Willy Loman And Oedipus Essay

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.

In Arthur Millers’ play, Death of a Salesman, he has twisted Aristotle’s belief of a tragic hero, and has created his own. Although Miller has twisted Aristotle’s belief, Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex, has a tragic hero (Oedipus) that follows the flaws, dignity, and acknowledgment of the truth that Aristotle believes in to make a tragic hero. It is essential for them to recognize their position and role in the play. Due to the fact that Willy Loman and Oedipus experience tragic flaws throughout their respected plays, they both have nobility, and they both realize the fact (anagnorisis) that they made an error in their life (hamartia). Through their fatal mis-steps, their pride and ego, predominately affect their familial lives, which in turn causes them to realize the truth that they are tragic heroes.

Oedipus' pride pushes him toward his tragic end in the initial journey, when he kills his father, in the episode of the sphinx, and in his adamant search for truth. Pride like that of Oedipus has been the downfall of many great leaders. Oedipus is blinded by his arrogance and won't accept the fact that he can't avoid his fate. His pride first affects him when he is told about what his fate has in-store for him. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that he was told that he "was fated to lie with [his] mother and show to daylight an accursed breed, which men would not endure, and [he] was doomed to be murderer of the father that begot [him].

In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar the element of tragic hero is presented. A tragic hero is defined as a character of high standing who has a flaw that leads to his or her downfall, this individual is enlightened of his or her mistakes and is often viewed with pity or sympathy by the audience. Shakespeare has created two tragic heroes in his classic, Brutus and Caesar. The character primarily focused on as a tragic hero in this story is the protagonist, Brutus. Brutus is a tragic hero because he is of high political standing, a poor judge of character and is enlightened of his mistakes.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary tragedy is a serious piece of literature typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror. Miller’s explains that a tragic hero does not always have to be a monarch or a man of a higher status. A tragic hero can be a common person. A tragedy does not always have to end pessimistically; it could have an optimistic ending. The play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a tragedy because it’s hero, Willy Loman, is a tragic figure that faces a superior source, being the American dream and the struggle for success.

Due to Oedipus’ blindness and ignorance, he is unable to see past the truth. His hamartia was his poor sense of judgement; he tried to go against his own fate by making decisions on his own. He was warned by many around him but did not seem to be more cautious or stop chasing a hurting truth. Oedipus was responsible for his own downfall, his constant persistence of going against wise people’s words and acting on the belief of his own intelligence ultimately led him to a path of destruction. In the end, he went from being known as the noble King of Thebes to a blinded man who has no point of living anymore.

His false dreams and skewed sense of reality led him to believe that following his true passion, carpentry, was not a conventional way of life. Willy’s true passion for carpentry and not sales can be evidenced in the quote, “There’s more Willy in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made” (Miller, 22). Willy mainly constructed his fantasy as a means of coping with his personal failures, for he had the “wrong dreams. All, all wrong” (Miller ?). In Willy’s deluded state, he lied to his family, regularly lying to them of his success at work.

A tragic hero is commonly known as a character of nobility that undergoes a fatal change which ultimately results in a tragedy. Arthur Miller, however, has a slightly different view in regards to what a tragic hero is. He asserts that a tragic hero does not necessarily have to be a character of nobility, instead can be an average person in possession of a tragic flaw. In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, the criteria of a modern tragic hero are best expressed and demonstrated through the main character, Willy Loman. Willy Loman’s tragic flaw would be his excessive and unwarranted pride.

Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him. In The Poetics, the greatest statement of classical dramatic theory, Aristotle cites Oedipus as the best example of Greek tragedy. According to Aristotle, Oedipus is a tragic hero because he is not perfect, but has tragic flaws (hamartia). Aristotle points out that Oedipus' tragic flaw is excessive pride (hubris) and self-righteousness. Aristotle also enlightens certain characteristics that determine a tragic hero.

Overweening pride and a haughty personality are faults of conscience according to what Aristotle perceives to be a characteristic of a tragic hero. Driven by partial-realizations, Willy Loman was a man whose miserable reality of his life was distorted and that led down to his mortal sacrifice for his family. Aristotelian law on the nature of tragedy takes the entire plot as the beginning, middle, and the end of the tragedy (Raymond 1). When filing in the requirements of a tragic hero, Willy’s downfall was flawed from the start for not being able to attain a realistic point-of-view, but overall, the climax of the tragedy is centered on the second act in the restaurant. Willy’s pride and dignity is transferred to his son, Biff.