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The Death of Salesman The Death of Salesman combines social realism and deep understanding of human weaknesses. This play continues realistic tradition of American literature. It describes the life of an ordinary man, Willy Loman, a salesman. Willy is a tragic hero. Arthur Miller tried to uncrown the embodiment of American Dream. Miller tries to attract attention to eternal themes like life, death, and sense of human existence.
First of all, all events that take place in Willy Loman's life occur in real places and have real outcomes. The hero personifies unhappiness. The author describes him as the man of more than sixty years old, who looks very tired and exhausted. He is dressed in modest clothes and considers himself ugly and ridiculous.
He doesnt believe in himself. Willy considers that nobody likes him, nobody recognizes him because he looks ridiculous. The only thing he wants is to become successful. He worked more than 35 years but in vain. All his life is ruined; he has no money and no luck in his job. Willy borrows money from one of his friends in order to feed his family.
Howard, his boss, fires him and Willy remains with no means of subsistence. His sons, Happy and Biff cannot help him. Willy tries to solve all problems, to break free from the trends of everyday life, and to get money enough to support his family. However, the only thing he can do is to commit a suicide in a car accident for his family to receive insurance. He considers that his family will feel better without him, but with twenty thousand dollars.
This problematic play narrates about a life of a common man with all his troubles and unhappiness. Willy is a tragic hero. However, can he be called a tragic hero according to Aristotle's characteristics of tragic hero? According to Aristotle, tragic hero should correspond to several requirements. Antique tragedy reflected moral influences of the ideology of that time. According to Aristotle, the main point of tragedy is fear and compassion.
These feelings appear in result of passion the passion is the main feature of tragic story. Aristotelian tragic hero cannot be the man of virtue; at the same time the hero cannot be vicious because the reader can compassionate to the man who suffers undeservedly, and feel fear for the person who is equal to the reader. Aristotelian tragic hero should become unhappy because of his sins. He should enjoy great honor and be happy before he falls on evil days. The outcome of tragedy should neither award virtues nor punish vices. It should present unjust but objectively justified death of the hero as logical continuation of tragedy.
When we try to categorize Willy Loman as an Aristotelian tragic hero, we face difficulties. First, Arthur Miller tries to show the everyday life of a common man who believes in great American Dream. He speaks about the destiny and the role of chance. The concept of Fate can be seen under the empirical reality of the story. Willy tries to struggle with reality and dies because he cannot withstand to it. It seems that the main hero suffers from the change of unlucky events that can be examined as ill fate.
Taking into account this fact, Willy approaches the interpretation of Aristotelian tragic hero. From the other side, Willy has no main qualities of Aristotelian tragic hero: the feeling of his own guilt (tragic guilt), hamartia (a tragic flaw, when the hero falls on evil days because of mistake), wisdom or nobleness (by virtue of birth). Although Willy Loman considers that he made a tragic mistake when he refused to go with Ben, it still cannot be considered Aristotelian interpretation of peripeteia because of the tragic mistake. Finally, the fourth trait of Aristotelian tragic hero is the recognition that misfortune took place in result of his own actions and mistakes. Willy doesnt consider he was wrong; he blames himself only for missed chance that could change all his life. Finally, Willy was not doomed from the beginning of his life.
He was not noble in nature. He didnt want to open his eyes and to understand his doom. He always tried to be a leader but he failed. All these features are opposite to Aristotle's tragic hero traits.
In such a way, although the history of Willy Loman is tragic, he hardly corresponds to Aristotle's description of a tragic hero.
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Research essay sample on Tragic Hero Willy Loman
