Intra Societal Conflict in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

“Death of a Salesman” which establishes Miller as a leading contemporary dramatist, presents the image of American industrial society distorted by the agonizing aftermath of the Great Depression. It is a bitter complaint of the moral and social standards of contemporary America, not merely a record of the particular plight of one man. And also obviously, it presents Willy Loman, the main protagonist of the play as a victim of the deterioration of the ‘American dream’. The word ‘dream’ is a key word, recurring frequently in the play; and the deterioration of American individualism is traced through the Loman generation in a descending scale, from the whiteman – like exuberance of Willy’s father, through Ben, Willy himself, to the empty predatoriness of Happy, who is, he admits, compulsively competitive in sex and business for no reason. Robert Hogan observes: “The play is a notable achievement, for in it playwright broke out of the realistic confinement of time and space and psychology.”¹ Illuminating one another the past and present move forward together in the play. And it brings into a sharp focus the American Myth of success, American morality, family structure, sex relations and commercial relations.