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,ragic as he t upon Willy, he startsof the door,ut to back this up.sed, with problems along the way, that Willy has t 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."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 about his wages, and because of his pride he starts borrowing fifty pounds a week from Charley just to show his family that he has earned some money, this breakdown is communication and feeling worthless in his job is undeniably tragic. I believe that many people would be able to relate to this at the time, as well as today, and people can see the tragedy that it brings to Willy's life.The life of Willy Loman is seen in stages throughout the play, and can be related to Greek theatre as these stages are similar. The protagonist in a Greek theatre production takes a fall through their own actions; this then leads to a death, followed by a requiem, the requiem summarises the character and is usually the end of the play. I personally think that this play is written upon the same basis, as Willy's downfall is the break down in communication with his family, and the loss of his job, he then commits suicide, and the play finishes at the requiem. These steps are used by Miller as he knows that these stages, combined with the characters that he has created would result in success as the audience will be able to connect with the circumstances of the play, and maybe even relate to a character and feel what they are feeling.
In certain parts of the play, Willy is seen as vulnerable as he is so desperate to be successful; this leads to him living in the past, time and time again. I think that he uses the past as a drug because when times get hard he goes back to the past, when he was most successful. Today, people either drink alcohol or smoke a cigarette in replace of this, but I believe that both methods are very similar, the difference in methods could be because Willy has a unique personality or because of the different era that we live in.One of the many times that Willy lives in the past is when he relives the time that Bernard, tells Willy that Biff is failing math and will not pass his exams unless his scores improve. In this last scene, Willy listens but doesn't take much thought about the important news because Biff is "well-liked," and Bernard is not.
I think that this shows off Willy's thoughts, which are that "as long as you are popular, you will be successful" and because this is what Willy wants for Biff he isn't to concerned about him failing maths. I do think that this shows Willy as a tragic hero as he is trying to be a hero as he wants his son to be successful and popular, but the tragedy is that he is showing Biff that he could fail maths and that his education is not important, as long as he is popular, in my view making Willy a tragic hero.The flute that frequently plays in the play is a motif of his father, (as one of Willy's memories is that his father played the flute) and shows that he does miss him and the lack of the guidance he now receives due to his father not being alive. I think that the good views about his father combined with the American dream apply more pressure to Willy to become successful, as he feels he owes it to his dad, as he feels that he did reach the goals that he dreams of.
Not only was his dad successful, but so was his brother Ben. When Willy is talking to Ben on page 40, Ben tells Willy that he "walked into the jungle, and then at the age of 21, walked out rich", this encourages Willy to try even harder to achieve his goals as he doesn't want to be the only unsuccessful person in his family, adding more tragedy to Willy's life, as it becomes even harder to achieve his unachievable aims.Tragedy is portrayed when Willy is unable to separate memories of Linda from the Woman he had an affair with. He describes the woman when talking to Linda, so Linda is non the wiser, but is definitely tragic as Willy can no longer determine the woman he loves, whether that be because of old age or because he is so confused in his own life that he cannot separate his own family from people he barely knows. This affair is the reason for the anguish between Biff and his father as Biff sees Willy having the affair, and can no longer have real conversations with his dad as he feels as though he is betraying his mother when he does so, again, the breakdown in family conversation does show tragedy.
Willy is often seen muttering to himself or whistling throughout the play, he does this to distract himself from the world that surrounds him, as he doesn't want to face it when things aren't going how he planned them to. I think that this shows that he is vulnerable and he has got holes in his life that he needs to fill. The fact that the audience watch what is happening in several rooms at a time is unique, but there are many holes in the set that have two purposes. Firstly it is a symbol of Willy's life not being complete, and that it is starting to collapse, the second is that it shows the audience whether or not Willy is living in the past or present as the characters use these holes to move from one room to another, when Willy isn't living in the present, taking no notice of any boundaries. Whilst the characters go through the doors when Willy is living in the present, this is to make sure that the audience follow the play and can see that Willy's life becomes even more tragic after these reminiscences, as he has been putting the present on hold.
When Willy needs someone to blame, or someone to ask questions to, he turns to the made up character that is known as his brother Ben. He confides in Ben and often looks towards him to give him confidence and reassure him that he is doing a good job at raising his two sons, even though deep down he knows he isn't. For example Ben says "William, you're being first-rate with your boys. Outstanding, manly chaps!" He has made up this character because he has too much pride to talk to anyone, including his wife about the upbringing of his boys, but does need someone to boost his confidence.
He doesn't want to be seen as a weak father figure, as he dreams for success in every aspect of his life, which is tragic as this will never become reality.The fact that Willy commits suicide, (which is a real life consequence) with the money in mind is tragic. He gave up his life because he hated being seen as unsuccessful, and not having much money to his name. He thought that if he died he could end this thought that everyone had of him. I believe that the good thing that came from Willy's death wasn't the money for his family, but was the freedom that Lomans now had, as the man who was living in a different era was no longer there to bring everyone down, and cause conflict within the family. I think that this is very tragic as Willy was never able to achieve his goals, and was only able to provide for his family by committing suicide.
evelI think that Miller is trying to tell his audience that the "American Dream" can be a depressing issue and can engulf people in their own goals as there is no end to the dream. It can lead people such as Willy to denial, and feeling worthless as the goals can be set so high, which can result in having a tragic impact on your life.I believe that Willy is so desperate to be a hero. Willy ignores and repeatedly thinks about a variety of events to block out the negative things that this era, which he is not suited to, brings to his life. Whilst he ignores these events, his life becomes more tragic day by day until he can't cope, because it has dawned on him that he will never be a hero unless he leaves his family in peace, which is obviously tragic. So my answer for "Is Willy Loman a tragic hero?" would be yes he is, as he goes through many tragic stages until he feels that he could be a hero by committing suicide and leaving some money to his family.
