Is Willy Loman a tragic hero?

     A tragic play is a serious play with a tragic theme, often involving a heroic struggle and the downfall of the main character. It is important that I understand this term before any analysis is carried out on Willy Loman to determine whether or not he is a tragic hero. Now I can judge Arthur Millers character in depth, and try to establish whether or not Willy is, or isn’t a tragic hero.

    Death of a Salesman is a story that strives for a goal that is socially based, with problems along the way. Willy has to deal with these problems realistically, which lead to real outcomes, so therefore Death of a Salesman is a tragic play. Plays always revolve around the main character, so Willy’s life must be tragic for the play to be categorised as this. This is the general point for Willy’s life being seen in this way, but analysis into the book has to be carried out to back this up.  

    Willy Loman, who is the main character in “The story of the door”, is an aging salesman, who suffers from depression as a result of his career disappearing in front of him. As well as this, Willy’s relationship between his family starts to disintegrate as he feels so much guilt due to the affair that he had in the past. As the play progresses, and even more pressure is put upon Willy, he starts to lose the ability to distinguish between the present and his memories of the past, which is tragic as he can no longer be the amazing salesman he wishes to be whilst in this state of mind.

    I believe that Willy can be seen to come across as the tragic hero as he goes through many events in the play which portrays him in this way. The fact that he is the only character throughout the book which cannot see how unrealistic his aims are in life is tragic; this is the result of being dedicated to live the American dream. The American Dream is the idea that many Americans are united in; it is the thought that an ideal life could be achieved in result of hard work, courage and determination. I believe that this is the root of Willy’s determination and is what he dreams of, which definitely brings his downfall instead of the success which he longs for.  As the idea of the “American Dream” is so idealised, Willy never feels that he has enough as he can never live up to the expectations that are close to impossible to achieving, this boldly shows that Willy is in a tragic state.

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    “Death of a Salesman” was wrote in 1949, and the world that Miller lived in could have influenced him to write this play as the depression still influenced play writers such as Miller to write plays in this genre. The depression was a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment. This is exactly what makes Willy feel inadequate as he can’t pay his bills due to him not having a high paid job, and not having a job at all later on in the play. He does lie to Linda ...

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