The tragic tale Death of a Salesman fulfills Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy to a great degree. The play conforms to Aristotle’s definition seamlessly for the factors of plot, thought, diction, and spectacle, satisfying all of the key necessities for each section. Character, also, fits well with his definition, but there are a few deviations from Aristotle’s perfect tragedy that prevent a seamless fit. The use of a chorus is completely ignored in this play, but being one of the least important elements, it does not affect the overall worth of the play. When the individual parts of the play are examined, it satisfies Aristotle’s requirements for a perfect tragedy. In Aristotle’s definition of a perfect tragedy he delegates plot as the …show more content…
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman satisfies all of these stipulations completely. The structure of Death of a Salesman has a beginning, middle, and end as required by Aristotle, however the order of these are not necessarily true to form. Some events that occur in the middle of the play should be at the beginning if examined as purely a cause and effect chain, and some events at the beginning should be at the middle. The inciting action when Biff discovers his father’s infidelity during one of Willy’s business trips. The climax of the play is the argument between Willy and Biff where Biff realizes that Willy is a cause of his short comings. Biff’s statement, “And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!” (Arthur Miller), shows how Willy influenced Biff so greatly that he set Biff up for failure. The final resolution occurs when Willy takes his life to provide for his family. This set up of rising action, climax, and falling action is reminiscent of Freytag’s pyramid, the plot contains defined beginning, middle and, end. When Aristotle stipulates that a play must be self-contained, he means that there cannot be an outside event that is a …show more content…
Spectacle is the use of props and the stage draw emotions from the audience. Aristotle states that this used be used minimally as it is less the writer’s job and more so the prop master’s (McManus). Miller uses the stage very conservatively but effectively to present some underlying ideas. The area around them that once was free and open is now closed in and constricting. This represents the constriction and pressure that time has placed upon Willy, and it shows how he feels that there is no other choice but to take his own life. The only other uses of the set to draw about emotions is the downtrodden house in which the Lomans live. However, this set is necessary because it exemplifies the financial situation in which they live, enticing pity from the audience. This limited use of spectacle would be applauded by
Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 in the period of literary realism (Na). In this play, Miller also integrated naturalism and expressionism. Expressionism is seen in the work because Willy sees not only reality, but also his past and he sees his brother Ben who is dead (Hoeveler). Willy imagines that his death will cause his son to praise him because through the insurance policy, the family would receive a sum of money to provide for themselves, but in reality, Linda, Biff, and Happy, wish that he wouldn’t have done that. Miller wanted Death of a Salesman to imitate a Greek Tragedy. In most Greek and Shakespearean Tragedies, the tragedy begins because of a flaw of the protagonist and in the end, the protagonist either
The tradition of the tragedy, the renowned form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis, has principally become a discontinued art. Plays that evoke the sense of tragedy-the creations of Sophocles, Euripides, and William Shakespeare-have not been recreated often, nor recently due to its complex nature. The complexity of the tragedy is due to the plot being the soul of the play, while the character is only secondary. While the soul of the play is the plot, according to Aristotle, the tragic hero is still immensely important because of the need to have a medium of suffering, who tries to reverse his situation once he discovers an important fact, and the sudden downturn in the hero’s fortunes. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is the modern tragedy of a common man named Willy Loman, who, like Oedipus from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, exhibits some qualities of a tragic hero. However, the character Willy Loman should not be considered a full-on tragic hero because, he although bears a comparable tragic flaw in his willingness to sacrifice everything to maintain his own personal dignity, he is unlike a true tragic hero, like Oedipus, because he was in full control of his fate where Oedipus was not.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream. This American Dream, fueled by money, is the main source of anxiety in Willy’s life. The anxiety of income is reflected today in the issue of minimum wage. James Sherk, a writer of the Tribune News Service, plots thoughtful points against raising the minimum wage. However, his use of over-exaggeration and odd comparisons leave his argument less than convincing.
Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller The Requiem seems to simply conclude the play at the funeral and let us see the other character's view of events with some retrospect. However, with closer scrutiny, we see that old issues and resentments. are still very prevalent in the U.S. The Requiem can be split into two halves.
