Requiem for an American Dream: Benjamin Loman’s Role in
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1951) is a subversive parable that subtly makes use of its characters to castigate the collective societal delusion of the American Dream. While protagonist Willy Loman’s character arc is traditionally read as a direct allegory of the decay of the American Dream, the role of Benjamin Loman is tragically undervalued in this respect. In order to illustrate a twisted ambition rooted deeply in materialism and blind aspiration, the vaguely successful Benjamin serves a necessary but controversial beacon. The very status of Uncle Ben as a unique character is wholly complex at its core. He is at once Willy’s brother, a romanticized memory, and an extended facet of Willy’s own personality, all while never truly existing within the scope of the play. Benjamin’s real and imagined affirmations falsely guide Willy on the path to downfall. The increasing ambiguity of …show more content…
Benjamin’s intoxicating “authoritative air” and “aura of far places”(Miller 28) is magnetic. At its surface, both Benjamin and the American dream are untouchable. Benjamin in a mythic figure, his success vague and intangible. In viewing Ben’s inauguration and subsequent sycophancy at the hands of Willy, many critics interpret Ben as the physical embodiment of the American dream. Within this interpretation, Willy, the Salesman, often serves as a common-man foil, “past sixty years of age, dressed quietly […] his exhaustion apparent” upon first introduction; in direct contrast to the fabled Ben— “ (16). The supposed narrative implication is that the flawed Willy, the play’s manifestation of the American both corrupts and is corrupted by the American Dream. However, this reading is incomplete (simplistic?). Benjamin, the supposed conqueror of the jungle, who “started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines”