Through Death of a Salesman play, Arthur Miller describes Willy Loman’s – the main character’s – pursuit of certain wild and unrealistic dreams of seeking personal wealth and fame. Loman’s dreams outline the character’s loss of touch with reality as is evident through their unreasonable actions, dispositions, and utterances. His misguided dreams demonstrate the futility of espousing the irrational ideas of being great, thus demonstrating that this is an erroneous stance. This play is similar to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel on the basis of the respective protagonists’ dreams. Just like Death of a Salesman describes Loman’s pursuit of some dreams, so is Of Mice and Men which explores Lennie and George’s dream of acquiring their own land. The dreams in Steinbeck’s novel demonstrate that resolute determination can make people be very resilient. Further, the two literary works are similar in that the protagonists face a number of difficult challenges as they strive to achieve their respective dreams. The protagonists in the 2 works also fail to achieve their dreams. Steinbeck’s novel however has a number of notable differences from Miller’s play. For instance, while Death of a Salesman shows that Loman has an unlikeable character owing to his dreams, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men portrays Lennie and George as being positively impacted by their dreams. Further, whereas Lennie and George’s dreams portray the 2 as rational persons as per the Of Mice and Men novel, the dreams described in Death of a Salesman depict Loman as an illogical character. All in all, Miller’s Death of a Salesman play that depicts Loman’s dream of greatness as irrational and harmful while Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel portrays Lennie and George’s dreams as sane and beneficial.
For instance, Miller portrays Loman as an irrational being owing to the latter’s impractical dreams of becoming rich and famous. Such misplaced hallucinations make Loman to live in an imaginary world, a concept that makes the character to be bitter with life. To illustrate, Loman’s misguided dreams usually make him enter into trances whereby he revisits life as it used to be when he was wealthy. He also abstractly builds his version of reality based on his hallucinations. For example, Loman brags to Biff and Happy that he will establish a business that is bigger than the one owned by Charley – a wealthy neighbor. Later, Loman claims to Linda that ‘before it’s all over we’re gonna get a little place out in the country’, thus affirming the former’s hallucinatory nature (Miller 20). This attitude makes Loman unable to appreciate and work towards improving his present situation. The character thus eventually commits suicide, affirming that hallucinatory dreams only lead to tragedy.
On the contrary, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel portrays Lennie and George’s pursuance of practical dreams since the duo aspires to acquire money with which to purchase land of their own. The practicality of this dream is evident in that the 2 set out to work so as to escape a life of poverty and dependence. They, therefore, demonstrate the conscious realization of their unfavorable circumstances and jointly work towards improving their lot in life. These shared dreams prove that determination can enable people to achieve much in life.
In relation to this concept is the fact that Lennie and George’s dreams inspire the duo to be mutually cooperative and loving as is evident through Gorge’s action of covering up for Lennie’s deficiencies when the 2 arrive at the California farm. The statement that the two always ‘stayed behind the other’ indicates their friendship (Steinbeck 8). It is thus evident that the duo’s dreams confer good characters onto them. George’s selfless act of standing by Lennie right up to the latter’s death further proves this point. The fact that George disregards the harm that may befall him for associating with Lennie after the latter accidentally breaks Curley’s wife’s neck proves that the former is very committed to the latter. George confirms his dedication to Lennie by stating that he has ‘never been mad’ at the latter (Steinbeck 87). The novel thus proves that mutual determination that is founded on practical dreams facilitates close friendship and selflessness.
This is not the case with Death of a Salesman’s Loman who acquires unbecoming habits thanks to his misguided dreams of being rich and famous. For example, Loman becomes unsociable owing to his illusory dreams as is demonstrated through his hostility towards Charley. Loman depicts this conduct when he shouts at and chases Charley off after the latter asks who the former is speaking to during one of the former’s trances. According to Loman’s hallucinations, Ben – his brother – is present in this instance. In the reverie, Loman explains his plans of moving to Alaska to conduct business. Further, other than urging his sons to be effective intellectually, Loman advises Biff and Happy that they ‘need…..a golf club’ since the other people ‘can’t hammer a nail’ (Miller 32). Misguided dreams are thus argued to be negatively influencing Loman’s behavior.
Miller also portrays Loman’s hallucinatory dreams of being famous and rich as facing a number of serious challenges. Considering that Loman is basically impractical in his ideas, the numerous deficiencies that characterize his life prove to be daunting challenges. It is possible that Happy and Biff – Loman’s 2 sons – engage in timber theft because of the poverty they live in. This glaring reality poses a challenge to Loman as he strives to advance his illusory ideas. While Loman is engrossed in a reverie-like discussion with the imaginary Ben about Alaskan business prospects, Bernard and Charley hurriedly enter and report that Happy and Biff are stealing timber. This information jolts Loman to his senses, urging him to come to grips with reality and handle the deprivation in his home rather than engage in imaginary fantasies. The character’s confession that he is ‘not a dime a dozen’ affirms this situation (Miller76). Loman’s dreams are thus shown to be working to deny him the opportunity to appreciate and effectively tackle the real issues in his life.
Likewise, Steinbeck’s Lennie and George are depicted as facing several challenges in the pursuance of their dreams to earn sufficient funds for purchasing a piece of land. For one, Lennie’s unstable mind makes him do things that force the duo to flee. A case in point is the last job that the 2 held that was abruptly cut short after Lennie’s fantasies were misconstrued as amounting to an intention to rape a certain lady. In addition, after securing another employment, Lennie commits a blunder by accidentally breaking the neck of Curley’s wife, thus forcing George to kill the former. George’s compassionate killing of his colleague basically marks the end of the duo’s plans. George refers to these difficulties when he observes that Lennie’s oversight ‘near lost’ them ‘a job’ (Steinbeck 55). The challenges that the duo encounters and try to transcend thus prove that determination enables people to undertake great tasks.
In addition, Lennie and George do not achieve their dreams; they demonstrate strong willpower up to the end despite the challenges they face. Strong determination is thus demonstrated on their part.
Similarly, Loman fails to achieve his lofty dreams owing to their inherent impracticality, prompting him to commit suicide. This sad ending proves that hallucinatory dreams always fail.
In summary, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel and Miller’s Death of a Salesman play describe their respective protagonists as pursuing certain dreams which expound on the respective themes of the works. Of Mice and Men’s Lennie and George have practical dreams of alleviating their needy circumstances while Death of a Salesman’s Loman has the illusory dream of being famous and wealthy. Further, Loman becomes unlikable owing to his hallucinatory dreams. The two works however show that their respective protagonists face challenges as they pursue their dreams. Moreover, both works’ protagonists fail to achieve their dreams.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Penguin, 1998.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1994.