IndexBibliographyPrimary sourcesSecondary sources Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman can be measured against Aristotle's notions of tragedy expressed in his Poetics, which involve a fall caused from hamartia and arrogance, and an eventual recognition and reversal of fortune, culminating in the audience's experience of catharsis. Despite this enduring model of tragedy, Willy Loman, the play's central character, is not necessarily a tragic hero in this sense and does not meet all of the above criteria. Arguably then, Miller presents a modern society in which tragedy has no place and, in fact, is not possible. On the other hand, this classical concept of tragedy is not appropriate for modern society, and other measures of the tragic, or a reinterpretation of tragedy, may be what Miller presents. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay A key feature of Aristotelian tragedy is a high-ranking tragic hero, who makes a mistake, hamartia, resulting in a fall from grace. Miller's play can be argued to affirm this unlikelihood of achieving high status in his works Death of a Salesman and All My Sons, as neither protagonist comes from a particularly high background. In Death of a Salesman, Linda makes clear Willy's inability to meet this need: "I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made much money. His name never appeared in the paper. the best character that ever existed is a human being (…) Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person”. “most democratic tragedy”. Willy may not be anything special, but he is a human being, and therefore the tragedy is our humanity and our ultimate insignificance " in the play, culminating in Willy's suicide, reveals the desire for "attention" in the capitalist socioeconomic system where monetary wealth measures a person's "greatness". Miller states the unlikelihood of achieving high status and precarious status , and ultimately unsatisfactory and irrelevant, awarded by the financial authority; this can be seen in Willy's suicide at the end of the show, despite the family having paid off the mortgage. However, the tragedy of the loss of individuality and therefore the inability to meet the Aristotelian criteria of tragedy is itself tragic. Miller reinvents the tragedy in a more complex modern form, moving between person and culture and examining their mutual influences (mimicking the tensions of democracy), thus reflecting the dangers of capitalism. Feminist critic Linda Kintz noted that Death of a Salesman offers "a nostalgic vision of the Poetics' universalized male protagonist plot", criticizing both the play's treatment of women and the very notion of Aristotelian tragedy as an inherently flawed drama . and limiting concept. Linda is marginalized by capitalist systems of power, which give her value and status, devaluing her. Furthermore, Linda is characterized as a submissive housewife, as made clear in Happy's response when she was hanging out the laundry: "What a woman!" They broke the mold when they made it." The mold of Aristotelian tragedy has been broken, yet both society and Miller inadvertently continue to assert the unlikelihood of truly "democratic" tragedy in modernity through the applicationof male value systems. The hamartia, or mistake, required in Greek tragedy, is often caused through arrogance, excessive pride, or confidence. Willy's character oscillates between self-delusion and self-assurance, making statements such as, "I'm not a dime!" I'm Willy Loman and you're Biff Loman!' This self-confidence is undermined by his use of an economic metaphor, highlighting the fact that he is indeed “eleven cents”, used and discarded by the capitalist system, and rendering his insistence unfounded. Although the naming process is often a moment of self-definition and power, as in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "This is I, Hamlet the Dane", the gradual fragmentation of Willy's mind and diminishing sense of self and grip on reality, cause these words of attempt to self-definition are meaningless. Miller himself commented: "But he was distressed by the knowledge that he was in a false position, so constantly haunted by the emptiness of all in which he had placed his faith, so aware, in short, that he had to. somehow be filled in his spirit or fly to pieces, who staked his very life on the ultimate statement. self-confidence in our family.” Willy thus tells a story of approval of his life. In a way, Willy can be seen as lacking in arrogance, as a self-delusional and pitiful character. Alternatively, his blindness and insanity can also be seen as a serious character flaw. In a way, Willy is depicted as a modern-day King Lear, with his blindness to reality causing him to descend into madness. However, his appeal to his boss, Howard, reveals a sharp criticism of capitalism: "You can't eat the orange and throw away the peel: a man is not a fruit!". This statement is strangely pathetic because of the tension between Willy's statements and his desperate request for work. Likewise, Willy's selfish image of his financial success and hero-worshipping children in the first act reveals his insecurity of failing to achieve the "American Dream." Schlöndorff's presentation of this scene