Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: This article analyzes the reasons that cause the tragedy of Willy Lowman, the protagonist in Arthur Miller's masterpiece, Death of a Salesman. After a close study of the definition and connotation of the American Dream, the author of this paper relates Willy’s personal tragedy to its sociological sphere and draws the conclusion that Willy’s tragedy is chiefly caused by his ignorance of the illusory side of American Dream. Through an analysis of Willy Lowman’s disillusioned dream, the article further highlights the illusory trait of the American Dream.

Key words: Willy Lowman; Death of a Salesman; American Dream; tragedy 

摘要：本文分析了阿瑟•米勒的杰作《推销员之死》中威利•洛曼悲剧产生的原因。在仔细研究了美国梦的定义及内涵之后,本文作者将威利•洛曼的个人悲剧与它的社会学背景联系起来,从而认为威利的悲剧主要原因是他对美国梦虚幻的一面的无知。通过分析威利破灭梦想,文章进一步凸现了美国梦虚幻的特质。

关键词:威利•洛曼；《推销员之死》；美国梦；悲剧

1. Introduction   
Arthur Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas including plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible and so on. He also wrote two novels. Arthur Miller was born in a middle-class family in New York. His family members were Jewish immigrants. His father, an illiterate but wealthy businessman, owned a women's clothing store employing about 400 people. However in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family make ends meet. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. So Miller was grown up in the crucial fact of 1930s’ economy crisis and the Depression almost ended up his plan of receiving education. The influence of the Depression was painful. In 1940, he married his college sweetheart, Mary Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert. Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high-school football injury to his left kneecap. In 1948 Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater, Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949 at the Morocco Theatre. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.