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Human Tragedy Both structurally and contextually, the play Death of a Salesman can be defined as tragedy. Since the ancient times tragedy was considered one of the most important genres. While comedy simply entertained people, tragedy was making them think, analyze, sympathize, exercise emotions. "Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. " (Aristotle, ch. 6) Emotional part is the key element of the tragedy. Watching tragedy people can see where their action might lead them; people learn to feel compassion, sympathize the sufferings of others and at the same time they can see themselves from apart and learn to avoid mistakes.
Arthur Miller included in his play all six essential elements of the tragedy, which Aristotle named in his work Poetics. Every Tragedy must have six parts, which parts determine its quality namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song. (Aristotle, ch. 6) The plot of the play Death of a Salesman according to literary canons gradually accumulates tension until it reaches its climax, the death of Willy. The characters of the play develop only in the once chosen direction and do not subject to inner transformations. The purpose of the play is to convey persons incapability to invoke and except inner changes and society, and to address the main characters loss of individuality. The problems and the motivations of the main characters make them unhappy and irreversibly lead them to the sad end. But in creation of the characters Arthur Miller rejected classical rules of the tragedy as per Aristotle.
While according to the Greek tragedy tragic hero should be a person of some importance and evoking sympathy from the audience, Millers main character, the salesman Willy is complete antagonist of the tragic hero. Willy has no importance neither for the community nor for his own family, evokes only negative emotions from his surrounding and from the audience. All Willys actions lead him to the abandonment. All of his life Willy has empty expectations but never attempts to fulfill them. "Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!" (Act 2, Part 7, pg. 105) Willy tends to idealize people, which obstruct his perception of real life.
He romanticizes Single mans life and death, and he fails to see the loneliness behind the bright facade. Willy dreams of mythological accomplishment, and he irreversibly fails. By introducing Willy as antihero, Miller draws the publics attention to the surrounding reality, which begets such antiheroes. In the middle of the twentieth century the American society was influenced by the troubles and hardships of the World War II, people lost confidence in their own strength and turned searching prodigal American Dream. American Dream is the universal notion; it represents the vast possibilities for success, which America offers to its people. Unfortunately, Willy never understood, that American Dream can be reached only through hard and honest labor and through following the moral values, but not through dreaming, laziness and womanizing.
Arthur Miller stresses, that the social values in the time when the play was written were twisted, people were uprising everything disgraceful and condemned virtue. Willy is the representative of the common Americans, who saw dignity in noble death but not in noble life. The introduction of Lindas character is very symbolic in the play. She represents all forgiving mother and wife, the essence of virtue. But she wastes her gift; she applies it wrongly and at the end she makes her children suffer. The Lindas story tells that human values and Christian virtues have no application among Millers contemporaries.
He does not see the place for the traditional hero, and he introduces Willy is the symbol of his time, the essence of grand demands and failed expectations. Another aspect of the tragedy is the combination of fate and heros personal choices. Here the author also allows himself liberties with the classical tragedy form. The author introduces both fate and choices, but the main character Willy is not taking those choices rather then taking them. This is another antagonism to the classical tragedy. The author introduces anagnorisis, another essential element of the tragedy.
The main character realizes the outcome of his actions. He understands that his life is ruined by his lack of action and lack of decisions and his family is ruined by false actions and decisions. "I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life. " (Act 1, Part 2, pg. 11) The Diction of a play is one more means to highlight the low-ground content in the fine covering. The characters of the play speak animated and high-flown style, but the content of their speeches is vulgar. "[y]ou can't eat the orange and throw the peel away -- a man is not a piece of fruit!" (Act 2, Part 2, pg. 61 - 2), "You " ve just seen a prince walk by. A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working, unappreciated prince. A pal, you understand?
A good companion. Always for his boys. " (Act 2, Part 5, pg. 90), "Spite, spite, is the word of your undoing!" (Act 2, Part 7, pg. 103) Despite the fact that Willy is the antagonist of the classical hero, his mistakes make suffer his close people, though the mistakes are all his own. But is important to notice, that Linda and children are also far from the innocent victims of the classic tragedy. All other characters of the play suffer from Willy, but in turn they contribute to his collapse. The faithful love of Willys wife carries destructive nature.
By accepting Willys ideas and dreams Linda literary leaves Willy without any support and guidance in life. The only person to whom Willy is dear does not attempt to guide him in the right direction, but encourages his destruction by silent acceptance. After Willys death Linda has the chance to readjust her life, she is finally relieved of the bond and can analyze her situation and her life. Linda abandoned her chance, as once Willy abandoned his chances, she also has a static character, she is unable of moral transformation, and it leads her to new mistakes. The final part of the play, Requiem, is the allusion to the Song in the classical tragedy.
The author makes the structure of the play as closely as possible resemble the structure of the classical tragedy, but he makes the main character the opposites of the tragic heroes. Millers main characters are not heroes, kings or Gods; they are simple people, with all their drawbacks and fears. By combination classical structure of the tragedy with introduction of antiheroes the author stresses, that the lives of simple people can be no less important and no less tragic then the lives of great persons. In simple and down to earth characters of the play, audience can recognize themselves, their relatives and friends and it makes the tragedy of the play more live, more close to reality.
Audience feels for the characters more openly, more sincere, because their problems are understandable, familiar and lived through. "I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loan never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived.
But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person. " (Act 1, Part 8, pg. 40) This phrase characterizes the role of Millers play most vividly.
Willy is a man, the death of every single person is the great tragedy, and we should pay attention to his life, however miserable it might be, because we should find in our hearts the forgiveness and sympathy. There is nothing more important that a person, a human, and only the tragedy of a person deserve to be represented as the piece of art, the classical tragedy. Bibliography Aristotle. Poetics.
Identitheory. com, a literary website. 14 May 2005. < web > Arthur Miller on The Nature of Tragedy, New York Herald-Tribune, March 27, 1949. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin Books, 1996. Miller, Arthur.
Collected Plays. New York: The Viking Press, 1958. The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. New York: Viking, 1978. "The Writer in America, " Mainstream, July 1957. Tragedy and the Common Man, " New York Times, February 27, 1949.
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