Reification In Arthur Miller’s Death Of Salesman

Written in the late1940s, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a vehement indictmentof American capitalism plagued by consumerism through depicting reification of social life atdifferent levels. First, the thesis argues that there exists the reified relationship between Willyand those commodities in that the man-produced things become independent of man andgovern his life. It seems that Willy’s relationship to the world is one of possessing and owningcommodities and money. What’s worse, Willy does not enjoy the convenience brought aboutby those commodities especially the modern machines. Then, it contends that the reificationpenetrates into Willy’s interpersonal relationships that the relationship between things shapesand dominates the relation between people, and people become indifferent and alienated. InWilly’s work relationship, his boss Howard tosses him aside like the scrap heap; Willy and hismistress treat each other as objects to be exchanged for material. In the Loman family, the truefamily bonds turn to be illusory, and the real connection between the family members is thelove for money, thus they treat each other as money maker regardless of each other’s innerneed. Thirdly, it discusses the reification in Willy’s relationship to his own self that Willytransforms himself to a commodity and behaves according to the laws of the thing-world. Forhim, his so called well-liked personality can be offered for sale as commodities. In order toprove his existence, Willy makes suicide for twenty thousand insurance compensations thatmakes his life become a commodity. Willy’s these reified relationships with commodities, hisfellows, his families and even his self reveal Miller’s concern on the reification and expresshis critique of the inhuman value standard of the American capitalism consumer society. Thefact that Willy is ultimately worth twenty thousand dollars reveals how far the Americancapitalism has reduced human being to commodities, essentially, it dehumanized people. Theplay can still find its significance and relevance under the background of the globe enteringinto the phase of consumer. From this sense, Miller undertakes to formulate a statement aboutthe crisis of reification increasingly applicable to all human being in the universe.