A Modern Tragedy
A form of drama in which a person of superior intelligence and character is overcome by the very obstacles he/she is struggling to remove defines a tragedy as most people know it. However, tragedy can reflect another aspect of life: the tragedies of the common people. Heroic behavior in these instances may at times be impossible. We expect, from reading the first tragedies, that only kings or nobility can be tragic heroes. Arthur Miller himself said, “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were…[The same characteristics] which were enacted by royal beings…apply to everyone in similar emotional situations.”
Death of a Salesman can be defined as a tragedy, with Willy Loman as the tragic hero. Willy Loman has a tragic flaw characteristic of all tragic heroes, however, it is not “necessarily a weakness.” Willy has a lot of dignity, and he is unwilling “to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.” His tragic flaw leads to his demise.
A tragic hero begins with a purpose, falls on hard times, but, in the end, gains a better perception. This perfectly describes Willy. Willy’s initial purpose is to maintain his dignity by pretending in front of his family and not accepting a job that he believes would lower his position. He obviously falls on hard times: he loses his job, his sons are lazy bums, Biff is a thief, he constantly relives his mistakes, and Biff resents his dad because of something that happened years ago. All of these are evidence of the hard times he is having in his life. After a confrontation with Biff, which occurred because of Linda’s insistence, Willy gains a better perception of his life. Or, at least, he thinks he does. Willy believes that, by committing suicide, he can gain dignity in the eyes of his family. By doing this, they can live off the insurance money, and he will finally have been able to provide for them.
Willy Loman is a man that has lived his life trying to achieve the easily attainable American Dream of success and wealth. Yet, Willy himself never achieves such success. Now, he is hopeful that his sons can achieve success that he himself never did. Willy becomes obsessed with his sons becoming successful and wealthy and becomes upset when they do not. Willy begins to have illusions about an affair that he had over 15 years ago. Miller uses the affair to show how one event can determine and define the rest of your life. Willy’s obsession with his inability to achieve his definition of success and the American dream is ultimately his downfall and what leads to his death. However, the reader learns that Willy does not fully give up his dream of wealth and success because he leaves his on Biff a twenty thousand dollar insurance policy. Willy’s refusal to accept his and his son’s reality of not achieving success and instead leave him money to start a business what makes Death of a Salesman tragic. The same can be said with all tragedies; many times a story is defined as tragic because the person or persons involved never got to achieve their dream yet they never lost
In "Death of a Salesman," Willy Loman is the opposite of the classic tragic hero. Unlike Oedipus, Willy is a ordinary man. His name implies he is a "lowman" whose dreams and expectations have been shattered by the false values of thesociety he has put his faith into. This simple characteristic makes him a tragic hero like "Oedipus Rex."
Willy Loman, one of the few tragic heroes in the modern era, is not very different from other tragic heroes which precede him. Willy, similarly to other protagonists in Aristotle’s tragedies, has a tragic flaw which leads to his eventual downfall. However, Willy’s demise in the 1940s play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, cannot be contributed purely to Willy’s own faults, but also to the actions of surrounding characters. These characters will go on to push Willy into a corner, making it even harder for him to overcome his circumstances, eventually playing a part in the tragic end of Willy Loman. By the end of the play, it is Ben, Biff, and Charley who contributes the greatest to the ultimate demise of Willy Loman.
As time grows, a spouse becomes a soul mate, best friend, and lover all in one. No one will ever show their dedication and love for you like your significant other and that’s what Arthur Miller addresses in the play Death of a Salesman. Linda Loman is the wife of Willy Loman, a man that treats her wrong but she still stands by his side. Linda is a vital character because she never has a low personality, she chooses her husband over her children she’s strong when her husband passes away and she the voice of the playwright.
Have you ever worked long and hard on a project, only to realize that it was effort wasted and the project was totally meaningless in the end? That is just what occurred in the play The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Willy Loman, the protagonist, spent decades in mind numbing work, only to discover that he had “built his life on shifting sand” (Nicholas). Through the course of his journey, Willy kept on the straight and narrow highway, which he thought would bring success and happiness. He often contemplated when he would draw his last breath and if he should. Willy begins to realize the futility of his journey when his son Biff Loman returned from college after he had flunked out. Willy had a prevailing hope that his son would amount to something, that he would be successful and become someone great. The cold and brutal reality was that both Biff and Willy were still living in the past. It takes until the final scenes in the play, for Biff to finally comprehend what his dad wanted for him; which was for him to go get a job in business instead of chasing his senseless dreams of being a rancher in Texas. It is in those final moments that Biff steps
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, primarily focuses on the flaws and failures of Willy Loman, Millers’ main character in this story. Willy’s distorted and backward views of the American Dream, paired with his inability to let go of the past lead him down a road of regret and in the end his biggest failure which was his wasted life.
