The Salesman's Fall: Socialist Realism and the Critique of American Capitalism in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

This paper considers Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) through the lens of socialist realism. It contends that the play is a compelling critique of American capitalism and its deleterious impact on ordinary working people. While many readings focus on Willy Loman's personal failings or mental or family problems, this reading looks at how the play fits the main ideas of socialist realism: the importance of the common worker, how capitalism uses people, the criticism of false beliefs, and class struggle. It uses the theoretical framework of socialist realism, especially its focus on social criticism, the dignity of labor and the unmasking of bourgeois ideology. This study asks three main questions: How does Miller elevate the common salesman to the level of a tragic hero in keeping with the aesthetics of socialist realism? How does the play expose the exploitative nature of capitalist society? How, then, does Willy Loman's false consciousness mirror the ideological manipulation of the working class? Textual analysis shows that Miller depicts the world in which the American Dream is an ideological tool that promotes inequality, alienates workers from their work, and ultimately destroys those who believe in the promises. The study concludes that Death of a Salesman is not just a family drama or a psychological study but a socialist realist critique of a system that commodifies human beings and reduces their worth to their economic productivity.