Willy is only truly happy in his memories or when, as Happy says, ‘he’s looking forward to something’, but this is only his false hope showing through. He spends so much time absorbed in his memories because in the present he is a failure - it isn’t satisfactory. Additionally, we cannot even be sure that the past happened like that as what we are seeing is Willy’s memory, which may well be distorted to fit with his perfect image of the past. This is likely, because even in his memories Willy lies to Linda about his income - “Well, I - I did - about a hundred and eighty gross in Providence. Well, no - it came to - roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip” Linda knows he exaggerates, and later on she even reveals she knows that he borrows money from Charley so it looks like his salary, but she never questions him because she believes it would insult him. The effect of this maintained secrecy is firstly to show how fragile Willy’s mental state is, and secondly the plight of Linda, who also suffers silently, we find later on, with the knowledge of Willy’s suicide plans. She is keeping up the facade for the sake of her family and perhaps she thinks she can fool herself into believing everything is all right. Although unspoken for much of the play, this is Linda’s way of creating a fantasy as opposed to her unsatisfactory life.
The importance of the American Dream in ‘Death of a Salesman’ is very significant. The Lomans are each affected in their own way by the pressures placed upon them by the society they live in. Willy is not ruthless enough to be able to really make it in the business world, but distorts reality to convince himself that all is well. Biff is pressured by Willy’s high expectations of him and his insistence that Biff has ‘greatness’, yet he says himself that “I don’t fit in business” and all he really wants to do is work in the country ‘with your shirt off’. It is ironic that, in the ‘land of opportunity’, citizens are restricted from attaining their true ambitions (Biff’s idyllic dream) by the pressures placed on them to become wealthy, successful and popular. Happy has a relatively steady job unlike his father and brother, but it lacks status. He is one of two assistants to the assistant buyer, and so feels the need to lie and exaggerate about business, women, his family and so on. Linda is not directly pressured by the American Dream, but suffers because her family are all affected, particularly Willy who she remains loyal to throughout. Biff is the only character who ever questions the American Dream and rejects Willy’s ambition. He is at first deluded by Willy’s insistence that “Biff, you’ve got greatness in you” but comes to realise that he is nothing special. At Willy’s funeral, he condemns Willy’s ambition with “he had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong”. Exasperatingly, Happy still hasn’t given up, and vows to achieve the success Willy couldn’t - “He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him”. This shows the vicious circle of disappointment and frustration - and a parallel between this and recurring nightmares - that can be created by the ‘dark side’ of capitalism and of the American Dream.
Capitalism and consumerism are massive parts of the American Dream. The capitalist system of business means that when people are no longer useful they are fired, which is exactly what happens to Willy. Howard, his boss, symbolises the ruthless businessman who does well in capitalism. He is similar to Ben, Willy’s successful brother who will step over anyone to get what he wants. Ben’s ruthless nature is shown when he trips Biff in a play fight - “suddenly comes in, trips BIFF, and stands over him, the point of his umbrella poised over BIFF’S eye”. The prominence of consumerism is shown in the goods that Willy buys, only to have break down shortly afterwards, and in the importance of advertising to Willy - ‘Whoever heard of a Hastings refrigerator? Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs! The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally pay for them, they’re used up.” Willy here expresses his dissatisfaction with capitalist culture - connected with the American Dream - and how products are designed (in his view) to bleed as much money from the consumer as possible. The complaint has an air of unfamiliarity with the culture - Willy is idealistic and has a running fantasy that people are far less ruthless than they really are, and that they should make an exception for him due to his ‘popularity’ and his well-connected father.
In a way, Happy and Biff personify the two different sides of the American Dream. Happy’s ambition is to be a successful salesman like his father believes he was himself, although even he is not content with this way of life - “Sometimes I sit in my apartment all alone. And I think of the rent I’m paying. And it’s crazy. But then, it’s what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I’m lonely”. On the other hand, Biff personifies the pioneering spirit of ‘the great outdoors’ and a rural, simple life. His family’s home in the city and his father’s hopes for Biff prevent him from following this dream to an extent, although it is hinted at in some parts of the play that Willy himself would’ve been better off following this kind of life - he says to Linda, “You wait, kid, before it’s all over we’re gonna get a little place out in the country, and I’ll raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens”. Unfortunately, neither Happy nor Biff is successful, proving that neither of their ideals are realistic.
Yet another facet of the American Dream is the need to leave behind a legacy and not be forgotten when one dies. This is a contributing factor to Willy’s suicide - he wants to prove to Biff that he was successful by the number of people at his funeral - “Ben, that funeral will be massive!”. Ironically, and tragically, no-one but his family and Charley come to his funeral. Willy realises at the back of his mind that he has left no legacy for his family, so the suicide becomes an act of honour for him - the insurance money is more important to him than his life. He also, bizarrely, starts to plant seeds in the middle of the night in the garden. This is symbolic of farming and self sufficiency, but also the need to leave something behind that will grow. Willy echoes his failure in life with - “I’ve got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground”. This creates a sense of panic and time running out - coupled with Willy’s desperate need to redeem himself by leaving something for his family. I think that this fear of wasting one’s life will resonate well with the audience, as this is a very human fear. Whether or not Miller intended for this, it may cause the audience to contemplate their own situation and their own hopes and ambitions.
