Self-Defeating Ideals in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Pr

Self-Defeating Ideals in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Price When people accept an ideal to live by it can be a glorious and noble thing unless they become so obsessed with the ideal that it becomes a yolk and they are unable to realize their dream. This is especially true for two characters in Arthur Miller's plays Death of a Salesman and The Price. In these two plays Miller portrays two lower-middle class men, Willie Loman and Victor Franz, respectively, who each live by an ideal that ultimately is self-defeating. Willie lived to pursue the American dream rather than living the American dream and Victor lived to serve and be decent rather than living a noble and decent life. They pursed their ideal rather than living it and thus they are unable to succeed. Willie Loman, in Death of a Salesman,, has lived his life in pursuit of the American dream. Traditionally the American dream meant opportunity and freedom for all, and Willie believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything that he wanted or thought he deserved. Willy judged himself and those around him by their material accumulation, as is demanded by capitalism and the protestant work ethic. The ethic demands accumulation and work as signs of favor in the eyes of God. Thus in order to please God and himself he had to accumulate wealth and objects. The consumer oriented society in which Willy lives will not allow him to live the American Dream. Willy is fascinated by accumulating things. His desire for goods makes him want objects that he neither needed nor could afford. Willy thinks that he needs to buy his wife a new refrigerator and new stockings even though she is content with what they have. As he tries to live the America... ...- middle working class. Just as Willy does, Victor too, adopts a quest for himself however, he pursues that quest to the point that he loses sight of his original goal - to please others, and ends up hurting them. Both men have decent and noble intentions however, they both live to fulfill those intentions rather than living and fulfilling the intentions. As a result they both fail to accomplish what they had intended, hurt the ones they love, and themselves. Willy's obsession with acquiring wealth and being a salesman made it impossible for him to do so. Victor's insistence on helping others made it impossible for him to provide the life his wife wanted and deserved. Both men failed because they lived by impossible standards that they were never able to meet. Â  It was to late before they realized the harsh penalties for failure to meet impossible standards.