a prime example of hamartia in Greek tragedies while Miller’s Death of a Salesman incorporates modern tragedy. Both tragedies share the similar concept of downfall as Oedipus is a king who was born with undeniable fate and Willy is a salesman who fails to reach success. Blind faith is a tragic flaw that both Willy Loman and Oedipus acquire although they portray this flaw adversely though their excessive arrogance and perpetual ignorance. Retaining overbearing pride is a character flaw that restrains
individual without even realizing it. This is demonstrated in the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller which follows the story of a salesman named Willy Loman who struggles to balance reality with his dreams of becoming a very successful salesman. Throughout the play, Willy believes that he is the ideal salesman and constantly compares himself to his neighbour named Charley who is a very successful salesman compared to Willy. As a salesman, Willy tends to put his focus on things that he can or has achieved
freedom. As the economy and workforce grows, the number of jobs available decreases, causing struggle for middle class workers trying to make a living for their family. By the 1940’s, when Death of a Salesman takes place, the population in America is so great and innovative that it results in Willy, an insurance salesman in New York City, to fall behind in his work. Willy’s lack of fundamental business understanding and his family conditions keep him from succeeding, and because of this he commits suicide
to own—his supreme power, immeasurable wealth and high status. When Lear finds that his conceit is worthless, his sanity collapses, then the madness comes. By the way, the same situation also happens in another story. In The Death of Salesman, Willy is only a moral salesman. Although people around Willy never approve him, he makes up lies about his outstanding achievement in his business in front of his two sons all the time, “I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. ‘Willy Loman is here!’ That’s
philosopher, Aristotle, states that classical tragic heroes are the ones that are noble and has a strong pride and dignity to themselves. They will make a serious mistake that is unpredictable by them, and because of it, they will have a tragic ending, death. Aristotle said “A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” This means that classical tragic hero must learn from their mistake and fight against it. However, as history changed, the value towards tragic heroes has also
control of his fate and actively chooses to end his own life. Willy idealizes the proper death of a salesman, which is established during his speech to Howard, “what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? ... [Dave Singleman] died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford,
pride for being an Americanized citizen of Mexican decent. Having pride for your ethnicity, race, or culture is a valued trait but Mrs. Jimenez takes her arrogance to the next level. One of the first impressions of her hubris is when she corrects the salesman in the English pronunciation of her name. We may not witness how Mrs. Jimenez’s hubris directly affects her but her closed mind is certainly obvious to any reader. If her pride and arrogance should remain the same, she will inevitably
Salima in his arms...she dies...blackout” (Nottage 63). This ending is the opposite of cathartic, as the audience is left only with the information that Salima is dead. The whereabouts of all the other characters that played an integral role in the death of Salima are not revealed, and the story ends there. Lastly, the final point of a melodrama is that the hero is a good person in a bad situation. Salima was a wife and a mother, and Sophie was an eighteen year old girl; they were entangled in the