FREE ESSAY ON DEATH TO A SALESMAN

DEATH TO A SALESMAN

Death to a Salesman 
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.