Dreams Deferred: A Critique of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 87 - 98, 30.06.2025

Gözde Begüm Mızrak

Abstract

This paper examines the disillusionment with the American Dream through a comparative analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Despite differences in genre and historical context, both works critically portray the human cost of chasing this idealized dream, exposing its inherent contradictions and unattainability. Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby, iconic figures in American literature, embody the relentless pursuit of success and social validation, yet their journeys end in personal and societal rejection. Using a Marxist lens, the study delves deeper into the capitalist underpinnings of the American Dream, highlighting how it perpetuates systemic inequalities, alienation, and false consciousness. Miller’s depiction of Willy Loman reveals the plight of the working class, reduced to economic surplus in a system that values productivity over humanity. Similarly, Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Gatsby critiques the illusion of meritocracy, illustrating how wealth cannot erase class boundaries or guarantee social acceptance. Both works underscore how capitalism commodifies human relationships, presenting material success as the ultimate measure of worth while obscuring its dehumanizing effects. By bridging the temporal and formal gaps between the texts, this paper argues that Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby collectively critique the ideological framework of capitalism that sustains the American Dream. Ultimately, the study offers insights into the enduring tensions between aspiration and disillusionment, materialism and morality, and individual ambition and societal constraints.

Keywords

American Dream , Death of a Salesman , The Great Gatsby , Marxism , capitalism

References

• Abu-Snoubar, T. K., Attiyat, N., & Aldawkat, I. (2022). Capitalism and the Fall of the American Dream: A Marxist Reading of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams. The IUP Journal of English Studies, 17(1), 189-200.
• Ansarey, D. (2013). Death of Salesmanship and Miller’s Death of a Salesman. ASA University Review, 7(1), 151-160.
• Barker, S. (1995). The Crisis of Authenticity: Death of a Salesman and the Tragic Muse. In M. C. Roudané (Ed.), Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman (pp. 82-101). The Modern Language Association of America.
• Benziman, G. (2005). Success, Law, and the Law of Success: Reevaluating Death of a Salesman's Treatment of the American Dream. South Atlantic Review, 70(2), 20-40.
• Cardullo, B. (2007). Death of a Salesman, Life of a Jew: Ethnicity, Business, and the Character of Willy Loman. Southwest Review, 92(4), 583-596.
• Centola, S. R. (1993). Family Values in Death of a Salesman. CLA Journal, 37(1), 29-41.
• Dieng, M. (2016). Kinship and Friendship in Hardship: A Comparative Analysis of Aminata Sow Fall’s Le Revenant and John Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, 9(4), 97-110.
• Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The Great Gatsby. Retrieved from https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/the-great-gatsby.pdf
• Gleitman, C. (2015). Saint-Mamas, Strudel, and the Single Man in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The Arthur Miller Journal, 10(1), 3-17.
• Hadiuzzaman, K. Md., & Kabir, Md. Z. (2018). Unveiling the Glamour of Salesmanship in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. ASA University Review, 12(2), 71-78.7
• Jacobson, I. (1975). Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman. American Literature, 47(2), 247-258.
• Jordan, E. (2005). The Fallacies of Cultural Narratives, Re-enactment, Legacy, and Agency in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), 11(2), 45-62.
• Lawrence, S. A. (1964). The Right Dream in Miller's Death of a Salesman. College English, (25)7, 547-549.
• Marx, K. (2007). Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (D. McLellan, Ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1844)
• Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2002). The Communist Manifesto (G. Bedggood, Trans.). Pluto Press. (Original work published 1848)
• Meehan, A. (2014). Repetition, Race, and Desire in The Great Gatsby. Journal of Modern Literature, 37(2), 76-91.
• Miller, A. (1996). The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. Martin, R. A., & Centola, S. R. (Eds.). New York, NY: Da Capo.
• Miller, A. (1998). Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York, NY: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1949)
• Miller, A., Vidal, G., Watts, R., Beauford, J., Dworkin, M., Thompson, D.W., & Gelb, P. (1958). Death of a Salesman: A Symposium. The Tulane Drama Review, 2(3), 63-69.
• Otten, T. (1999). Death of a Salesman at Fifty - Still "Coming Home to Roost". Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 41(3), 280-310.
• Rangwala, S. (2017). Race and the Thickening of Mediation in Repetitions of The Great Gatsby. ESC, 43(2-3), 91-116. Siegel, L. (2012). Willy Loman’s Secret. The Nation, 30 April 2012, 28-30.
• Tucker-Abramson, M. (2012). Is Marlowe a Marxist? The Economic Reformation of Magic in Doctor Faustus. Rethinking Marxism, 24(2), 288-301.
• Yılmaz Kurt, Z. (2007). Social Reality Versus Ontological Reality: The Differing Sense of Reality in The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness. Çankaya University Journal of Arts and Sciences, 8, 67-83.