Many Definitions of Tragedy State That the End of the Play Should Offer a Sense of Hope. Starting from: “Pop, I’m Nothing! I’m Nothing, Pop. Can’t You Understand That?” to What Extent Do You Consider the End of ‘Death

‘Death Of A Salesman’ is mainly told from Willy Loman, who’s the main protagonist’s perspective. Loman is a classic example of an anti-hero. Willy does not have courage on a grand scale; he is a small man but has heroic qualities about him – such as being courageous and ambitious. The play ‘Death Of A Salesman’ itself, is fairly ambitious because in its simplistic form it is a play about an everyday event – a man with a job but the play as a whole is about finding who you are and to question your place in the world. Although, ‘Death Of A Salesman’ is a domestic tragedy; it has elements of an epic tragedy.

With the stage direction: ‘At the peak of his fury’ showing how passionate Biff is getting, another reading could be that Biff is angry that he has wasted so many years of his life trying to find who he is and he has now realised that none of that mattered, because he is no different to everyone else, Biff says: “Pop, I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop. Can’t you understand that?” On the surface, this outburst from Biff seems extremely negative; he seems to be depressed and feeling sorry for himself, this is emphasised by the repetition of the world ‘nothing.’ However, this is ironic because actually what Biff is saying is very positive and good news for the rest of the Loman family; because they will be confident knowing Biff will not follow in Willy Loman’s footsteps and end up killing himself. Biff has had a moment of realisation – that he is not a big businessman, and does not belong in the capitalist system, that he is just the same as anyone else. Biff having a moment of recognition breaks the conventions of a tragedy, as it is usually the tragic hero, who in this play is Willy Loman, who has a moment of recognition. This is further reiterated earlier on when Biff says “Pop! I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” This suggests that Biff recognizes again that he is ordinary and that he is finally free of expectations, but Biff’s freedom is only gained at