Discuss Miller's view on the role of family in modern drama, with particular reference to Death of a Salesman.

In the work of Arthur Miller, particularly in his masterpiece Death of a Salesman, the role of family plays a vital role. 

Willy's psychological weakness and eventual unwinding comes significantly from his personal relationship with his family members. His son Biff resents him for having cheated on Biff's mother (and Willy's wife) with a woman in Boston.

In Death of a Salesman, the Loman family serves as the basis for most of the...

In the work of Arthur Miller, particularly in his masterpiece Death of a Salesman, the role of family plays a vital role. 

Willy's psychological weakness and eventual unwinding comes significantly from his personal relationship with his family members. His son Biff resents him for having cheated on Biff's mother (and Willy's wife) with a woman in Boston.

In Death of a Salesman, the Loman family serves as the basis for most of the drama that occurs. By letting us into this family and by allowing us to see the interactions between the family members, we are made part of the intimate relationship that makes up a family. As this intimacy crumbles under the weight of tension and drama, the play unfolds, and the disillusionment of Willy Loman is truly revealed. Willy causes pain to his sons through his half-baked ideas of pursuing the American Dream and also through his own infidelity. His sons, particularly Biff, in turn, cause pain to Willy himself, by not finding the success that he expects of him and, in Biff's case, by not loving him.

The family serves as an intimate portal into the drama of the American public. What happens behind closed doors at night is unknown to us, and Miller relishes in this thought. Like familial strife and Machiavellian backstabbing in some of the works of Shakespeare, Miller takes feuding family members and creates organic and thrilling drama.