key to failure is trying to please everyone." Arthur Miller created a character who in many ways was directly related to the statement of that exact quote. Willy Loman was his name‚ selling was his game. All his life‚ Willy tried to achieve the "American Dream." Therefore‚ Willy had to do things in an American way and think like a capitalist. Willy was a hard worker‚ yet it seemed as though nothing ever went right for him. The American society and mental outlook were probably the two most influential
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1. By the definition a modern tragic hero "must be good but flawed‚ must be artistocratic‚ must be believable‚ and must behave consistantly." (Literature and Ourselves‚ 524). With that being said‚ I think Troy could be seen as a modern tragic hero. I believe that deep down Troy is a good man‚ but he is flawed in many ways Rose explains this when she said‚ "sometimes when he touched he bruised. And sometimes when he took me in his arms he cut." (Literature and outselves‚ 195). This alone explains
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salesman‚ Willy Loman‚ at odds against his own psychological decline due to the pressures of society and his own personal failures as a salesman. Willy’s vision of the American Dream‚ that any man can be successful through sheer charisma and personality‚ failed him. Now‚ he has no way to provide for his family and has developed suicidal tendencies. Willy’s blind faith in his unrealistic version of the American Dream leads to this mental decline and blurs his perception of reality. Willy Loman’s entire
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The father-son relationship and betrayal between Jay Gatsby and his father‚ Mr. Gatz‚ was quite different compared to that of Biff and Willy Loman. However‚ both relationships improved immensely when each character realized the amount of love they actually had for the other. Jay Gatsby had reinvented himself as a wealthy person instead of poor. In Gatsby’s youth “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people--his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all‚” (Fitzgerald
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Hamlet and Willy Loman‚ characters whose rolls are very alike‚ and different at the same time. They both share some good examples of tragedy‚ family‚ and love in some parallel ways and‚ in some different ways. Family is very important in these two plays. They both have parents that want the best for their children but do not spend much time with them. Love is also a good comparison even though it is not directly shown‚ but instead hint toward throughout each play. These two plays provide insightful
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Is Troy Maxson a tragic hero? Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a famous Greek philosopher who outlined the unique and powerful qualities of tragedy. For Aristotle‚ tragedy was the most refined version of poetry dealing with grand matters. Oedipus Rex and Antigone are just two examples of famous Greek tragedies. Fences by August Wilson is a contemporary play‚ and is certainly not considered a classic Greek tragedy‚ yet the main character has been called a modern-day tragic hero. After analyzing
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Death Of a Salesman Arthur Miller does manage to engage our sympathies with Willy in the first act of the play to a certain extent. He does this in many ways such as using Willy’s speech‚ his troubled mind‚ the way other characters treat him and by using themes like the past. To begin with‚ Willy Loman seems like a normal‚ yet exhausted businessman. This is until he starts to contradict himself by saying of Biff that he’s “a lazy bum!” A few seconds later in the scene‚ his line is “There’s
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2010 Tragic Hero Usually when reading‚ tragedy and conflict is the most popular way to catch the readers eye. People are attracted to the suffering of the main character who is most of the time the hero in Greek plays. To begin with‚ the audience develops an emotional attachment to the hero‚ people fear what may occur to the hero and end up feeling sorry for him or her. In the Theban Plays the author Sophocles uses the character of Oedipus to demonstrate the qualities of a tragic hero.
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Othello as a Tragic Hero William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Othello‚ the Moor of Venice (c.1604‚ as reprinted in Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp‚ Literature: Structure Sound and Sense‚ 6th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt‚ 1993]1060-1148) is arguably one of the finest‚ if not the finest‚ tragedies in the literary history of Western civilization. This paper discusses Othello as a tragic hero and compares him to the great Aristotle’s concept of what a tragic hero actually is. First‚ we need to understand
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1312 28 October 2010 Hamlet and Willy Loman Willy Loman and Hamlet are both considered to be tragic figures. Hamlet‚ who is a rich young prince of Denmark‚ suddenly has his joyous life ripped away from him when his father suddenly passes away. He later finds out‚ through his father’s ghost‚ that he was murdered by his step-father‚ and also Uncle‚ Claudius. He is indecisive and hesitant at times and at other times he is prone to rash‚ impulsive acts. Willy Loman is a traveling salesman who considered
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