‘WHO KILLED THE SALESMAN’ ON ARTHUR MILLER’S ‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN’

ABSTRACT

Arthur Miller and his plays are praised as strong critics of capitalist societies and their dehumanizing force upon individuals living in them. Death of a Salesman (1949) by Miller is based on a salesman’s obsession with success myth in the context of great economic depression. Arthur Miller’s American dreamer Willy Loman is an illustration of much practiced philosophy of being well liked. People in a modern business oriented society tend to run after profit without realizing their own capability. Success, in a fast growing modern society as in America, does not depend on any miracle. Success and failure go side by side. Willy Loman, in the play Death of a Salesman exemplifies America’s success myth. That his failure is the wrong assumption of the myth- is well discussed in the field of American Literature. Many modern and post modern critics try to examine the problems of capitalist society for Willy’s tragedy. This paper will try to investigate an exclusive character study of Miller’s protagonist to determine other important causes related to his failure and to analyze the one who is sinned against than sinning. 

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