Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a tragedy whose theme is the tarnishing of the American Dream. We, as Americans, have been conditioned to believe that beauty and charisma constitute necessary virtues rather than traits, and that appearances guarantee success. But most of us will go through our lives being "ordinary" -- and that's perfectly okay according to most views. I am going to discuss two different views of this play. One view is Miller's play as a tragedy with Willy Loman as the hero or the second view a realistic drama about an ordinary, flawed man.Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman breaks the mold of formulaic tragedies of previous eras. In this play he deals with middle-class people. At the opening of the play, the tragic hero, an old traveling salesman, Willy Loman, has already fallen and from the beginning was never an influential, admirable, or famous individual accept in his own mind. Even his loyal wife Linda admits that he has never been a "great man" or even the "finest" of characters. Nevertheless, she maintains that he is worthy of some attention as a human being who suffers. After all, she says, "a small man can be just as exhausted as a great man."]
The main reason Willy ends up killing himself is because he thinks it will help Biff start his own business with the life insurance money. Although his values seem warped, his aspiration lost, and his problems trivial, the passion with which he attempts to achieve his flawed concept of success demonstrates a degree of greatness. Linda even states, "for the vacuum cleaner there's three and a half due on the fifteenth. Money is one of the main problems that Willy Loman had throughout the play. Biff realized that "I'm just what I am, that's all. Willy then felt overwhelmed and said, "My God, if business don't pick up I don't know what I'm gonna do!" Linda would then reassure Willy and tell him, "Well, next week you'll do better. This situation with Ben makes it appear that Willy has such a hard time making a decision about what is best for the boys, that he relies on his imagination for an answer. Just as Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth attempt to gain a rightful position in their respective societies, Willy Loman seeks for his place in the world and is on an endless search for happiness and a sense of self worth. Realism is Death of a Salesman can be defined as an attempt to reproduce the surface appearance of the life of normal people in everyday situations. ragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing- his sense of personal dignity. " Although pitiful to any spectator, Willy Loman represents every man living a life of quiet desperation and in that sense is therefore greater than any one man. Willy Loman is a tragic hero who reflects the essence of a man's intent to claiming his whole due as a personality with struggle and without reservation demonstrating the indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity. Ben even seemed to appear when Willy was trying to make a decision on how to make the boys lives better.
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Acceptance Essays
