Death of a Salesman, considered as Arthur Miller’ s greatest masterpiece, has received international reputation since its premiere in 1949。 And the protagonist Willy Loman’s tragic life and death has touched thousands of people。 In contemporary American drama, Singh Abha argued that “Death of a Salesman is a complex and psychological play, dealing with guilt…Willy Loman, the salesman, is a typical embodiment of modern business morality, but he is also a more universal figure…Like the great tragic figures of Sophocles and Shakespeare, Miller’s Willy is both an inpidual and a type。”(Abha 70-71)。 And some critics commented that Willy represented ordinary people in American society, instead of heroes such as a king or an aristocrat appearing in Miller’s former works。 In Salesman is Everybody, A。Howard Fuller pointed out “The salesman can be the fittest hero in modern tragedy。 And Willy is the representative of the spirit of a large and decisive segment of American life。”(Fuller 241)。 William Hawkins maintained that Death of a Salesman is a play written along the lines of the finest classical tragedy。 It is the revelation of a man’s downfall, in destruction whose roots are entirely in his own soul。 The play builds to an immutable conflict where there is no resolution for this man in this life。 The play is a fervent query into the great American competitive dream of success, as it strips to the core a castaway from the race for recognition and money。 (Hawkins 202)。 The play exposes, for the ideologue, the inadequacies of a bourgeois America…Death Of a salesman goes well beyond the level of oversimplified social protest because it concerns the fundamental practical and metaphysical question: what does it mean to be fulfilled in one’s very existence? This question underpins the play’s greatness, reinforces its philosophical largeness。 (Roudane 78)。 

Previous researches mainly probe into Willy’s tragedy in the term of family ethics and from the perspective of Greek tragedy。 And many essays pay attention to the disillusionment of the American dream。 Some critics try to make criticisms from its structure such as Miller’s Poetic Use of Demotic English in Death of a Salesman by Frank Ardolino, and Dramatic Rhythms in Death of a Salesman by Leah Hadomi; Some try to analyze personalities of characters and relations and conflicts between characters。 And some critics explore reasons for the tragedy such as Tragic Insight in Death of a Salesman by M。 Bettina Sister and Willy Loman as Desiring Machine by Granger Babcock。 

 The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure on thing-his sense of personal dignity。 (Miller 32)。 If it is true that tragedy is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment。 And this was precisely the morality of tragedy and its lesson。 (Miller 30)。 文献综述

Some Chinese scholars also attach great importance to Death of a Salesman, such as “Arthur Miller’s Views of Tragedy on Death of a Salesman” by Hou Jun, and Xiao Xuenong attempts to analyze this play from the perspective of American dream。 “The emergence of an upper caste in American society had rendered the American dream an empty promise。”(Magill 957)。 The American dream is referred to a broad cultural ethos that entails a commitment to the goal of material success。(Messer 6)。 Lu Yan explores her research from realism technique of expressionism reflected in Death of a Salesman。

3。 American Dream

3。1 The origin and development of American dream

For hundreds of years, the American dream has inspired millions of ordinary people to achieve success and has touched the lives and consciousness of American citizens and residents。 In its prevailing and pervasive sense, the American dream refers to the belief that everyone, regardless of his origin and status, can achieve career and social success。 In other words, the American dream is a pursuit of faith, belief and determination and the incarnation of material wealth。