The Weight of Denial: Exploring Guilt, Self-Deception, and Betrayal in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Death of a Salesman

Abstract

This article investigates the interrelated themes of guilt, self-deception, and betrayal in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Both plays mount a critique of the American Dream by exposing how personal ambition, economic aspiration, and social expectation converge to generate profound moral crises. Through the figures of Joe Keller and Willy Loman, Miller dramatizes self-deception not merely as a psychological flaw but as a deliberate strategy to evade responsibility, which in turn precipitates acts of betrayal that rupture familial and communal trust. The analysis situates these dynamics within psychological and ethical frameworks, underscoring how Miller interrogates the erosion of integrity when material success is privileged over moral accountability. By engaging with literary criticism, psychoanalytic perspectives, and historical context, the study demonstrates how Miller’s dramaturgy reveals the destructive interplay between denial and responsibility, illuminating broader questions of identity, ethical failure, and the precarious foundations of the American social ethos.