Essay/Term paper: Death of a salesman

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

In the first B.C dramatist known as

Aristotle started to write a series of plays called the

tragedies. They were as follows: the play revolved around a

great man, such as a king or war hero, who had a tragic

flaw. This flaw would eventually become his downfall and he

would fall from his glory. In the case of obvious it was his

hubris; and Oedipus, his pride and curiosity. Through out the

play the hero has many opportunities to overcome his

mistakes. On the other side, the reason that his nature he

sarcomas to it and deals with a sever punishment. Even

though these types of plays are still written today most

authors have varied their loom of writing a tragedy. An

example is Author Miller. He attempts to illustrate the

misfortune in the common man; he shows this in "Death to a

Salesman." According to Arthur Miller, "the tragic feeling is

evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character

who ready to put his life aside, if necessary, to secure one

thing - his sense of personal dignity." (Tragedy and the

Common Man p.1) He is saying in this quotation is that even

that the common man can even be tragic because

occasionally the one thing that she prizes the most, his sense

of self-dignity, can be so jaded that he will sacrifice his own

life to secure this dignity. In "Death to a Salesman", Arthur

Miller successfully shows that you do not have to be

someone important or king to show that. The classical model

of a tragedy is that of someone of a high position contains

superior qualities such as leadership for instance a king.

However the hero always has a flaw, which may be an

excess of one of these qualities such as hubris. This hero

while trying to accomplish a goal such as a quest will

eventually be dealt punishment, which is usually death. One

could argue that not only Aristotle"s definition of tragedy is

true but that there can be many different kinds of tragedies.

From the tragedy of a common man to that of a family or

group of people. In opposition to Aristotle's view one could

argue that any type of man could show tragic qualities, no

matter what social environment the man comes from. The

hero could range from a highly intellectual and educated man

with great potential but whose flaw is lack of motivation, to a

crack addict living on the street who refuses to enter rehab.

The fate of people such as this might not be as appalling as

death; however may be economic failure or social rejection.

It the play "Death to a Salesman"there is elements to a tragic

man by his way of commonness. Willy Loman is in the low

social position but it seems to act like he is king of the world.

Family believes that he is the heron in the world and they

would be nothing with out him. But he is only an agitated

sales man. "In the greatest country of the world a young man

with such attractiveness, gets lost." (Page 16 Death to a

Salesman) He also shows qualities of a tragic hero. Arthur

Miller a tragic man would rather die than to face losing his

dignity. "I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we

are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down

his life." (Para. 4, Arthur Miller) Willy was ready to throw

his life away to be a well-liked man and successful being. His

weakness was he was not able to be as successful as he

wanted to so he faked it. He mad him self-out to be top dog

but in the end his fate was that he was a nobody or an

average Joe. He pictures as he prepares for suicide that lots

of salesman are coming to his funeral but it"s false. Willy

might maybe a common man who is nothing more than a

visionary and a liar, but he is still pictured a tragic hero. He

even thought manual labor manual labor wasn"t civilized

enough for people yet he was proud of the ceiling he put in

the dinning room, which was manual labor. He shows there

that he is a hypocrite. He makes his family believe that if you

are well liked in life you will go far with out working hard.

"They look at him through his own eyes because he has

blinded their own." (B.K.M) He wants to be a well-known

man at home around the world in other countries, which is

impossible. Because of Willy's view and action he could be

used as the perfect tragic hero. "But there among is today,

as there always have been, those who act against the scheme

of things that degrades them, and in the process of action

everything we have excepted out of fear or intensity or

ignorance is shaken before us and examined…" (1st

paragraph Arthur Miller) Many people may put "Death to a

Salesman" as a boring and non-tragic piece, but Arthur

Miller disagrees and says it is one of the best tragic examples

written. It is about the common man who in his own eyes

and his family"s is the one of the greatest being in the world.

Yet the great Aristotle disagrees and says that tragic pieces

most conclude of a serious story with a great man. In the

story Willy was serious in his own ways with his on ways.

So according to both these men Aristotle and Arthur Miller

the play "Death to a Salesman" was a tragedy.