in bright, gaudy colors in his 1985 film production of Death of a Salesman conveys the constructed and false nature of this daydream. Perhaps it is this ongoing tension between failed potential and reality, and the refusal to face the obvious truth, that is the source of Willy's hamartia as it embodies the literal translation of the word "missing the mark." This consequently causes the discretization of his character and his downfall. In fact, Willy literally fell, often found collapsed, on his knees, and "dejected". Matthew Roudané comments that "Miller presents no fewer than twenty-five scenes in which Willy's body language and dialogue create images of falling, falling, or the fallen." It is in a flashback, at the end of the scene where Biff discovers Willy's affair, that we are given the direction "Willy is left on the ground on his knees", a movement that is prophetic of the fall Willy will later suffer. The "unlikely possibility of tragedy" is clearer in Death of a Salesman due to the lack of obvious anagnorisis, and Willy appears to have no moment of true recognition or revelation. Although there is the inevitable realization that his dreams of success will not materialize, Willy remains disappointed throughout. In the last scene, the apparition of Ben appears, representing Willy's misconceptions about his worth and purpose, and culminating in the misguided sacrifice of his own life. Willy had an openly sentimental view of his own death: "Can you imagine the magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in your pocket?" (...) It's a lotSmart, you realize that, right darling?' In reality, Willy represents the inhuman, empty and perverse logic of the American dream. The inability to sell his products led to his failure to "sell himself", but his suicide for life insurance money is ultimately a delusional disregard for what he had: the love of his family. His perceived "magnificence" of monetary wealth is the result of his personal value being placed in a capitalist structure. If anything, the comedy's illumination comes from Biff, who comments that Willy "never knew who he was." This insight highlights the continued underestimation of Willyse himself, including his mistaken motives for suicide. Therefore, Willy has no anagnorisis and neither does he succeed in the individual pursuit of personal dignity and integrity that can be said to be characteristic of the modern tragic hero. Willy remains until his death "a man distracted from human needs by public myths", ignoring the true love and care of his family to pursue the illusion of the American dream. It can be said, however, that catharsis is present in Death. of a seller. The last lines of the work, in the Requiem, are "We are free... we are free..." by Linda. This "freedom" perfectly expresses the elimination of emotions felt at the end of the play, and even the characters themselves feel relief from the pressure of Willy's ideals, failures, and expectations. Parallel to this is the pity and fear evoked by Willy's suicide. Willy's struggle to find himself is universalized, as Miller comments: “I think Willy Loman is looking for a kind of ecstasy in life that machine civilization deprives people of. He is searching for his individuality, his immortal soul.' Sympathy for Willy's suffering, combined with the audience's acute fear of the possibility of experiencing it themselves, leaves a collected feeling of pathos and determination to avoid the same fate as the characters. The meta-theatricality of Willy's bad performance as a character in the role of salesman, constructed both by society and by himself, urges the audience not to live in bad faith. This is in line with Yeats's statement that "tragedy must always be the drowning and breaking of the banks that separate man from man." Catharsis therefore has a unifying effect, necessary in a modern and individualistic society, and technological "machine civilization" has an isolating effect. However, as Leech points out, Willy is not tragic in the Aristotelian sense, since "he is a victim of the American dream rather than of the human condition." While the themes of family cohesion and death are universal, the specific causes of Willy's tragedy and the audience's feelings of catharsis are based on the understanding of a specific, geographically localized socio-cultural and economic situation. Therefore, through catharsis, Miller affirms the capacity and need for tragedy in modern society, but a tragedy that is not Aristotelian in genre, rather a reimagined modern style of tragedy. Please note: this is just an example. Get a card customization now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay Ultimately, Death of a Salesman does not make the tragedy implausible. Instead, Miller encompasses both ancient and contemporary ideas of tragedy and tragic heroism. Although "the play embodies, for many, the peripeteia, hamartia and arrogance that Aristotle thought essential to all great tragedies", this too can be contested. Miller undoubtedly does not find them "essential": Willy Loman is a "short man" and his anagnorisis and peripeteia are delusions, not real realizations of his mistakes or greater truths. Death of a Salesman is a descent into construction and,.238-45.