Collapsed Dream

In America, there is a belief that people could make a better life through hard work, courage and determination, which is held by a great number of people, of whom Willy Lowman, the protagonist in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Walter Lee Younger, the protagonist in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun are symbolic. They are both portrayed as the victim of this American dream. Their pursuit of illusive dream and their unwillingness to give in to their pride together lead to the fatal collapse of their dreams as well as their awareness of their true identities. 

Those two plays share a lot of similarities, of which the most illustrative is the collapsed dream of both the protagonists, Willy Lowman and Walter Lee Younger.  Both the Walter family and Willy family belong to the working class. Time in and time out, they are dedicated to making more money to provide the family with a better life. As is stated in A Raisin in the Sun “…takes his towels and today’s clothes from drawers and a closet and goes out to the bathroom, which is an outside hall and which is shared by another family or families on the same floor” (ACT I, SCENE 1), we know how hard life is for this family, with such poor living conditions. Walter Lee is obsessed in his mind of opening a liquor store with his friends, with a good hope to better his families’ quality of life.  From what Walter’s utterance “Hell, yes, I want me some yachts someday! Yes, I want to hang some real pearls round my wife’s neck. Ain’t she supposed to wear no pearls? Somebody tell me—tell me, who decides which women is suppose to wear pearls in this world. I tell you I am a man—and I think my wife should wear some pearls in this world” (ACT 3), it is clear to us that Walter is a man full of manhood and on the other hand desperately eager to provide more for his beloved ones. This is Walter’s dream, a dream nearly the same as Willy Lowman’s. With two unaccomplished two grown-up sons, Willy, though in his declining years, is still working hard to sell products, in hope of helping his sons establish their own career. Both two families do not have an easy life and both two protagonists share the same dream of bettering their life. 

However, both Willy and Walter fail in realizing their dream. In Death of a Salesman, unconditionally supportive wife, worsening father and son relationships and defects in Willy’s character all lead gradually to the tragic suicide of poor Willy, who is allowed indulgence in anything but reality. Each time Willy fails to do something, his wife Linda gives him full support and sometimes irrational encouragement which grounds Willy more firmly in his “wonderland” made up of the illusion that he is well-liked and people will surely buy from him. Besides, worsening relationship with two sons, especially Biff, of whom Willy has high expectations, is such a blow to ailing Willy. Contempt from Hap and Biff makes Willy feel unwanted, low and blue. But Willy’s escape from harsh reality plays the key role in his failure and when he finds nowhere to continue his fantasy, he chooses to commit suicide. In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter’s dream also collapses when his business partner disappears with his money investing in the liquor store. Indisputably, the Younger family is sure to have a very hard time in near future, with the loss of Mama’s savings. Though those two men’s dreams fail, yet this collapse of dream has distinctive impact on them. Willy can never come to life, but Walter refinds his manhood and decides to have a new beginning with the support of the family. 

To sum up, the collapsed dream of the two protagonists is the most illustrative connection or similarity in these two plays. Willy and Walter share the same dream of improving the life for the family and both fail in realizing it. But the difference lies in that death is the end of Willy, yet we do not know what of Walter.