Preview

Death of a Salesman and the Tragic Hero: Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
632 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death of a Salesman and the Tragic Hero: Analysis
Just in Case “Tragic Hero” Isn’t Said Enough….. Way back in the history of time, a philosopher named Aristotle set up guidelines, six in all, for the perfect tragic hero. Vincent Van Gogh was a tragic hero. He had the gift of being able to paint and perceive colors different from others, but he was a drunk, and hated by most of the people around him. In the end he committed suicide. Long after his death people had come to love his work. Willy Lowman from “Death of a Salesman” is a wonderful model of the tragic hero Aristotle painted for us. Willy Lowman was a man trying to live out the American dream. Linda was his stay at home wife and he had two point five sons, Biff and Happy. He worked as a salesman to support his family, “I’m the New England man, I’m vital in New England” (pg. 163). He worked hard for thirty four years at the Wagner Company. His inspiration was Dave Singleman, a man who could go into a town, pick up a phone, and be able to place many orders without ever leaving his hotel room. When Singleman died, people from all over the country came to his funeral. Even though Willy was a hard working man, he still had qualities or faults that made him human: “Other men- I don’t know- they do it easier. I don’t know why- I can’t stop myself- I talk too much” (pg 180). Willy had simple and common human faults such as talking too much, speaking of frequent fatigue, and his constant lustful appetite. Willy found himself slowly not having enough money to suffice for his family. Each week he brought in less and less income. Willy’s ultimate downfall was he refused to come to reality; he was living in an illusion. He continuously flashed back throughout the play to when his sons were in high school, when his brother Ben visited, and when he was having an affair with a woman in another town. Willy wasn’t well-liked by the people he worked with, and he was borrowing money from his neighbor Charley to pay his insurance bill, even though Willy was too

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The characterisation of Willy is but one of Miller’s strengths in the play, for he cleverly uses time to show how Willy’s mind has been manipulated by the stress of his failings. Willy experiences flashbacks which his mind perhaps uses in order to protect him from the harsh truth of his present life. Willy’s two sons, Biff and Happy are fully grown, with Biff having turned sour towards his father and rejected the vision his father had for him. Still, Willy in his vulnerable state transports himself back to the time when Biff was a young, promising high school athlete who idolised his father and his ideals. Instead of encouraging academic achievement, Willy ensures his sons that if they are ‘liked’ they will ‘never want’. Sadly for both Willy and Biff, this was a delusion which saw Biff become the very…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the constant journey of life you are often under pressure. There is pressure to satisfy, pressure you put on yourself and the pressure that other people put on you. Throughout the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and the short story “Brother Dear” by Bernice Friesen, the characters find themselves facing these pressures on a daily basis. Both plotlines show how people can experience these pressures, for all different reasons, during various times in their life.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the span of the book, Willy attempts to take his life. Whatever motive was behind his actions, one presumes it is almost definitely related to Willy’s. But why? The audience must wonder what horrible thing pushes a man over the edge like that? For willy, his idea of success is unlike many others. He himself believed that he was an above average salesman. Yet, he never exactly “made it big”, much like an amateur actor in Hollywood. Willy never got his hollywood premier no matter how far he traveled or how hard he seemed to work for it.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people go through life without a purpose or doing a job they hate. In Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman thinks this isn’t the case for him. He is working the best job in the world, being a salesman, like his hero Dave Singleman. Dave Singleman still sells from his bed and Willy admirably thinks this is because he loves it. The real reason is because Dave never made enough to retire. However, Willy doesn’t know he is gravely mistaken and has failed to realize who he really is. This has caused him to instill these mistaken qualities in his sons, Biff and Happy. Willy’s lack of a father figure plays into his flaws such as obsession with money and hubris. He has had some virtues as well like putting his family first and working…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy had a few problems of his own. First he let himself get caught with his mistress by his son, which devastated him. He also acted like his sons were perfect, which they weren't. He should have made sure his son passed math so he could have graduated, but he put that into the hands of their next-door…

