earticle

영어

This paper explores the ecological codes of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman through the lens of ecocriticism, in particular, social ecofeminism. The play has been criticized from various critical vantage points such as Willy’s character, his family relations, and social problems, etc. Ecological matters, however, have rarely been investigated since the play was produced in 1949. It is meaningful and long overdue to find ecological codes in the work. So in green reading the cannonical work, numerous ecological messages can be found in this time of the serious ecological crisis. Social ecofeminism insists that patriarchy ideology is the seed of the domination in a family, a society, and at last, an ecological world. The notion that man dominates woman in a family and dominates other men in a society extends to the idea that man has a right to dominate nature. Willy is a traditional patriarchal man in his family. But ironically, he is dominated by another man, his boss in the patriarchal capitalist society. The American dream and the frontier myth he has desired during his whole life are also the outcomes of the domination ideology. The landscape of the play very poignantly represents the domination of nature by man such as environmental pollution and destruction of ecosystem. Willy’s destruction is identified with that of nature throughout the play. Ecologically, therefore, Willy’s dreams are estimated as “the wrong dreams.” We have to pay ecological attention to the healing, recovery and preservation of nature to survive together in the house of the globe.