Death of a Salesman Tragic Hero
Death of a Salesman is considered to be a great piece of American literature because it is a play of an ordinary man’s struggle to leave his mark upon the world. Willy Loman, the play’s central character, is often considered to be its’ ‘tragic hero’. The salesman grows increasingly disillusioned throughout the course of the play to the point where he eventually takes his own life. Willy’s life is a never-ending dream where he tries to persuade himself and others that he and his sons are successful, but, in the end Willy is unable to live up to his own expectations. Willy is little more than a failure and a crazed lunatic living in the past. Whether or not Willy Loman embodies Aristotle's model of a tragic hero is a matter of debate.
A ‘tragic hero’ is a literary term given to a type of character who makes an error in judgment that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. Aristotle had no interest in the tragedy of commoners or peasants and believed that a tragic hero had to be born of noble blood. He believed that it creates a sense of fear within the audience and makes them think that ‘if it can happen to the wealthy then it can happen to us.’ This is perhaps the only place where the characterization of Willy Loman defies the label of ‘tragic hero’ quite clearly; he is not a noble man, rather than a travelling salesman who is struggling to make enough money in order to scratch out a living. In the book ‘The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller (Methven 1999)’ is said to believe that ‘the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were’. Linda also believes this when she tells her sons that ‘Even a tired man can become a great man’ in response to their criticisms of Willy continuing to travel around the country and deluding himself that he is still that great salesman he once thought he was in the past.
At the beginning of the play when the scene is being set for the audience, we are made aware of the ‘solid vault of
A ‘tragic hero’ is a literary term given to a type of character who makes an error in judgment that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. Aristotle had no interest in the tragedy of commoners or peasants and believed that a tragic hero had to be born of noble blood. He believed that it creates a sense of fear within the audience and makes them think that ‘if it can happen to the wealthy then it can happen to us.’ This is perhaps the only place where the characterization of Willy Loman defies the label of ‘tragic hero’ quite clearly; he is not a noble man, rather than a travelling salesman who is struggling to make enough money in order to scratch out a living. In the book ‘The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller (Methven 1999)’ is said to believe that ‘the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were’. Linda also believes this when she tells her sons that ‘Even a tired man can become a great man’ in response to their criticisms of Willy continuing to travel around the country and deluding himself that he is still that great salesman he once thought he was in the past.
At the beginning of the play when the scene is being set for the audience, we are made aware of the ‘solid vault of