Willy Tragic Hero

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s character, Willy Loman, is desperately trying to achieve the unattainable American Dream. Throughout the play, Willy encounters many challenges that have derailed his course and his perseverance drives him and his family insane.

Death of a Salesman also reflects the dominant ideology, however, in this case the play is written from the point of view of the working class. It is evident that the dominant class influences the main characters in the text, but they are largely ignored in the play. Willy Loman, the protagonist in the play, is a worn out travelling salesman on the point of a breakdown. Willy Loman’s dreams consist and have always consisted entirely of being “well liked”. Being a salesman is Willy’s idea of the easiest way to becoming well-liked and remembered throughout the entire country. However, when he

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

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller concerns itself with the fall of a simple man perpetually in a steadfast state regarding his own failure in a success-driven society. The protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, will follow a tragic trajectory that will eventually lead to his suicide. Arthur Miller's tragic play is an accurate portrayal of the typical American myth that sustains an extreme craving for success and a belief in the illusion of the American dream, a dream attainable only by a handful of people. Having chosen a career in sales Willy Loman constantly aspires to become

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must be looked up to. While society may not, Willy’s family looks up to him which makes him a tragic hero. Willy is the sole provider of his family. While they do struggle financially, he has managed to make ends meet. His children, like Biff, look up to him. In Willy’s flashbacks Biff aspires to be like his father when he grows up. His family also sees him has a kind and noble person, even though he is lying much of the time. For example, his wife, Linda, feels he is loyal even though he has had an affair, and always makes excuses for his faults. In short, a tragic hero is revered by those around him and in this case, Willy’s family thinks highly

Death of a Salesman is a classic play that displays an array of old-fashioned based characters. Willy Loman, who is indeed the main character, carries out a career as a salesman in distress. Willy’s family is a typical nuclear family where gender roles are heavily followed. Therefore, Willy is under stress to abide by the rule that men must work and women must stay at home. His father died early which may have shaped a lot of his personality and views on life.

Arthur Miller’s play Death of A Salesman demonstrates the life of a man facing troubles within himself and society. A tragedy is the imitation of an action that arouses fear and pity. This play could be considered a tragedy because it depicts the downfall of a perfect family and outlines the deterioration of a man’s life. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is someone who exemplifies great importance or heroic qualities; however, Arthur Miller views the tragic hero as someone who struggles heroically with life. Using Arthur Miller’s definition, it can be determined that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. Even though Willy Loman does not fit the classical view of a tragic hero, he is in fact a modern day tragic hero because of his error in judgment, a reversal of fortune, and his excessive pride.

Willy wasnt all bad, he was just a confused man with alot of problems. His problems begin with not being able to make it to Yonkers on his trip around New England. Willys has been on the road most of the time for thirty four years. Hes physically and mentally drained. The reader cant help but sympathize with Willy as no one wants to end up in the position hes in. Willy has to borrow money from his next door neighbor to

The elements of a tragic hero include: flaw or error of judgment (hamartia), a reversal of fortune for the hero, a discovery or recognition, excessive pride, and the character's fate must be worse than deserved. Willy shows almost all of those characteristics, and I'm here to tell you why. Willy has several flaws to choose from but they all come down to a fundamental flaw, the fatal flaw which lead to his death. The basic flaw of Willy Loman's life is centered around the way he thinks and can be summarized in one word: denial. He is always preoccupied with his own dreams and desires, so much so that he denies and ignores anything

Would you sacrifice yourself for your family? Thou out the play Willy shows what a tragic hero is by showing all of the traits Peripeteia, Hubris, Anagnorisis, and Catharsis. To a large extant Willy is a tragic hero.

Arthur Miller begins his play with an excellent description of the setting of the play. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves actually watching the play and causes the reader to be able to better relate to the play. Because Death of a Salesman can be considered an emotional play, it qualifies as being a timeless work of literature, especially because it has the ability to touch the human heart. Willy Loman is a salesman, who lives in New York City with his wife Linda. From the beginning of the play, Miller makes it obvious that Willy struggles with many obstacles, such as anger and even confusion since there are many times throughout the play where Willy becomes severely confused. Many characters throughout the play,

  In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy is depicted as living in his own world. The play centers around the end of Willy’s life, when the real world comes crashing through, ruining the false reality he had created for himself and his family. Throughout the play, Willy Loman uses the concept of being well liked to build a false image of reality, as shown through his teachings to his son, what he considers successful, and his reasoning for committing suicide.

On the contrary, we are not immediately introduced to this delusional, flaky character. At the beginning of scene one, we see the more assertive side of Willy as he discusses business possibilities with his wife Willy. Miller balances out the audience's perception of Willy towards the end of the act where the more vulnerable side of Willy is illustrated, with the use of his behaviour and the response of others to his attitude. An example of this would be Linda diligently agreeing with Willy's strange statements. One of Willy's traits which qualify him as a hero is his eternal sacrifice, and the way that he throws everything into the balance in order to secure his rightful place in society, and to live the American Dream.

Willy’s obsession with success leads to the start of him living in his own fantasy world. He lives in the past, for there was hope for him then, but now he is completely subject to failure. Willy’s demise could have been avoided had he changed his dream, and had he not conformed to society. In the end his dream did not pay off, and he ultimately fell victim to the American Dream, and the deceitful ideals of freedom that factored into the

More than that, he wanted to become that man that he admired who died “the death of a salesman” in his “green velvet slippers” whose funeral garnered many loving friends and family (Miller 81). Audiences can relate as they too have had an idol in their head that they have aspired to become. Seeing the aspirations of Willy warrants pity in the audience when they see what a failure Willy Loman becomes. Failure is what consumes Willy. He understands that that is his life. But in his deep deluded mind twisted with broken memories and false hopes he can never truly accept it. He never has that point of discovery that a tragic hero does. Willy Loman never realizes the doom waiting for him at the end of his downward spiral. Even his attempts at suicide, and finally his one successful one, were misguided and were attempts to become something greater. No one shows up at the funeral besides his family. He is not great like a tragic hero. Willy Loman is a nobody, he is only a tragic hero to himself, just like everyone in the audience. Everyone sings the song of their own tragedy . That is the American tragedy. Everyone is the American tragic hero with their own tragedy. Arthur Miller captures the Average man with the average family and average dreams, living an average life with no gain in the end.