Jennifer Mills
Professor Usha Wahwani
English 102
1, April 2013
A Detailed Look at Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman has been accepted worldwide as one of the greatest American dramas to premier in theatre. The story behind the play is based on Miller’s interactions with his Uncle, a salesman whose efforts to obtain the “American Dream” and pass his success on to his two sons becomes his main focus. Miller’s life during the preparation of Death of a Salesman provides the spark and inspiration needed to pen a literary classic. Almost five decades later, Death of a Salesman’s themes is still relevant in today’s society.
Arthur Asher Miller was born October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York City. Miller was the son of Isadora and Augustus Miller, Polish Jewish immigrants who settled in Harlem in the early 1900’s. Arthur’s father owned a successful women’s clothing manufacturing company that employed hundreds of people. Although he was a figure of wealth and prominence in the community the Wall Street Crash of 1929 left the successful family in a financial struggle. They relocated to a section in Brooklyn known as Gravesend. There Miller delivered bread to help the family maintain. In 1932 he graduated Abraham Lincoln High School. After high school miller enrolled at the University of Michigan. He worked several small jobs to pay for his college tuition. He first majored in journalism, taking up freelance writing for the Michigan Daily. While he served as a reporter and night editor he penned his first play, No Villain. After receiving the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain, Miller changed his major to English and began seriously considering a career as a playwright. Miller would soon enroll in a playwright seminar where he would meet his mentor and life-long friend Professor Kenneth Rowe. Rowe would highlight the construction of a play, the dynamics of how a play is built, and how these things provide the desired effect on an audience. Miller would leave his alma mater but keep strong ties with the University of Michigan, establishing several awards in theatre and dramatic writing named after the talented author. Miller’s career as a writer spans over 70 years. Many consider Miller to be one of the best dramatists of the twentieth century. In 1949 Arthur Miller would begin working on Death of a Salesman. This unique play from Miller is a mash-up of memories that make up the last twenty four hours of Willy Loman’s life. The play focuses on a man unable to accept changes in himself, his family, and the world around him. Miller uses emotions audiences can relate with, which promotes self reflection with his audience. People can really relate to the sense of failure and overwhelming guilt that led to Mr. Loman’s demise. Miller uses this character to shatter the myth that material wealth can truly bring happiness. Death of a Salesman probes the “American Dream” and whether the “dream” (economic prosperity) is truly available to anyone who works diligently. The “dream” also places an emphasis on “material wealth” that overshadows everything else that may provide happiness in a person’s life. Death of a Salesman opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre. The play would go on to receive the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. After premiering on Broadway in February 1949, Death of a Salesman would run for seven hundred forty two performances. The play would also be revived four times and receive the Tony Award for Best Revival three times. Miller used ideals in the play that closely reflected issues plaguing society during the 1940’s. The Great Depression and World War II really shaped the ideology of the 1940’s. President Roosevelt would introduce new policies in the 1930’s to help soften the blow but that did not completely eliminate poverty nor did it solve the issues with the economy. Nearly forty percent of all American families lived impoverished lives. Because of the war the Armed Forces recruited nearly ten million men, all sons and fathers. Families were suddenly forced to maintain with the absolute minimum. Even the country shut down production of consumer goods to meet the needs of the war. The changes brought about an increase in industrial production. The labor force significantly increased. Almost a third of the country had a disposable income for the first time, a drastic change from nearly half of Americans suffering from poverty a year before. After the war the goal simply became developing an economy capable of providing an adequate livelihood to all its citizens, the “American Dream”. The 1940’s marks the rise of suburbs and the ideal “good life” or “American Dream” as many veterans returned home and purchased houses. In the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s, many pursued the “American Dream” of hard work rewarded by middle-class signs of success such as a house, a car, a college education, and household appliances. Miller wrote Act 1 of Death of a Salesman in less than twenty four hours, and completed the rest of the play within six weeks in a small studio built on his farm in Roxbury, Connecticut. Many believe the town was an ideal location for authors to settle down way from the public eye. Authors William Styron and Frank McCourt also found refuge in the New England farm town. Some suggest the peace that Roxbury provided Miller allowed him to pen Death of a Salesman, a literary classic. Today Miller’s estate contributes to about forty seven acres to the Roxbury Land Trust and Miller was laid to rest at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury. Miller once told the public, “In a sense, all of my plays are autobiographical”. Arthur Miller’s inspiration for Death of a Salesman came from many sources; most importantly however, it came from paying close attention to the lives of the people around him. In Miller’s biography Timebends Miller revealed he found inspiration for the tale in his own life. Willy Loman was a character based primarily on his uncle. A man named Manny Newman. Miller wrote that Newman was, “ a competitor at all times, in all things, and at every moment.” Miller said his uncle saw “my brother and I running neck and neck with his two sons in some horse race for success that never stopped in his mind, and you dare not lose hope during the pursuit.” Death of a Salesman is an exploration of the themes and motifs behind that pursuit. In the story Happy says, “He had a good dream. It’s the ONLY dream you can have-to come out number one man.” Just like Miller’s uncle, Newman, Willy Loman had a skewed perception of the “American Dream.” Society has also pigeonholed success to merely having “things” and being “better” than your neighbors. Miller’s text poses these questions, Is it better to conquer the world or change it significantly where you benefit others? Can personal success be measured by what you do for society?

Work Cited
Arthur Miller: Timebends A Life
Remembering Arthur Miller (Biography & Autobiography) Edited By: Christopher Rigsby www.imdb www.famousauthors.org/arthur-miller www.encylcopedia.com “The 1940’s: Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview” American Decades. 2001 Encyclopedia.com 28 Mar. 2013