Death Of A Salesman Willy Loman Essay

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is an example of a failure as a good father. He did not discipline his sons well by not punishing them. He did not set a good example to his sons by not admitting his faults. He did not make his family his number one priority. Instead, it was his work, coming before his family, his friends, and even himself. Not only is Willy Loman not a good father and husband, but he was a failure by not becoming successful, not achieving the American Dream.

Willy thinks, as most children do, that he is more important than he actually is.  At various times throughout the story, he brags about himself, calling himself a great salesman.  He says that he is known everywhere. In daydreaming of

The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.

Willy Loman, the central character in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a man whose fall from the top of the capitalistic totem pole results in a resounding crash, both literally and metaphorically. As a man immersed in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Willy Loman views himself as a victim of bad luck, bearing little blame for his interminable pitfalls. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to devastate his own life as well as the lives of those he loved; it was his distorted set of values.

In The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, it is argued weather that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. There are cases for both classifications of Willy. By definition, a tragic hero is a person born into nobility, is responsible for their own fate, endowed with a tragic flaw, and doomed to make a serious error in judgment. The tragic hero eventually falls from great esteem. They realize they have made an irreversible mistake, faces death with honor, and dies tragically. The audience also has to be affected by pity or fear for the tragic hero. In order for Willy Loman to be a tragic hero, he has to fulfill all of these descriptions. Willy Loman fits into some of

To what extent can Willy Loman be considered a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s rules?

    In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, Miller probes the dream of Willy Lowman while making a statement about the dreams of American society. This essay will explore how each character of the play contributes to Willy's dream, success, and failure.

  Willy Loman, the title character of the play, Death of Salesman, exhibits all the characteristics of a modern tragic hero. This essay will support this thesis by drawing on examples from Medea by Euripedes, Poetics by Aristotle, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, while comments by Moss, Gordon, and Nourse reinforce the thesis.

According to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, tragedies are best equipped to be based on a protagonist that is renowned and prosperous, so his good fortune can be dramatically changed. In contrast, Arthur Miller’s essay “Tragedy and the Common Man” states “that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings ever were.” He proves in his modern essay that the characteristics and emotions of the common man and the highly placed are entitled to be similar. Miller even identifies emotions of a average person and how they result in a better tragedy than those who are highly ranked. In his play “Death of Salesman” he demonstrates that the normal life of a sales man can still make for a great tragedy and that his protagonist, Willy Loman, is worthy of a tragedy.

Willy Loman, the troubled father and husband in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, can be classified as a tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle in his work, Poetics.

“Death of a Salesman” is a play written by Arthur Miller in the late 40’s that depicts the untraditional parts of the American family. The Loman’s were not the typical family that was usually seen in literature during this time period. Willy was a struggling salesman and his two sons were adults with failed careers. The Aristotelian definition of a tragedy is “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;... in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.” “Death of a Salesman” is a tragedy because Willy Loman, the main character, kills himself at the end of the novel. This is the one “serious” issue that the play focuses on. Another reason the this play is considered a tragedy is because the story is told in a very informal way that makes it very relatable for the reader. A tragic hero is a dramatic character who makes a personal choice that results in his or her downfall. Miller thinks that the “common man” makes the best tragic hero because a hero is someone who “is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity” (Miller). There are plenty of people in modern society who will give up everything to earn their place in society. Even though Willy Loman does not fit the classical model of the tragic hero, Willy Loman is in fact a modern day tragic hero

“Death of a Salesman” is a story of a man who wants to be a successful businessman and dreams of the same thing for his sons. The story goes on to explain how Loman’s hard work does not pay. In other words, today’s society is filled with people who do not get the credit they deserve for the “little things” they do in life. Loman is an example of 20th century people who resort to illusion in order to gain some dignity. The author, Arthur Miller, tells the story of a sales man who faces the end of his life without fulfilling his idealistic ambitions.