An Introspection into Tommy Wilhelm and Biff Loman’s Position in Modern American Society: A Study of Bellow’s Seize the Day and Miller’s Death of a Salesman

Umme Rabeya Mili

doi:10.22161/jhed.7.6.17

Abstract

Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day is a modern novella based on ‘carpe diem’ theme. It is written on the basis of the complexities of modern life in which the author tries to portray his keen observation on the life and activities of modern people. And Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is also a modern American play based on the contemporary condition of modern American society. In Seize the Day, Bellow attempts to sort out the reasons of failure and success in modern world through the lens of the indescribable sufferings of a modern man Tommy Wilhelm in a capitalistic American society of modern civilization. Tommy Wilhelm is the protagonist of the novella and the representative of the modern man. In the same way Arthur Miller in his play, Death of a Salesman has tried to focus the reasons behind the success and failure in modern American society through the activities of the characters of the play specially, Biff Loman. In both of the texts, Seize the Day and Death of a Salesman, we find profound critiques of the post-World War II ‘American dream’ that is being considered as the ‘success theory’ of common people in that society. And living in such kind of society, none can be a truly successful person until or unless they can attain the material prosperity in life by any means. The paper tries to explore how materialistic pursuits of modern people led them to take a shortcut in climbing the social ladder for being rich and famous and how much justified the ‘success theory’ of common people in American society based on the concept of ‘American dream’. By analyzing and scrutinizing the position of Tommy Wilhelm and Biff Loman in the modern society, it is estimated that how modern people by being the victim of the conception of ‘success theory’ on the basis of ‘American dream’ can’t go beyond the circle of failure in life. The objective of the paper is also to pursue the exact reasons of failure and success of modern people through the introspection of the position of modern men, Tommy and Biff in this modern society.

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Article Info

Received: 19 Nov 2025; Received in revised form: 21 Dec 2025; Accepted: 25 Dec 2025, Published on: 31 Dec 2025