Willy’s death was ironic due to all the of consequences that he faced each point of his life; however, he wanted to leave money behind by his $20,000 insurance policy for his family to prove he finally made success in life. After Willy death, Biff realized his true beliefs and changes his life’s path to the right direction. Happy on other hand, followed his father’s footsteps and aimed to become successful as a businessman. I believed that Willy’s character lead himself to his failures and miseries with his wife, his two sons, and his career. What Willy pictured in his mind of himself was not completed by his wrong ambition of being successful. “We’re free and clear. We’re free…. We’re free” (Death of the Salesman, Requiem. lines 66-67). Willy’s wife and sons were not a bit disappointed or saddened by the news of their father. Willy’s death defined a symbol of a new beginning for his family. Throughout my research I discovered all Willy wanted to be was a devoted husband, a father that his sons can be proud of, and a successful salesman; however Willy was unsuccessful in not completely to fulfill his dreams so his death brought him and his family a break from the
Death of a Salesman is a play about a man named Willy Loman who is an aging sales man that has difficulty remembering events, as well as distinguishing the present from his memories. Willy has always tried to live up to the “American Dream,” but unfortunately has failed miserably as a salesman and a father. Willy still having high hopes of the dream tries to live his life through his oldest son Biff, who has turned out to be just as big as a failure. Biff uncovers the truth behind his father’s lies and Willy being tormented by his failures starts to spiral downward. The thoughts of having failed as a salesman and father finally lead Willy to take his own life. In order to understand a play like this one you need to use a strategy in approaching it. One valid approach to any type of literature is to experience, interpret, and evaluate it.
The objectives of this written task were to show how Willy’s family (Linda, Biff and Happy) viewed his death and his achievements. I also attempted to illustrate their individual relationships with Willy. I chose to use the format of a formal police report as it allows all three characters to express their views of Willy freely. Emotions were adjusted to the minimum since this is a police report, except for the case of Linda whom I consider would be too weak at that point to control herself. Their stories do not correspond exactly because some are trying to hide the facts. One difficulty I encountered was imitation of tones of all three characters. After reading the original play again, I managed to capture Linda’s admiration and Happy’s indifference. Various factual details were added carefully to increase the authenticity of the police report, such as the dates, the autopsy result, the photographs and the model of Willy’s car (a red Chevy).
“Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller in 1948 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of a Willy Loman, a mercurial 60-year-old salesman, who through his endeavor to be “worth something”, finds himself struggling to endure the competitive capitalist world in which he is engulfed. Arthur Miller uses various theatrical techniques to gradually strip the protagonist down one layer at a time, each layer revealing another truth about his distorted past. By doing this, Miller succeeds in finally exposing a reasonable justification for Willy’s current state of mind. These techniques are essential to the play, as it is only through this development that Willy can realistically be driven to motives of suicide.
...nition of these terms. Arthur Miller, the playwright of Death of a Salesman intended this play to be a tragedy; this is what it should be interpreted as. As seen by this essay, it is clear that there is no right and true definition of the genre tragedy; it is as open to interpretation as the literature pieces are. Willy Loman represents a society striving for the American Dream, although he is of little importance in the standings of life. He is not popular or well-liked despite his hopes and dreams. He is a tragic hero who participated in the tragedy of Death of a Salesman.
Willy Loman is one of the most tragic heroes in American drama today. He has a problem differentiating reality from fantasy. No one has a perfect life. Everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these personal conflicts can differ as much as the people themselves. Some insist on ignoring the problem as long as possible, while some attack the problem to get it out of the way. In the case of Willy in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, the way he deals with his life as a general failure leads to very severe consequences. Willy never really faced his problems in fact in stead of confronting them he just escapes into the past, whether intentionally or not, to those happier childhood times where problems were scarce. He uses this escape as if it were a narcotic, and as the play progresses, we learns that it can be as dangerous as a drug, because of its ability to addict Willy, and it’s deadliness.
Willy couldn’t accept the realities that the life he lives has presented to him. He thinks the utmost that he can provide for his family now is his life insurance policy, and imagines that he can be successful once again by freeing his family from debt, but leaves them without a friend, husband, and father. Willy chooses to run away from reality altogether by selfishly committing suicide, which is a permanent end to a temporary problem.
Willy Loman’s character in Death of a Salesman portrays him as a tragic hero. Willy Loman continued to want his recognition and his reputation but never forgets about his family. These characteristics describe him as a tragic hero in Death of a Salesman.
Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman is a complex tragic character. He is a man struggling to hold onto the little dignity he has left in a changing society. While society may have caused some of his misfortune, Willy must be held responsible for his poor judgment, disloyalty and foolish pride.