Death of a Salesman
"If the exaltation of tragic action were truly a property of the high-bred character alone, it is inconceivable that the mass of mankind should cherish tragedy above all other forms" (Dwyer). It makes little sense that tragedy should only pertain to those in high ranks. As explained in his essay "Tragedy and the Common Man," Arthur Miller sets out the pattern for his own idea of a tragedy and the tragic hero. This pattern supports the idea that a tragedy can occur in characters of common men as well as those in high places. In his paper, he demonstrates that it should be possible for everyone to be able to identify with the tragic hero. Miller redefines tragedy as more common occurrence than what might happen in such tragedies as portrayed by Shakespeare and Euripides, thus defining Death of a Salesman as a tragedy. Willy Loman is a tragic hero. His fear is that he wants to be viewed as a good, decent human being. He wants to believe that he's a well liked, decent person who doesn't make mistakes. The truth is that he makes mistakes, many that haunt him, and that he is human. Willy does not consider this normal and severely regrets such failures such as raising his children poorly, as he sees it, not doing well in business, thou
The circumstances in his life and the identity he has created for himself are being affronting by his inner reality to "evaluate himself justly. 30)! He finds this untrue as he increasingly makes less and less money on business trips. The common man, indeed, can relate to Willy Loman. 132)! Willy, in addition to meeting Miller's definition of a tragic hero, in a way connects with the traditional requirements. In the end, because of his unwillingness to change and submit passively to the established world, Willy dies at the hands of his tragic flaws. He also has flashbacks of incidents that haunt him in other areas. Here we can see that Willy's sincere desire is directed at something greater than himself, his image, or his success. gh he wishes he was, and cheating on Linda, showing her to be a commodity of which he takes advantage. "Howard, and now I can't even pay my insurance! You can't eat the orange and throw away the peel! A man is not a piece of fruit" (Miller, Death. His stubborn refusal of character change along with his fear of being denied his identity by the world and his attempts to believe that existence can be justly evaluated brings upon him the death of a tragic hero. He's liked, but he's not well liked" (Miller, Death.
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