He studied play writing under Kenneth Rowe and was twice awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for playwriting. His time in college nurtured both his writing skills and his interest in liberal social causes. In 1934 he was admitted to the University of Michigan. Miller followed his high school graduation with two years of work in the hopes of earning enough money to attend college. Much of the playwright’s cynicism regarding wealth and conspicuous consumption can be attributed to his experiences during these years. He saw firsthand how once-wealthy neighbors were reduced to poverty and the humiliation of menial labor or outright panhandling. By the time Miller reached young adulthood, America was in the midst of the Great Depression. His father’s failure and subsequent withdrawal from the world of business had a profound effect on the young Miller, one that has direct roots in the character of Willy Loman. Following the failure of his father’s business in 1928, Miller’s family moved to Brooklyn, which would serve as the setting for a number of his plays, including Death of a Salesman. His father, Isadore, ran a successful garment business for a number of years, while his mother, Augusta, was a schoolteacher. His parents were Jewish immigrants who had come to America in search of prosperity. Miller was born in Manhattan, New York, on October 17, 1915.
More than a cautionary tale, however, Miller’s work is also revered for its bold realism and riveting theatricality, a play that deals in weighty emotional issues without descending to melodrama. Audiences have continued to respond to this theme because, in some incarnation, the American Dream has persisted a viewer can watch Death of a Salesman and relate Willy’s situation to their own compromised ideals and missed opportunities. He uses Willy as an example of how undivided faith in such a dream can often yield tragic results, especially when it goes largely unfulfilled. Through his main character, Willy Loman, Miller examines the myth of the American Dream and the shallow promise of happiness through material wealth. Much of this success is attributed to Miller’s facility in portraying the universal hopes and fears of middle-class America. In the decades following its premiere, Death of Salesman has become one of the most performed and adapted plays in American theatrical history. The work garnered numerous honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and enjoyed a lengthy run (742 performances) on Broadway. Subtitled Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem, the play was first produced in 1949 and struck an immediate, emotional chord with audiences. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is considered by many to be both the playwright’s masterpiece and a cornerstone of contemporary American drama.
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