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The Role Of The American Nightmare In Death Of A Salesman

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Death of a Salesman: An American Nightmare The playwright Arthur Miller takes us on a journey into the lives of the Loman family in the play Death of a Salesman set in post war Brooklyn 1949, when Americans are striving for the American Dream reaches full force. The play is taking place during the last twenty-four hours of Willy Lomans life. The Lomans are family that consists of Willy the father, Linda his wife, sons Biff and Happy. The play starts in a gloomy setting with the Loman’s home crowded by apartment buildings. A home once with a yard filled with grass and trees. The house and the yard evolve over the course of Miller’s play, as does the family. What once was the American Dream for the Lomans, warps in time into the American Nightmare …show more content…
Linda and Happy are supporting characters. Biff looks up to Willy as the family is climbing the ladder to success. When Willy falls off the ladder, he takes Biff with him. The once American Dream the family is seeking replaced with the nightmare they are living when the play opens. First, Act 1 begins with Linda consoling Willy. Willy is a travelling salesman and the sales are not so good any more. Their lives are falling apart. Willy seems to be losing his mind slowly but surely. The couple is financially dependent on their neighbor Charley to survive. Willy lives in a state of confusion, he is aging, broke without any hopes except the dream he can provide for his family by killing himself. Biff the elder son returns home, disillusioned and penniless, just like his father. The son Willy has so many dreams for as falls short of Willy’s expectations. Willy says to Linda, “Biff is a lazy bum!” Willy continues, “Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such ------personal attractiveness gets lost” (241). Miller takes us back to a time when things were different between the father and son. There is a scene where the boys are cleaning the car and the audience sees how proud

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