Death_of_a_Salesman__Discuss_the_Importance_of_Dreams_to_the_Play

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 youngest son, parallels Willy’s characteristics with his passive acceptance of society’s principles; his deluded self-importance and devotion to society’s expectations embody the darkest side of the American Dream. For example Happy calls himself the assistant buyer when in fact he is the assistant to the assistant buyer. Linda Loman, Willy’s wife, may encompass a perspective on the American Dream but she does not show any strong opinions, she embodies ‘ iron repression’ indicative of the place of women in that era. All she wishes if for everyone to be happy, even if it meaning Willy ‘wiping the floor with her’. Each member of the Loman family has different hopes and ambitions, which run in accordance with their view on the American Dream. Willy derives all his pleasure from his past so his ambitions stem from his upbringing (with the American Dream). His constant desire for perfection and his superficial values mean he is always disappointed that his ambitions never come to fruition, but he can never accept this failure, as failure is not a possibility to him. This perspective drastically affects his life and his treatment of others. Throughout the play he suffers from almost metal illness-like illusions and hallucinations as the reality he has suppressed for so long overwhelms his mind. Due to this he treats people with contempt if they do not uphold to his superficial values; popularity, success, and general coherence with the American dream. For instance he does not like people for being ‘liked but well liked’, as he is fixated with popularity. His ambitions remain absolute throughout the play, so much so that in the end they cause his downfall. These hopes and ambitions define Willy as a much-remembered character, they show how he struggles to conceive reality and the pressure he feels from society to want artificial things. Propaganda in 1950’s America accentuated the fact that the American Dream was in reach of every man and therefore that was what Willy always wanted, to be just like everyone else who seemingly had perfection. Biffs’ ambitions stem from continuously seeing his father’s failures. Willy always gave Biff a self deluded inflation of himself, which he began to realise with age. As a result of this Biff grew up not bound by social rules or expectations because of the delusions Willy enforces in him, ‘you’re built like an Adonis’ and ‘be liked and you’ll never want’. Therefore when Biff took to stealing because Willy had encouraged him, instead of disciplining him for this immoral act, Willy praised his initiative. However Biff begins to realise that his family is built on an edifice of deception; he is the only member of his family that has the perspective to realise the destruction of the Dream. Biff’s ambitions do however allow him to strive for what he wants and break the bounds of his father’s imprisoning expectations. Although Biff does embody many similar attributes to Willy, like brief moments of self-delusion, ‘he thought the world of me’, he is trying to find his true self so he does not end up like his father. Biff has a catalyst like effect on Willy. He steers his actions and thoughts and memories throughout the play. We see how, in contrast to now, he used to idolise Willy, even repeating phrases of his. However when Biff caught Willy cheating with ‘The Woman’ all his admiration immediately vanishes, as he realises Willy has ‘all the wrong dreams’. It was this point in the play when Biff’s ambitions and life change. Happy’s ambitions correspond with the American Dream. He is ignorant of the reality that he has already failed it, similar to Willy and the paradox of Biff. This ambition has stemmed from Willy’s constant implementation of the American Dream throughout Happy’s childhood, as well as the fact he has always had to compensate for being second rate to Biff. Happy copies Willy’s trait of embellishing the truth, creating the illusion of success in the onset of failure. He, as a character, represents all of Willy’s worst traits, for instance his self-inflation and incapacity for self-analysis. His personality traits contribute towards his sexually aggressive nature towards women; within the play he seduces three of the executives fiancées and ‘ruins’ them just to gain the perception of power and pleasure. ‘I hate myself for it. Because I don’t want the girl, and, still, I take it’. He does this to compensate for his insecurities of being constantly overshadowed by Biff. Happy’s hopes and ambitions remain absolute throughout the entire play, his apparent belief in the American Dream stays resolute right until the end when he admits that the American Dream is ‘the only dream you can have – to come out number one man’. These ambitions are imperative because they provide an insight into Willy’s darker side. All Linda’s ambitions stem from Willy’s. All she wants is for everyone to be happy and she suffers her family are not. She plays along with Willy’s fantasies so she can protect him from his self-criticism. Arthur Miller attempts to provoke pathos for Willy through Linda, using her to show that Willy is in fact suffering from a ‘terrible thing’, and is not a bad person at all, just a human being. Her loyalty to Willy remains unchanged throughout the play, saying that Willy is just a ‘little boat looking for a harbour’, she would rather accept his ahort comings then consider the possibility of losing him. Although she may have a perspective on the situation of an overview of the situation, her perceptions are also twisted by prevention of acknowledging reality because it scares her. The staging of dreams and memories are incredibly important to define when the play has retreated into the past or remained in the present. The flashbacks are typically accompanied by an unrealistic element to allow the audience to realise that a memory has occurred. For example Ben, Willy’s brother, appears in random places with a ‘valise’ or ‘umbrella’ and accompanied with music played solely when he appears. This allows the audience to realise that this scene is a creation of Willy’s imagination and not reality. Arthur Miller uses Willy’s flashbacks to reveal the origins of character’s relationships and the changes that occur over time, a powerful tool to show the progression of time. To conclude, dreams in my opinion are the most important element of this play. They represent the metaphor on which the whole play is established. That the superficial notion of perfection will always end in failure. The play conveys the message that its incredibly dangerous to have hopes and ambitions that are beyond the reach of an individual because failure is the only certain outcome. The glorification of those who achieve the American Dream only accentuates the mounting sense of failure amongst the masses; something that’s never talked about.