilment is now real to every citizen livning in the United States.
The melting pot has become a melted pot where all kind of different nations live together under the same rights, laws and chances.
So the American Dream is no dream to the Americans any more, for them it is real.
It is just a dream to all the people coming out of different countries, for example out of Germany. One will ask why in Germany there should not be the same things possible as they are in America.
This is an easy answer. The American Dream says: equality. Germany does not have equality when it comes to the scholl system. After a pupil has absolved the elementary school in Germany, he and his parents will have to decide whether this student is going to visit the „Hauptschule“, the „Realschule“ or the „Gymnasium“. This is a form of a class system because someone who, for example, visited the „Hauptschule“ is only allowed to study at High School if he does his A - Levels afterwards.
In American it is for every pupil the same way: elementary school, High School and then, after ten years of school, the pupil can decide whether he wants to continue going to school or not.
This is how the Americans let the American Dream become true: equality for everybody, the chance for everyone to decide on his own what he wants to do in his life.
In the German kind of school system, these chances are in not equal to everybody as the pupil has to decide between three kinds of education which all lead to another part of life in the end.
Of course, you can make it from one class into another, but it is very difficult to reach this because you have to work a lot in order to make it.
This is what made the American Dream famous all over the world:
Real equality to everybody without looking at his religion, skin and his education. As long this Dream is kept alive, America will continue to be the country with the most immigrants in the whole world.
Used Literature
Reference Nr. 1:
The Last Yankee - Resource Pack
Author : unknown
Year of publication: unknown
Place of publication: unknown
Reference Nr. 2:
The last Yankee
Author: Arthur Miller
Year of publication: 1993
Place of publication: Great Britain
Reference Nr. 3:
Death of a salesman
Author: Arthur Miller
Year of publication: 1949
Place of publication: Great Britain
Reference Nr. 4:
Understanding Arthur Miller
Author: Alice Griffin
Year of publication: 1996
Place of publication: South Carolina, USA
Reference Nr. 5:
Web site: http://www.homework-online.com
Author: Jonathan J. Moniaci
Year of publication: 1998
Place of publication: unknown
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