Willie Loman as a Tragic Hero

Aristotles definition for a sad numbfish sandwich is single who is not in control of his aver condemn, solely instead is ruled by the gods in angiotensin-converting enzyme fashion or another. The tragical numbfish for Aristotle is tragic because of their lack of control or will in the face of their predetermined future and downfall. In comparing Arthur Millers tragic hero of demolition of a Salesman (Willy Loman) and his seeming lack of control in his own fate.This paper will expound upon Lomans tragic flaw, his change of fate in the plot starting from good and going to worse. Also, in delimitate and finding the correct terms in which to define the tragic hero Loman has a bulky tragic flaw (hamartia) which is his devil may disquiet attitude at the beginning of the story, to the despondency and stagnation of hope that meets him at the demise of the story. Millers work analysis will be derived from Greg Johnsons book Perrines literature structure, sound and sense. As Ar p and Johnson state,Where tragic whiz possess overpowering individuality so the plays argon often named by and by them. (i.e. Oedipus Rex, Othella), comic acquaintance tend to be types of individuals, and the plays in which they appear are often named after the type, (i.e. Moliers, The Miser, Congreves, The Double Dealer). We test tragic protagonist by absolute moral standards, by how far they soar above society. We judge comic protagonist by social standards, by how well they queue up to society and conform to the expectations of the group (1308)This is the dichotomy for Willy Loman, the tragic irony, the drama, and Willy Lomans protagonist stance in a comic viewing.As John Jones (1962) states in On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy with an excerpt from Aristotles The Ideal tragical Hero,The well constructed plot essential, therefore, have a single issue, and not (as nearly maintain) a double. The change of fortune must not be from pernicious to good but the other focussing ro und, from good to bad and it must be caused, not by wickedness, but by some great error hamartia on the part of a man such as we have described, or of one better, not worse, than that (13).This excerpt is the pivotal hunting expedition that changes Loman from a man who has hard luck, to the pinnacle of being a tragic hero in which he suffers from hamartia. For Willy Loman, his reality isnt primarily attributed to swelled head he receives where he is, what he is, but his tragic flaw is accounted for in the setfall of banal acceptance. Willy Loman doesnt try to change anything, but is caught up in mediocrity, and essentially blind to anything with a silver lining. As Harold visor (1991) writes in Willy Loman with an excerpt by Thomas Lask and his writing How Do You standardized Willy Loman ( parvenue York Times, January 1966),Yet, to my mind, Willy represents all those who are trapped by false values, but who are so far on in conduct, that they do not do how to escape them. The y are men on the wrong track and know it. They are among those who, when young, felt they could move mountains and now do not make up see those mountains. Aristotle said the tragic hero must be neither all good nor all evil, but rather a median(prenominal) figure. Everything about him is paltry except his battle to understand and escape from the pit he has dug for himself. In this battle he achieves a appreciate of greatness. In the waste of his life, his fate touches us all (60).In Willys acceptance of his own commonness is his own personal flaw. He doesnt strive to be any better but allows himself to dully, and almost dutifully accept that hes a dime a dozen. Susan C. W. Abbotson (1999) states in Understanding Death of a Salesman, Pursuing the dream of middle-class condition and success, Willy does everything he thinks a good salesman is supposed to do. He smiles, he tells jokes, he hustles women receptionists. But Willys talents are ordinary at best, and his value in the gro cery store is marginal (212). This is Willys great error.His mediocrity is a compromise to his at a time great dreams. Even in the common mans knowledge base he doesnt stand out as unique or special his flaw is in his power to be unperceivable. No one seems to care in his existence and for Willy Loman, this realization in turn makes him not care about his own existence in a way, toward the end of the play at least, when his hope is close to banished. This small sentiment raft be found in a few muttered lines from Willy, Ive unendingly tried to think otherwise, I guess. I always felt that if a man was impressive, and well uniform, that nothing-(97). This sums up Lomans fate his drowning enthusiasm match against an uncaring cast of characters.With Oedipus this is the same his tragic hero term is ensured by his unwillingness to exist as a partial man without conditioned his origins, without knowing his true identity. While Loman is realizing that he has no identity he thus bec omes a tragic hero, for Oedipus when he discovers his true identity, therein lies his status as a tragic hero. He realizes his ego got in the way of his life. His ego was his ruin.Willy Lomans view of the world breaks when he loses his job. Loman faces the world as no ordinary common man but also an invisible entity left to make no difference on the face of the public while Oedipus is bereaved of his position and would rather not have lived (or seen what he had accomplished) because of the things he has done. As Arthur Miller states in Perrines Literature,Whoever heard of a Hastings small R refrigerator? Once in my life I would like to own, something outright before its broken Im always in a race with the junkyard I just spotless paying for the car and its on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a Goddamn maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally stipendiary for them theyre used up (1586).This is the truth behind the tragic hero Loman. The paradox for Loman as a tragic hero is in Aristotles definition of a tragic hero hes ill-omened to failure.In conclusion, Loman began his story with an aplomb of luck, or ego, or a rosy-colored view of the world, and his story ends with destruction Loman is hit by a car. The connotation here is that Loman was blind in the beginning of Millers play, but not really in the second act. Loman has dwindling faith in himself and reality. Loman survived in life under false pretences, thus he suffers from his one flaw blindness.Works CitedArp, Thomas R & Greg Johnson. Perrines Literature Structure, dependable and Sense. Heinle & Heinle /Thomson Learning, 2002, 8th edition.Bloom, Harold, ed. Willy Loman. New York Chelsea House, 1991.Hamilton, Victoria. Narcissus and Oedipus The Children of Psychoanalysis. London Karnac Books, 1993Jones, John. On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy. New York Oxford University Press, 1962.Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin Books, New York, 1949.Murphy, Bre nda, and Susan C. W. Abbotson. Understanding Death of a Salesman A disciple Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1999.Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone. Ed. David Greene and Richmond Lattimore. Random House, New York, 1942.