Topic > Arthur Miller Themes - 1210

Arthur Miller's Playwrights were an astonishing work of art for theatrical culture. His most important epic dramas are: A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. During Miller's lifetime, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible were his most popular plays. Miller's dedication and hard work shows in the two plays for which his name is known in theater culture. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, two powerful dramas by Arthur Miller, explore themes of appearance versus reality, politics, and the narrow-mindedness of society. A theme that shows importance in one of Arthur Miller's works in Death of a Salesman, is appearance versus reality. Willy Loman, the main character of Miller's novel, is delusional and unstable. Loman is going through a terrible memory of his life. Willy's imaginary conversations with his dead brother Ben demonstrate his fragile grip on reality. Willy's mind is filled with delusions about his own abilities and achievements and the abilities and achievements of his children (Spampinato 67). Loman has two sons, Biff and Happy, to whom Willy has alienated his eldest son, Biff (Walsh). At the end of the play each son responds differently to the reality of his father's suicide. Biff and Happy share their father's tendency to come up with grand plans for themselves and see themselves as superior to others without any real evidence that the plans will work or that they are actually superior. Happy, who previously seemed more grounded in reality but still hoped for something better. Felice commits himself to realizing the dream that his father was unable to realize. In fact, Happy falls into his father's thought pattern (Spampinato 68). “Including marti… middle of the paper… criticism of American capitalist society or at least its moral and social standards” (Walsh). The American Dream is what most Americans are expected to achieve. Well. for Willy it is something he has failed to achieve. Willy worries about how others will think of him. The thing is, people don't take him seriously because of his weight. Constantly try to win customers and become a real success. For Loman, his traits represent the reason for his failure to achieve the American dream (Galens & Spampinato 68). “Despite the undeniable moments of truth, at the heart of Death of a Salesman there is a profound ambiguity, which must be reflected, in the end, the playwright's ambiguous feelings towards American society and the American dream” (Walsh). Miller's plays were far from the Richter scale that brought his works to history