Comparing The Tragedy Of Arthur Miller And Death Of Salesman

As a concept in literature, tragedy can be referred to as a progression of unfortunate events whereby characters undergo severe misfortunes which results to a horrible disaster. The involved characters may be one or more. Tragedy in literature works should basically be in five stages in its normal structure: there should be happy times, an introduction to the problem, the problem should be seen to worsen into a dilemma, the problem should be out of control of the characters and finally the problem should end in a catastrophic or have a grave ending situation. According to Aristotle argumentation, a perfect tragedy should be realistic and having a narrow focus, provoke pity and fear to the audiences, be able to outline traits of a perfect tragic

Willy does not reflect to be a tragic hero in regard to classical tragedy as it is with Oedipus in Sophocle’s story but just a mere modern tragic hero. This is simply because Willy’s ancient and present is full of expressionistic scenes which are mixed up together. For instance, if any one happens to look at both works of these two great writers it seems to be totally different as they are intended to represent their tragic heroes differently for them to suit in their respective eras. Oedipus in Sophocle’s story represent a tragic hero as it was required in Aristotle’s play of tragedy whereby heroes had to rotate only around gods, kings and individuals ranked highest within the society. In his work, Miller feels that the ordinary man opts to be the subject for tragedy within the modern society as it were with the kings. Apart from the stand of Aristotle that feeling of getting evoked should be portrayed by pity and fear, Miller feels that this should be felt when we appear to be in the shoes of a character eager to give out his life if necessary in order to get one thing which he sees as one’s own personal dignity. This is the reason why Miller uses Willy to be the subject of his

He was unable to visualize his path to self-realization and full awareness. Willy didn’t learn from his own mistake in order to know that he was the cause of failure in Biff’s life after when Biff found him having love affairs with another woman hence becoming unfaithful with him. Eventually, Willy takes his own life believing that his money from insurance will help improve Biff’s status within the society. Traditionally as a tragic hero, Willy could have not committed suicide though his downfall was to be there but instead he was supposed to learn from his mistakes and await for another fate in life just has Oedipus did in Sophocle’s story though his down fall was overdue.

By deviating from tradition conventions in regard to tragic hero literature work, Miller uses Willy to represent the common man who his ignored within the capitalistic society following the end of the World War Two when economic recovery is being realized after the Great Depression of 1930. He represents how the ordinary person tries to survive within the competitive society following the American Dream but lastly he is unable to accomplish his goals due negative effects of Capitalism system which enslaves and exploits this common