Abstract

    Death of a Salesman is an outstanding modern drama written by Arthur Miller, which presents a tragedy that a person is willing to sacrifice or betray his life to pursue American Dream. In Death of a Salesman, the hero, Willy Loman, breaks the image of “Somebody” in the traditional tragedies. On the contrary, he is just a “Nobody”, an ordinary salesman in America. He regards material reward and being well-liked as his two sons’ most important life goal. Gradually, he gets lost in the jungle of modern city and cannot find any way out. Eventually, he commits suicide.
    This paper tries to analyze specific demonstrations of Willy Loman’s tragedy, including the failure of his career, family and his being lost in between reality and dream, the present and the past as well as life and death, to dig out the reasons of his tragedy. The major reasons include his wrong interpretation of American Dream and the stimulation of the social situation, as well as his own personalities contributing to the tragedy, such as stubbornness, self-deception and vanity. To a certain extent, his tragedy is not an occasional but an inevitable outcome.
This paper will analyze the tragic fate of the protagonist through the demonstrations of his tragedy and the causes of it to help the readers have insight into his tragedy and further understand the writer’s tragedies himself.

Key words: Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, tragedy, reasons

摘要

《推销员之死》是阿瑟米勒的经典剧作之一，描写一个为了追求美国梦而最终出卖自己生命的悲剧。主人公威利洛曼打破了传统悲剧中的“大人物”形象，因为他只是一个“小人物”—-美国社会中普普通通的推销员。他将物质方面的成功和受人欢迎视为自己以及两个儿子的最高人生目标，于是迷失在现代城市的商业丛林中，找不到出路。最终，选择自杀。
本论文分析主人公的悲剧形象。主要以他的工作与家庭生活的失败以及分不清现实与梦想的一些悲剧性表现作为研究的出发点，进一步挖掘出其悲剧产生的原因。得出的结论是该主要原因来自于与对“美国梦”的错误认识，以及当时社会的时代背景。更重要的一方面还是主人公自身的顽固不化，自我欺骗，因为虚荣而认不清现实，最终导致悲剧的产生。作者认为这一悲剧的产生不是一种偶然，而是一种必然。
本论文将详细分析主人公人生悲剧的具体表现以及造成这一悲剧的原因，从而帮助读者进一步了解主人公，从而更好地理解作者阿瑟米勒的悲剧观。

关键词：《推销员之死》   威利洛曼   悲剧   原因