The only way to become a truly happy person is to surround yourself with the things that make you happy. Setting logical goals and pursuing dreams is going to lead to a successful life. In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the reality of their lives. Biff is the only character who becomes self-aware by the end of the play. He realizes that his whole life has been a lie and that Willy’s standards for Biff’s achievements in life are simply unreachable. Happy is too caught up in himself throughout the play to realize that his father is in need of an escape from his dysfunctional life. Willy has lived his whole life setting these goals for himself that he simply can’t attain. Happy makes it known at the end of the play that he is planning to follow in his father’s footsteps. This foreshadows the downfall of Happy’s life to come. Linda is constantly reassuring Willy that the decisions he has made are the right choices. She finds out about his possible suicide attempts and she refuses to seek help for him. She constantly tells his that he is doing great when in reality his career is going nowhere and his relationship with his sons gets worse as the days go on. Willy was a man who claimed to have a good sense of pride. He believes that he thrived in his times of struggle. He lost the battle for his life and ended his life due to the constant disappointments and failures that he had to live with every day. Willy refused to see the truth in his life and continued to feed off the lies. He got so caught up in his lies that he lost what the truth really was.
Relations between fathers and the younger generation have been and continue to be an important theme for various literary genres (King Lear, Shakespeare; Fathers and Sons, Turgenev). For many famous writers the significance of fathers’ influence on their children forms a subject of particular interest. . In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller shows in a very striking manner that the father's influence can be either positive or fatal. The dispiriting story of the three generations of the Lomans family contrasts with the happy account of the life of their neighbors, Charley and his son Bernard.
Aristotle states that "For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.
The play Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, is about an average salesman living in Brooklyn, New York in the 1940’s named Willy Loman. Willy firmly believes in the American dream and is living his life aspiring to gain the wealth and materials associated with those of higher status in society. This American dream tears apart his family and the end result is his own demise. Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, has a plot similar to Death of a Salesman in that it is about salesmen and it shows the effects of capitalism on people and society. A difference between the two, however, is that Glengarry Glen Ross includes a group of salesmen working a firm who are trying to win a sales contest in which the first prize is a Cadillac, the second price is a set of steak knives, and the remaining salesmen will be fired. The main difference in the plays is that Death of a Salesman is decidedly a modern play and Glengarry Glen Ross is a postmodern response to Death of a Salesman.
In the original 1949 play of Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller was the American playwright. Death of a Salesman was a tragic play that presents a story about a salesman named Willy who believes that personality and being “well-liked” will achieve his American Dream. The play premiered on February 10, 1949 at the Morosco Theatre in Manhattan, New York (Avery). Miller’s play reflected on his relationship with uncle, Manny Newman who was also a salesman like the protagonist of the story and two sons who he took great pride on (Tierney). Through his characterization of Willy and Biff Loman, Miller presents contrasting (or surprising similar) illustra...
In the writing world today, there are many definitions for technical terms that are used to describe certain genres of theatre, music and literature. There are romantic novels, musical dramas, and tragic plays. Tragedy is a difficult genre to pinpoint and label. The title ‘tragedy’ can be placed on virtually any piece of writing that involves a death. But it also is up to the individual as to what they believe a tragedy is defined as. The play, Death of a Salesman is not tragedy in the traditional sense of the word. This essay will discuss this idea, define tragedy hero according to historians, and broaden the definition of tragedy to fit a modern society.
Aristotle believed that the protagonist of a tragedy should be “good or fine”. (3) He must be considered a successful man in order for his life to go from good to bad. Willy sold for a living, but he was not prosperous. He borrowed from his neighbor Charley so he could pay for the appliances that were out of his budget. Aristotle would disagree that Willy was a tragic man rather than a pathetic on...
Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Weales. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
A tragic play is a combination of dramatic scenes that act out a tragic event and usually labors unhappy endings. The play would usually portray the downfall of the main character. According to Aristotle, “Every Tragedy therefore must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song.” Based on Aristotle’s definition, Oedipus and Hamlet are a good examples tragedy. They both have been developed with a strong Plot and Characters. According to Aristotle, Plot is considered to be “the soul of tragedy” and very important in a play. Aristotle also implies Character to be second in line when it comes to developing a successful tragedy.
To conclude, “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller satisfies the criteria for a tragic play because Willy’s pride is a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. Ultimately, Willy gains enlightenment of his false perception of life and realizes how he inhibits the success of his family. This epiphany leads him to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his family. During his lifetime, Willy’s pride caused him to have an overinflated ego, a bizarre idealistic view on life, and a false value system. These negative traits eventually lead to his downfall in which he sacrifices himself, proving to be a modern tragic hero. Willy Loman is a common man brought down to his demise because of the one tragic flaw of pride that he possesses.
A modern tragedy of today and a tragedy of ancient Greece are two very different concepts, but ironically, both are linked by many similarities. In “Poetics”, Aristotle defines and outlines tragedy for theatre in a way that displays his genius, but raises questions and creates controversy. Aristotle’s famous definition of tragedy states: