...Willy Loman - A Tragic Hero Is dying a way to become a tragic hero? According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is defined as a literary character who makes a judgement error that leads to his/her own destruction. Most tragic heroes hold a position that is of a noble stature. Willy Loman is the main character in the play, Death of a Salesman and displays the rise and fall of a tragic hero. Many people may not consider Willy a tragic hero because he is not of high social class and he is like the millions of other Americans trying to living the American dream. However, because he portrayed the characteristics of being a failure and making mistakes, by the end of the play the audience witnesses what Aristotle called “Hamartia” Death of a Salesman can be considered a tragedy. In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, we learn about the main character, Willy Loman, the pity that Willy should receive, and the thought of the main character. Aristotle discusses the idea of hamartia, which he defines as a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero of heroin. Willy’s stubbornness and excess pride could be considered as such. Often, Willy had to borrow money to pay their bills. Linda told Biff, “When he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a week and pretend to me that it’s pay?”(633). Guilt and feeling like a failure not supporting his family led to Willy’s daydreaming. Willy’s inability to admit that he needs help creates worry and tension in...
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...tragedy are related to ancient Greece. A Greek tragedy is a sad story, which represents a character with a tragic flaw leading to his downfall. In addition, in traditional tragedy, the main character falls from high authority and often it is predetermined by fate, while the audience experiences catharsis (Bloom 2). Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is considered to be a tragedy because this literary work has some of the main characteristics of the tragedy genre. In this play, the main character Willy Loman possesses such traits and behaviors that lead to his downfall, and the audience experiences catharsis. Willy Loman as a real tragic hero comes to the decision to commit suicide because of serious financial problems of his family (Phelps 79). This play has already been criticized by a number of literary critics who represented different opinions on the plot of the book. The major goal of this paper is to critically evaluate the play Death of a Salesman written by the well-known American writer Arthur Miller, paying special attention to the play’s characteristics of a tragedy. In the play Death of a Salesman, the author investigates human nature and represents his main character as a person whose dissatisfaction with his own life leads to his tragic end. The plot of this literary work is rather simple. The play consists of two acts. In the first act, Willy Loman, the main character of Miller’s play returns home from New York. It is found that his goal was to travel to...
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...Compare and Contrast Willy Loman and Othello If there was a completely perfect, virtuous hero with no flaws, there would be no sense of enjoyment at watching horrible events afflicts this perfect person? Conversely, if the individual had too many flaws, vices, and moral depravity, it would not be a tragedy; it would simply have been seen as his getting what was coming to him, karma, if you will. Although Othello and Willie Loman can be said to fall within the definition of a tragic hero, each represents a very different interpretation of the concept. Othello, the tragic hero of Shakespeare’s play by that name, is an even more sympathetic character. Othello’s tragedy is orchestrated entirely by the scheming, malevolent Iago. Iago, having very little motive, creates a web of deceit by convincing Othello that his new bride, Desdemona, is unfaithful. “Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof. Look at your wife; observe her well with Cassio, Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure” (Act III, Scene III, Lines 196-198, Othello). Othello’s jealously eventually causes him to murder Desdemona by smothering her. One could argue that Othello isn’t truly a tragic hero. After all, what fatal flaw does Othello have? Aren’t all of his actions simply the result of the malicious intent of another? This cannot be true, for, if so, Othello would not be the classic it is today. An audience does not want to watch a totally innocent person randomly punished. Rather, an audience...
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...Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is the perfect example of a tragic hero as he brings suffering not only to himself but also to those around him including his wife and sons. Willy shows the definition of a tragic hero by the pain he brings to himself and his family and this suffering contributes to the tragic vision of the story as a whole. Suffering is brought upon himself through his delusions and the confused view of the world he lives in. He believes he is young, successful, and well liked. The flashbacks throughout the story proves Willy is not who he used to be. Willy’s misconception of time is his main flaw with him being the main victim of that flaw. It eventually leads to Willy’s death as he jumps into his car and crashes it to get the life insurance money for his family....
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...Verdict I believe the statement “Miller doesn’t present the downfallof a tragic hero, but the pathetic demise of a small man” is very controversialbecause there are some traits that Willy Loman acquires that may be viewed astraits of a small man rather than a Tragic hero, such as his poor backgroundand unsuccessful career opposingly he might present the downfall of a tragichero based purely on the fact that he is slowly “dying” as Linda states. Aristotle’s belief is that in order for a tragic hero toexperience his downfall the character must make an error of judgement(hamartia). Willy Loman is a man of many faulty judgements, the main error ofjudgement being his strong belief in the American Dream. He didn’t make realityhis point of focus and allowed himself to be drifted into a world of imaginingswhich puts not only him in danger buthis family too, this is represented clearly through his driving. Rather thanfocusing on driving he has “strange thoughts” and “stares off into the scenery”this results in him ‘crashing the car’. His belief in the American Dream isfurther developed through his admiration for his brother Ben, he doesn’t admirehis brothers character or success he admires Ben’s quickly gained wealth. Willystops at nothing to explain how Ben went “into a jungle” and “made a fortune”,this may explain why he is constantly “observing the scenery…the thick trees”. One other major faulty judgement Willy Loman commits is howhe has an affair with a mystery woman when he is a married...
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...Willie Loman died a Hero? Willie Loman has failed to live up to the standards of being a tragic hero because he neither accepts nor admits to his faults. Willy loses his dignity and one of his biggest faults is his failure to be a good father. Willy’s problems come from his own delusions, the American Dream and his misunderstandings of his job and family. All of this tells the story of everyday people in American Society. His environment is changing faster than his beliefs which are why he is in the dilemma that he is in. Willy Loman delusions are a result of his father to succeed in life. At age 63, He still believes he is a popular, respected and good looking, which is not the case. Willy s delusion was that there would be many people from across the country at his funeral. Nobody liked him that much and very few people attended his funeral. In the moments where he would realize the truth, his wife would support his delusions in attempt to make him feel better about himself. A tragic hero is someone who dies for personal dignity. Willy dies for his sons dignity . In act two, Willy reveals his desires to win back Biff’s respect by committing suicide. During one of his illusions, Willy says “Ben that funeral will be massive...that boy will be thunderstruck, because he never realized I am known”. In trying to persuade Biff that their father is a great man, Willy will not accept any challenge to his dignity. He refused to realize that the ideas he set for himself and Biff...
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...characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the story of the failure of a salesman, Willy Loman. Although not all Americans are salesmen, most of us share Willy’s dream of success. We are all partners in the American Dream and parties to the conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that failures must outnumber successes. Miller amalgamates the archetypal tragic hero with the mundane American citizen. The result is the anti-hero, Willy Loman. He is a simple salesman who constantly aspires to become 'great'. Nevertheless, Willy has a waning career as a salesman and is an aging man who considers himself to be a failure but is incapable of consciously admitting it. As a result, the drama of the play lies not so much in its events, but in Willy's deluded perception and recollection of them as the audience gradually witness the tragic demise of a helpless man. Although most people have a similar idea of what the American Dream is, they may have different ideas on how to achieve it. For Willy Loman, a struggling salesman, achieving this dream would be a major accomplishmen Living the American...
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...When the Tragic Hero Falls There are lots of tragedies happening all around us, whether it be a catastrophic incident or something as simple as dropping that last piece of cake, each of us have different ways of viewing tragedies. The two tragedies, Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman examine tragedies very differently. Oedipus Rex is about a king who uncovers his horrific backstory, that he has killed his father and married his mother. Knowing this information, it begins to demolish his state of reality. It caused him to go from an extremely high peak, honored king, to a terribly low peak, resented human. In Death of a Salesman, a average American man named Willy Loman spirals into further insanity because he cannot reach his deceitful dream....
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...Miller New York: Harper Audio 3 january 2003 Comparition between Blanche Du Bois from and Willy loman characterstheir responsible failures and consequences. Blanche is already a fallen woman in society’s eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social pariah due to her indiscrete sexual behavior. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly (Previn 50). Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. She is an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. Consequently, Willy is an individual who craves attention and is governed by a desire for success. He constantly refers to his older brother Ben, who made a fortune in diamond mining in Africa, because he represents all the things Willy desires for himself and his sons. Because Willy has an incorrigible inability to tell the truth, even to himself, and an unreasonable mode of thinking, he justifies his death by saying that his sacrifice will save his sons, particularly Biff; the insurance money they collect will be a tangible remembrance of Willy. Willy Loman is a tragic figure who is largely to blame for his own downfall. He is fired from the Wagner Company because he is no longer effective and gets angry with and lies to the boss. He misjudges his sons and fails to accept the truth about either of them ( Miller...
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...portrays Willy’s problems with family life, the society, and himself in Death of a Salesman. Many of Arthur Miller’s plays reflect or are a product of events in his life; he believed that American society needed to be made over; and for this reason, many of his earlier plays showed sympathetic portrayals and compassionate characterizations of his characters. Death of a Salesman is a play relating to the events leading to the downfall of Willy Loman, an aging salesman who is at one time wealthy, but is now approaching the end of his usefulness (poet, 1997). Miller uses symbolism to expand on the conflicts within the Loman family. Happy and Biff, Willy’s two sons, represent two sides of Willy’s ever-conflicting personality. Happy, who often receives his consolation of unsuccessfulness through women, represents Willy’s more materialistic side. Biff, who is more capable of genuine humanity, represents the kinder and more realistic Willy; he favors Biff over Happy. This plays a big part in fueling the conflict between the two. Because Willy favors Biff, he wants more than anything for Biff to...
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...Arthur Miller attempts to redefine both the genre of tragedy and the tragic hero. According to Miller, a tragedy is defined as a man wrestling with how he defines himself in regards to his environment, and that above all, Miller believes that tragedies should be optimistic. Miller states that the “wound from which the inevitable events spiral is the wound of indignity… Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly”. Miller is saying that all tragedies stem from an attack on the main characters dignity, and all tragedies are therefore a result of a man’s attempt to make sense of who he is after having been shamed. By using the word inevitable, Miller seems to...
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...be the “American Dream” and the middle class family trying to make that dream a reality, through the play’s protagonist Willy Loman, who is a depressed, overworked, and spiritless working man with delusions of grandeur. Originally written as a short story, Arthur Miller’s uncle (who was a salesman) inspired him to turn the story into a play. When the drama hit Broadway in 1949 it was a total hit and transformed Miller’s career, as well as gained him recognition as a gifted playwright, with the production winning the Pulitzer Prize that year and has remained a classic to this day. Chasing the “American Dream” Willy Loman is the play’s tragic hero and as the story line progresses the audience gets to learn how truly depressed Willy Loman is and how he has an unrealistic view on the world. The play starts with Willy coming home early from work because of a business trip to New England he has cut short. He tells his wife that he kept finding himself daydreaming while he was driving and drifting off the road. He appears tired, worn out and spiritless right from the beginning and his wife is worried and concerned for his well being. The character of Willy Loman symbolizes the plight of the middle class working man living in New York City and early on the protagonist evokes feelings of pity and sadness from the audience. You genuinely feel bad for Willy at the beginning...
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...In Arthur Miller’s article, “Tragedy and the Common Man,” he discusses the idea surrounding one’s position in society and the level of regard that is held around their death. According to Miller, people are becoming more skeptical about the idea of “heroes” existing, and only consider the demise of significant figures like kings to be “tragic.” But, he refutes this idea with an argument claiming that the common man can be held to the same standing. Using references to Greek mythology and Shakespeare, Miller asserts that anyone willing to sacrifice himself is to be considered a “tragic hero.” In addition, Miller states that “the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain a "rightful" position in his society,” essentially...
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...Through the ages, there have been many different views on what makes a tragic hero. The archetype for a tragic hero has been set by Aristotle, from his rendition we learn that a tragic hero must “be better than we are”, born of nobility. Someone who is superior to the average person in some way, but at the same time, must evoke pity in the eyes of the audience. Arthur Miller, however, opposes Aristotle’s views saying that the common man can indeed be a tragic hero. The character must be willing to lay down his life to secure his sense of personal dignity. Furthermore, in act 2 of the play, the author reveals to the audience the reason behind Willy’s failure and guilt. It is also this section of the play that Willy is fired from his job, after this incident it is shown that Willy’s flaw as a tragic hero is his excessive pride because after being fired his longtime friend, Charley, who runs his own sales company, extended to him a job offer. But Willy refuses to take it saying that his sons are working on a big business deal and that he didn’t need the job offer. “I offered you a job. You can make fifty dollars a week…” but Willy replies “what’s the matter with you? I’ve got a job.” This shows that even under the direst of circumstances that Willy is too stubborn to take a job offer from one of the only friends he has got in life. At the end of the play, as a way to reassure himself that he wants to commit suicide he manifests his older brother Ben to act as conscience for what...
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...Death of a Salesman, Character analysis By Henry Cord Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman is a complex and fascinatingly tragic character. He is a man struggling to hold onto what dignity he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. While society can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be blamed himself to an equal extent for his bad judgement, disloyalty and his foolish pride. Willy Loman is a firm believer in the "American Dream:" the notion that any man can rise from humble beginnings to greatness. His particular slant on this ideal is that a man succeeds by selling his charisma, that to be well liked is the most important asset a man can have. He made a living at this for 30 years, but as he enters the later stage of his life, people have stopped smiling back and he can no longer sell the firm's goods to support himself. His ambition was one of greatness, to work hard and to be a member of the firm; and if he could not succeed in this respect, that he should at least be well-liked and be able to sell until the day of his death: When his friends would flock from all over the country to pay their respects. Willy's main flaw is his foolish pride, this it what makes him such a tragic hero. Yet there are many facets to his personality that contribute to the state he and the family are in during the play. His upbringing of the boys is one major issue, he raised them with the notion that if...
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