Who Is Willy A Tragic Hero

American playwright Arthur Miller wrote the play, Death of a Salesman in 1949. The play’s narrative is about an ordinary salesman who has the dream of becoming both rich and popular. The Ancient Greek defines a tragic hero as a superb character of noble birth within a tragedy whose downfall eventually leads to his hamartia (Donovan, n.d.). In this case, Willy is not a great man and thus does not fit into the classic definition of a tragic hero.

Considered as an ordinary man, Willy’s fall is attributed to hamartia, which is in line with the Aristotle view of a tragic hero. Aristotle also asserts that a tragic hero is characterized by hubris (excessive pride or ignorance) and anagnorisis, which implies that a tragic hero recognizes his tragic flaw as regards his situation (Donovan, n.d.). Moreover, that the viewers need to empathize with the tragic hero regardless of the hero’s flaws. From this description of a tragic hero by Aristotle, it is evident that Willy cannot be considered a tragic hero, but instead, may be considered as more of a contemporary tragic hero (Miller, 1974).

Hamartia and hubris caused Willy’s downfall. Willy’s desire is to realize the American dream, but consequently, his tragic mistake of overweening pride,
Willy sees himself as a failure and he gets overwhelmed. His failure become too many for him to deal will and he sees suicide as the only solution. Willy thinks that by committing suicide he will, in his own way, compensate his wife for the affair by her receipt of insurance money, and thus finally become a success (Miller, 1949). Willy also believes that his wife will think of him as a martyr and thus respect him after seeing the big funeral and countless mourners that he is sure will attend his burial. Consequently, Willy intentionally killed himself in a car