THE FORBIDDEN TREE AND THE AMERICAN DREAM OF WILLY LOMAN IN ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN D CHARLEY SAMUEL Research Scholar in English, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India ABSTRACT This article examines the analogous elements found between the Forbidden Tree as narrated in the Holy Bible and the American dream as woven into the texture of Arthur Miller‘s Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, the protagonist, having Adam as the archetype, encounters the bewitching dream brought to him by instances that entitle success, and endeavors anticipating the realization. But contrarily, he is forced to inherit what is in store for him, on account of his yielding to it. He experiences exactly like Adam. As Adam was emptied of all the divinity and banished from the Garden of Eden on eating the Fruit, Willy feels deceived by the dream and finds dénouement as a low man. Adam, who aspired to become like gods, ended up in death, and similarly, Willy, who wants to be supreme, also ends up in suicide. The deceitful deceit thus decides their destiny. KEYWORDS: American Dream, Banishment, Conception, Death, Deception, Forbidden Tree, Misconception, Success INTRODUCTION Of Man‘s First disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With the loss of Eden….(Paradise Lost 1.1-4). Arthur Miller, one of America‘s most renowned playwrights, is celebrated for his profound insight that could enter into the emotional and psychological realms of ordinary individuals, and for his earnest endeavor that could externalize their internal turmoil as precisely experienced by them, in direct consequence of their deluded dreams, distinct desires and debased values. Death of a Salesman, the classic among all his literary output, has been approached and analyzed through multiple perspectives, ever since it was staged in the Broadway Theater in New York. Elaborating it, E R Wood writes, Different explanations have been put forward of its essential theme: some have regarded it as Communist propaganda denouncing the evils of Capitalism, while others have seen it as a sympathetic study of the problems of big business. Some have interpreted it in Freudian terms and attributed to its author abstruse psychological theories, while from a Catholic point of view it has been approvingly regarded as a warning of the meaninglessness of life where there is no religious faith (viii). Following this critical convention, this article attempts to analyze the American dream which Willy Loman, the protagonist of the play lives for, through a Biblical perspective so as to bring out its similarities with the Forbidden Tree, mentioned in the Book of Genesis. International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL) ISSN 2319-3956 Vol. 2, Issue 2, May 2013, 1-10 © IASET