Death Of A Salesman Social Responsibility Essay

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, social responsibility can be found throughout the play. In order to discuss social responsibility we must first examine the word responsibility itself. The word responsibility in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as “something that you should do because it is morally right, legally required, etc.” (Responsibility) Now that we have viewed what the word responsibility means, we are ready to further explore social responsibility that is found in the play, Death of a Salesman. Keeping in mind that realism is defined as “the quality of a person who understands what is real and possible in a particular situation and is able to deal with problems in an effective and practical way” (Realism)
The Death of a Salesman play focuses on the idea of memories, dreams, and disputes that play a significant role within the play. One can find realism in this play often. An example of realism in this play is the idea of men aging and finding it hard to maintain their jobs. In an interview done to Arthur Miller he was asked “Can you recall the first time you saw your play hit an audience?” to this Miller responded “A man who turned out to be Bernard Gimbel,...was being helped up the aisle--he was well along in years...he issued that in all his stores nobody was to be fired for being overage.” (“Walking With Arthur Miller”) Gimbel’s response was compassionate after seeing Miller’s play. Having a character such as Willy sympathizes with the audience in the way that we, especially older people, can relate since we are aging every day. The fact that Willy and his family were living on a budget makes this play more relatable to the audience. Linda, Willy’s wife, states on act one, line 1215 “Why shouldn’t he talk to himself? Why? When he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a week and pretend to me that it’s his pay?” (Act I, 1215) Many men can relate to this, having to squeeze every cent they earned in order to provide for the family. I personally can relate to this because when the economy was bad, somewhere around 2009, my father experienced a cutback in hours of work. This meant that less money was coming into the house, and the bills did not wait, they just piled up. Men can relate more since not having enough money to provide for your family is more like a sense of pride, it diminishes their pride when they cannot fully fulfill their duties as men. In this time period, 1950s, television depicted a traditional family as having a dispute free environment. Truth is that the Loman family had many conflict and many dealing with their idea of success. Death of a Salesman is a play that is relatable to the