Delusion of the Self seen as a Cultural Product in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

Abstract

Death of a Salesman is no longer being viewed as a period piece, a time-bound commentary on capitalism and its victims. The response of the audience is also not judged in terms of economic or social circumstances. Miller in his “Introduction” to the Collected Plays says that Death of a Salesman is a play that raises “question . . . whose answers define humanity” (32). Both popular critical acclaim the play has received so far confirms the author’s description of it.

The central energy of Salesman is derived from an explanation of a particular aspect of culture, twentieth century technological culture, in which illusions take the place of dreams and fantasy substitutes reality. This phenomenon, ignorance of reality or non-recognition of facts, has been a potent source of European theatre since the time of the Greeks; but what lends weight to Miller’s discovery is that it is not an exceptional experience to a few but is common enough in industrial civilization. Miller points out with remarkable artistic perception, the hold of illusion on individuals and its disastrous consequences, the dreams that are intertwined with illusions, the gulf that separates the actual practices from the professed ideals of society. In fact one may not be very far from the truth if one describes the play as a dramatic exercise in exploring the board spectrum of illusion as a cultural product of the American society.