![]() ![]() ![]() According to the Oxford Companion to American Politics, American Exceptionalism can be understood as, “a quasi-religious belief that the United States is a chosen and superior nation endowed by providence or the creator to be, ‘a city set upon a hill,’ (Matthew 5:14) an illustrious example and beacon for the rest of the world” ( Wilson). However, I propose it is not the promise of the American Dream that drives the play’s central tragedy, but a much larger force: American Exceptionalism. In her article, “Success, Law, and the Law of Success: Re-Evaluating Death of a Salesman’s Treatment of the American Dream,” Galia Benziman states that “a survey of the critical evaluations of Death of a Salesman reveals that the play has been mostly construed as a powerful, impassioned attack on this national ethos, often designated as the ‘American dream” ( Benziman). Arguably, the critical consensus attacks this romanticized “national ethos” by asserting that Willy Loman’s downfall and suicide are the results of his failure to achieve an unattainable American Dream. ![]()
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