Was Willy Loman a tragic hero or not?

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                                                                        Nikesh Kumar                                                                         1/23/03                                                                         Period 3                             Was Willy Loman a tragic hero or not?         Arthur Miller” Death of a Salesman is considered one of the great tragedies, yet it does not apply to the given definition of tragedy. A tragedy is a drama that recounts an important and casually related series of events in the life of a person of significance, such events culminating in an unhappy catastrophe, the whole treated with great dignity and seriousness. The purpose of a tragedy is to arouse the emotions of pity and fear and thus to produce in the audience a catharsis (a proper purgation or cleansing of the emotions of gear and pity by vicariously participating in the actions of the hero and learning through his experiences and mistakes) of these emotions. In this play
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by Miller, Willy is the main character, but cannot be considered a tragic hero, according to the definition. Certainly, Willy is a victim of his own tragic flaw, but is not a person of significance, does not have outside forces bring him down, and he does not face his destiny with courage rather self pitying whimpers.                                                                                 First, Willy Loman definitely has character flaws that had a big part in his downfall. As his name implies, he is a `low man', an ordinary man, whose dreams and expectations have been shattered by the false values of the society he has put ...

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