The hopes and ambitions of each character play a large role in affecting their behaviour, and come from the cultural dream of the American Dream and how others treated them when they were younger. Willy does not fit in with his culture and its values, but feels pressured to achieve them so that he can have some form of status. He is totally convinced that these dreams are what he really wants - what Ben achieved, but in truth he would prefer the idyllic rural life of his childhood, shown when he fondly reminisces about his parents - “All I remember is a man with a big beard, and I was in Mamma’s lap, sitting round a fire, and some kind of high music”. He is an extremely insecure man, and his three main ambitions are to become a good father, a successful provider for Linda, and a popular salesman. To him, these are more than hopes; they are necessities, but at the age of sixty he has failed in all three. This explains his suicide - his ignorant pride will not allow him to accept reality and take a job from Charley, so the only option which he believes will let him keep his dignity is death. Biff, the character who adds the strongest sense of reality and reason to the play, is the only one who changes his ambitions over time. He loses the wish to succeed for his own sake, and later on only makes an attempt to succeed in business so that Willy can be happy. He even lies to him about the results of his efforts, spurred on by Happy - “Listen to me! I’m telling you something good. Oliver talked to his partner about the Florida idea. You listening? He - he talked to his partner, and he came to me ... I’m going to be all right, you hear?”. Later still, he drops the act even in front of Willy and attempts to bring him to his senses - “Will you take that phoney dream and burn it before something happens?”. Sadly it doesn’t work, but the significance of Biff’s change of heart is that it contrasts with Willy’s blind refusal to stray from his ambition and Happy’s dishonest way of glossing over everything. Linda’s dreams are simpler: she just wants her husband to be happy and her sons to succeed. It could be argued that she is the real victim of the play, rather than Willy. She has to witness the fall of her husband and the desperation that surrounds his death. She also never learns of his affair and is the personification of innocence and maternal love in the play.
There are several recurring metaphors in the play, which are interconnected with different times and events in the characters’ lives. Willy tells Happy that “the world’s an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress”. This metaphor means that to get what you want, even in the land of opportunity, you need hard work and to know what you want, and is a valuable insight into American capitalist society. There is also the metaphor of Ben’s ‘jungle’ in which he made his fortune, symbolising the vicious business world, and the ‘diamonds’ he found there, symbolising material success. For example, “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy” and “One must go in to fetch a diamond out”. These statements emphasise the pressure and necessity placed on inhabitants of American society to go into the ‘jungle’ and make their fortune. Sometimes they might not want to, but Ben is in some way, Willy’s inner drive and pointless ambition for the sake of ambition - he must be a total hallucination because at the time Willy imagines him, he is dead. After Willy is fired and is with his boys in the restaurant, he says, “the woods are burning, boys, you understand? There’s a big blaze going on all around. I was fired today”. The ‘woods’ in this quote refer to both the old elm trees (now chopped down) that symbolised the ‘great times’ of Biff and Happy’s childhood, and the jungle where Ben made his fortune. This shows that Willy’s loss of his job means to him that both the good times and the land of opportunity are gone, and he can never get them back. This quote, and numerous other things, are warnings of Willy’s eminent suicide. For example, he says offhand to Charley in his office, ‘Funny, y’know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive”. This statement is tragically ironic - just as Willy kills himself, the family’s money worries are practically over because they have paid off their mortgage and do not need his life insurance money. They would clearly rather have their husband or father still alive than the extra money, despite his failings.
Dramatic irony, as I have touched on above, is a vital element of the play. It both adds some black humour and makes connections between events and the characters’ thoughts. It is most often used in relation to Willy’s flashbacks, for example in Act 2 Willy’s flashback of Biff’s big football game at Ebbet’s Field is cut against his meeting with Charley and his son Bernard. Back in the time of the flashback, Bernard was always less “well-liked” and successful in Willy’s eyes than Biff (“Biff, I’m carrying your helmet, ain’t I?”) whereas in the present he has become an extremely successful lawyer, shocking Willy, who once called him “anaemic” and “a worm”. The moment of realisation the audience experiences when statements are ironically proved wrong can be likened to that moment in a dream when one realises that it is a dream, often because of something someone says.
In conclusion, dreams are important in “Death of a Salesman” because they explain the past, present and allow the audience to predict events in the future. Characters can be seen portrayed as their full selves - their whole lives, almost - rather than a stranger. The dreams also change the entire structure of the play, merging the past, present and future so that it resembles a mental state rather than a narrative chain of events. The dreams I have discussed here include flashbacks, hopes and ambitions, and cultural dreams, i.e. the American Dream. I don’t think Miller was criticising the American system of capitalism in itself, so much as the pressure placed on individuals to be a ‘success’ when they can be just as happy living a simple life with not as much wealth. He highlighted the tragedy which can be brought about from this pressure, and I believe some of his own views may be mediated through Biff, who says close to the end, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can’t I say that, Willy?”. Miller knows everyone is affected by their past, their hopes and ambitions and those around them’s dreams. His play is an obvious example of how dreams affect individuals and spill over into others’ lives. Willy is arguably his, if rather unvirtuous, tragic hero. He is not a ‘great man’ in the sense of Shakespeare’s plays, but he is trying to support his family and follow the dreams forced upon him by his society, and fails miserably. He is the modern equivalent of the Shakespearian heroes, as his salesman position makes him a symbol of consumerism, but he is still human. Death of a Salesman is a warning of false dreams which dictate one’s life, and a statement about natural human crises - failure, disappointment, breaking apart of relationships, and death.
