and hamartia; a tragic flaw and the mistakes caused by it. Hubris
traditionally means a form of arrogance or pride and this trait is certainly
present in Willy: “Call out the name Willy Loman and see what
happens!” This excessive pride means that Willy believes himself
capable of accomplishing the American Dream to the point of delusion;
he cannot accept failure and becomes unhealthily obsessed, leading to an
inevitable downward spiral. Indeed, it is Willy’s pride that prevents him
from taking on Charley’s job offer: “ I got a job…what the hell are you
offering me a job for?…I got a good job.” Willy’s repetition indicates that
he is trying to convince not only Charley, but himself of the idea. Deep
down, he realises that he is in trouble, but his pride makes it impossible
for him to accept any help. Unfortunately, it is probable that if Willy had
agreed to Charley’s offer, he would not have ended up committing
suicide. In this way, Willy contributes to his own downfall, which
conforms to Aristotle’s dictum that the tragic hero’s fate must be partly
their own fault.
Furthermore, it is generally accepted that a tragic hero’s actions should
evoke catharsis in the audience at the end of the play. As Arthur Miller
suggests, “the tragic feeling” is brought on “by a character who is ready
to lay down his life, if need be, to secure on thing, his sense of personal
dignity.” 6 Certainly, Willy’s suicide can be seen as an act of extreme
bravery and selflessness, if it is viewed in light of Willy’s hope to set up
his family for life with the insurance money: “I see it like a diamond,
shining in the dark, hard and rough…” Willy’s comparison of his suicide
to a diamond suggests that he believes it will produce something concrete
for his family in the form of materialistic success, which the diamond is
symbolic of. This self-sacrifice undoubtedly induces fear and pity
amongst audiences and can be seen as a catharsis-evoking act due to this,
thus supporting the notion of Willy as a tragic hero.
Of course, there are many counterarguments to dispute the idea that
Willy is a tragic hero. With respect to the classical tragedy form, the
structure should end with an understanding and resolution on the tragic
hero’s part. An example of this is Othello’s realisation that he had been
fooled into a jealous rage by Iago, leading to the murder of Desdemona,
when he speaks of himself as “one that loved not wisely, but too well.” He
recognises his hamartia. Contrary to this, Willy dies just as disillusioned
as ever, clutching on to his skewed values until the end: “Can you
imagine that magnificence with twenty-thousand dollars in his pocket?”
He never questions his blind vision of material success; indeed his hopes
for Biff are all centred around the same dream that proved so empty for
him. On top of this, the values he holds on to are shallow because hi
struggle is for material gain and recognition; he does not strive for truth
or honour for example. Although it could be said that Shakespeare’s
Hamlet possesses similar faults at the beginning of the play, he manages
to outgrow them. Willy on the other hand, never does. In this way, Willy
Loman does not fit this particular aspect of a tragic hero.
It could also be argued that Willy Loman is a victim of capitalist society;
in particular the American Dream. One of the elements of “Death of a
Salesman” that supports this notion is the setting itself. Miller describes
the salesman’s house as “fragile” surrounded by “towering, angular
shapes” (symbols of capitalism), yet “an air of the dream clings to the
place.” With the use of lighting, many directors allow the stage to
gradually become more claustrophobic, until the house is so consumed
with the apartment buildings it appears suffocating. Of course, this
physical aspect of the play runs parallel to Willy’s decline; he becomes so
consumed with his warped version of the American Dream to the point
where it kills him. In this way, Miller immediately manages to link both
the notion of imminent tragedy and the American Dream together. To put
it into context, Miller was writing during a time of post-war economy,
when American confidence, prosperity and security was high. The
playwright’s criticism of an obscure American Dream, that no longer
encouraged people to “be recognised for who they are, regardless of the
fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”7 , was therefore quite a
radical challenge to make at the time, as unlike nowadays, people did not
constantly self-analyse on a national and individual level. The dream is
the villain of the play. Willy’s desperate nocturnal attempt to grow
vegetables in the garden further compounds to this idea, as it signifies not
only his shame at not being able to provide for his family, but also
symbolises the concept that pursuing the dream is a fruitless affair
altogether.
Consequently, if the American Dream is the villain, Willy Loman cannot
be deemed a typical tragic hero because it is the society he lives in that
predetermines his downfall from the very beginning. Some critics have
even gone as far as saying that “Death of a Salesman” cannot be deemed
a true tragedy because of this, but rather a “social drama” 8 according to
Brenda Murphy. This is because it is questionable as to whether Willy
Loman has any control over his destiny at all, as although he is in
command of his body and actions, the American Dream has polluted his
mind to such an extent that he can barely grasp reality. Indeed, his
frequent hallucinations at inappropriate moments emphasise this: “Pull
myself together! What the hell did I say to him? My God, I was yelling at
him!” Also, Miller often uses language through out the play to
foreshadow Willy’s death: “these arch supports are killing me…”, “tired
to death” etc. It is almost as if Willy is predicting his own ends; he is
precariously ready to drop or give up on life throughout many sections of
the play. This self-pity is not an admirable quality and is therefore more
befitting to a victim than a tragic hero.
Interestingly, another interpretation of Willy’s character is that he is a
tragic villain. This is because he selfishly disregards the dreams of his
family in order to fulfil his own. Biff, for example, is not a businessman
at heart and is content with the simple necessities of life (“Why am I
trying to become what I don’t want to be?”). However, his father
constantly makes him feel guilty about this and frequently refers to him
as a “lazy bum”. Also, in declining Charley’s job offer Willy Loman casts
his family’s needs aside because it does not live up to his ideal job.
Although the term “villain” may be a bit harsh, it is certainly true that the
shortcomings of his personality make Willy a harder character to
sympathise with than Sophocles’s Oedipus for example. In this way he
could be considered neither a hero nor a victim, because a tragic victim
generally needs to arouse high compassion amongst audiences.
To conclude, it seems as if the character of Willy Loman is most
accurately described as an “anti-hero”. This is because, although he is
the protagonist of the play, he lacks many of the traditional qualities of a
true tragic hero; Miller has subverted this stereotype in creating Willy
Loman. More importantly however, audiences would certainly not wish t
to be like him in any way, although there are undoubtedly aspects of
Willy’s personality that we can relate to. As Joyce Carol Oates suggests:
“For all his delusions and intellectual limitations…Willy Loman is all of
us. Or, rather, we are Willy Loman, particularly those of us who are
writers, poets, dreamers; the yearning soul “way out there in the blue.”1
Nevertheless, Willy does still possess some of the attributes of Aristotle’s
typical tragic hero as previously mentioned, which means he cannot be
considered a total victim either. The only certainty is that critics will
continue to ponder over Willy Loman’s character for years to come.
Bibliography:
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Oates, Joyce Carol. ‘Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman’, Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall 1998.
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Moss, Leonard. ‘Arthur Miller’, 1967.
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Salitt, D. ‘The Character of Willy Loman’, 2000.
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Swietek, F. ‘Death of a Salesman: Tragedy?’, 2003.
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Carson, Neil. ‘Arthur Miller’, New York Grove Press,1982.
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Miller, Arthur. ‘Tragedy and the Common Man’, 1949.
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Adams, James Truslow. ‘Epic of America’, 1931.
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Murphy, Brenda. ‘The Tradition of Social Drama’,1997.