    • 630 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy dreams of the future in which he will be well-liked and achieve his goals of being rich and maintain his job. However, his mind is so involved in the past and longing for the future that he does not focus on the present reality. This causes his life to no longer be prosperous, leading to his hamartia. This consequently leads to Willy Lomans tragic death after the realization of the reality he has been avoiding. Willy’s enduring of the hamartia and anagnorisis due to his hubris leads him to be characterized as a tragic…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy’s inability to recognize the actual reality of his situation is first seen during the scene where Ben is introduced. In this scene, Ben tells of their father’s success as a salesman and his own rapid success with diamonds in Africa. As a result of this “interaction”, Willy believes that either he or his sons will have a similar kind of success. The confused man does not take into account that Ben happened to be extremely lucky…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This idea clouds his mind and is the catalyst to other mistakes Willy makes in his life. Willy is unable to provide for his family as a salesman because he is paid a very low wage, but he continues to pretend that he is very successful in his firm. Willy’s brother Ben told me he that Willy told him, “Business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me, of course” (Act 1) Willy’s former boss has also told me that Willy tried to convince him that Willy “averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions” (Act 2). Willy is convinced his sales are so remarkable that he fails to realize he is obviously not doing well enough in his job to support his family. Willy also tries to force his ideas of success on his children which causes conflict within his household. Biff, Willy’s son, does not want to be a salesman, but instead, wants to work on a farm. Willy does not believe that a man can be successful on a farm when in reality he would be able to provide for his family better than he is now if he did a more physically demanding job. Willy’s idea of success also gives him a false sense of pride. Willy is too prideful to take a job from his friend Charlie even though he constantly asks to borrow money to pay…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In most of his flashbacks, Willy describes them both as “liked, but not well liked”, inferring to his sons that they will not make it far due to the lack of popularity. Present day, Willy relies on Charley for his money every week. This samples Willy’s pride. During a game of cards, Willy is offered a job working for Charley. He is immediately offended, with a sense of jealousy for his success. Changing the subject, Willy gloats about putting up his own ceiling, which he claims every man should know how to do, even though he knows Charley does not. He tries to gain his lost pride back by finding a weakness of his friend. Like his father, Bernard’s success makes Willy’s dignity falter. When Bernard is asked for advice and the reasoning to why Biff never attended summer school, it shows how desperate he is for guidance. However, when he asks Bernard if it was him who caused this dismay, Willy is irritated at Bernard putting blame on him. He sees it as though his pride is deteriorating by the…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy started out as a lower middle-class workingman, and in the end, he ended up that same way. He believed wholeheartedly in the American dream of success and wealth, but he never achieved it. Neither one of his sons fulfilled his hope and dream that they would succeed where he had failed miserably. When his illusions of himself began to fail under the pressing reality of his actual conditions, Willy's mental health began to fall apart. The mental struggle with himself proved to be too much and…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy 's various roles cause him to lose touch of reality because they call for divergent moral ideologies. As a father, a husband, and a businessman, Willy becomes engulfed in the worlds of each role. Willy cares greatly for his struggling and dysfunctional family. For example, when tensions run high after Biff and Willy argue, the entire mood changes from uptight to optimistic when Happy suggests a family-run business in the future.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the play, Willy tries chasing "all the wrong dreams" (1947). Willy aspires to a man named David Singleman, a salesman who "died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers" (1894). Willy knows that David has become successful by being popular and this is what Willy does, except that the times have changed and 'business is business' (1915). This misguided ideology leads Willy to be a poor salesman who hardly makes enough money to support his family. Willy can't see the reality of this as he is too stubborn to accept that his whole life has amounted to very little. His success has always eluded him because he doesn't realize who he is. Willy isn't a good salesman, but more of a man who's "wonderful with his hands" (1947) Willy should've worked with his hands because natural building skills. He completed many complex building jobs around the house such as "[finishing] the cellar, ... the new porch, ... the extra bathroom, and [putting] up the garage" (1947) He is described as being the happiest outdoors with "a batch of cement" or seeds for their small garden. Willy couldn't realize what made him happy and what he was best at, and opted instead to follow a hollow dream of becoming a great salesman. When his fake dreams of wealth and fame started to crumble, Willy started losing control of his life and his mind. This forced Willy to raise wealth for his family by tragically ending his life.…

    • 774 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy’s main problem in the play was his blindness of his reality. Consequently, his life was going…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the play goes on, Willy begins to see himself as a failure in his job, as a father, and in his marriage. In his job, he makes sales calls and feels like he does not know anybody anymore and they do not know him. He used to travel to the same areas and people knew him and would buy from him. Now, he is getting very frustrated because he makes trips and comes back without selling anything. He also sees himself failing as a parent. Although Happy is somewhat successful, Willy sees Biff as pretty much a complete failure. It all starts when he fails math in High School and refuses to go to summer school. He has scholarships and can't use them because he did not graduate. He ends up working on a farm, but realizes that there is not much future in that line of work. Biff ends moving back home without a job. Willy feels like he is failing in his marriage because he has had an affair. He gives time and love to a woman other than his wife. He even…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays