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Tragic Hero in Arthur Miller’s Essay 'Tragedy and the Common Man' | Free Essay Sample - YouTube
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Tragic Hero in Arthur Miller’s
Essay 'Tragedy and the Common Man'
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Introduction
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A tragic hero is person who usually appears
in romantic literature. To make it clear,
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it should be mentioned that the play Death
of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is created
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in Romanticism genre as the main character has
visions which divide his life into two parts,
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real where Willy Loman and his sons
are unable to achieve success in sales,
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and unreal, where everything is great. Willy
Loman’s family got used that he talks to
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himself and do not react to this anymore.
There is a statement that Willy Loman is
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a tragic hero according to Arthur Miller’s
definition of what a tragic hero is in his
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famous essay Tragedy and the Common Man.
To make the situation clear, we are going
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to discuss the main features which confirm
the statement and make Willy a tragic hero.
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Willy Loman Is a Tragic Hero
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The essay Tragedy and the Common Man written by
Arthur Miller presents the main characteristics
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of a tragic hero in romantic literature.
One of the main features is the referencing
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of a hero to a common person. Miller states
that “the common man is as apt a subject for
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tragedy in its highest sense as kings were”.
Willy Loman is a simple person who used to
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work as a salesman, but due to age and
health problems he wants to settle less
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active life. This is the first argument which
proves that Willy Loman is a tragic hero.
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Arthur Miller also believes that a hero becomes
tragic when he is “ready to lay down his life,
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if need be, to secure one thing
– his sense of personal dignity”.
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This is exactly what has happened with Willy when
he got to know that all he was trying to reach
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(to make his children be successful by means
of making them good salespeople) was ruined,
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he did not manage to achieve this goal.
Thus, he understands that he is not a person,
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that he has not fulfilled his life goal. “Nothing
is planted. I do not have a thing in the ground”.
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Saying these words, Willy means that all his life
is spent in vain and there are no results of it.
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Willy understands that salesman is not the best
profession and his desire to sacrifice his life
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for the benefit of his family is nothing but the
desire to save his dignity and do not declare in
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public that all he has been planning was ruined.
This is the second argument in support of the
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idea that Willy Loman is a tragic hero.
Arthur Miller is sure that one of the
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main characteristics of a tragic hero in the
play is the understanding of the difference
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between real and unreal worlds. He says, “The
quality in such plays that does shake us,
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however, derives from the underlying fear
of being displaced, the disaster inherent
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in being torn away from our chosen image
of what and who we are in this world”.
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The main character is a tragic hero as he has
been torn away from the world of illusion where
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his sons are successful salespeople and has been
put in the reality where they have failed to
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become wealthy and have nothing to do.
He realizes that he was a bad father,
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except for the imaginary world where he was the
best. The tragedy of the hero is characterized
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by the fact that he was torn from his imaginary
world and put in cruel reality where his dreams
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were not realized. This is the third argument in
support of the fact that Willy was a tragic hero.
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Reading an essay Tragedy and the Common Man
by Arthur Miller, it is possible to state
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that concluding statement about a tragic hero
is exactly what can be seen in Willy Loman,
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a character of his play Death of a Salesman.
The author writes that the main essence of a
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tragic hero is “intent upon claiming his whole
due as a personality, and if this struggle
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must be total and without reservation, then it
automatically demonstrates the indestructible
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will of man to achieve his humanity”. This is the
main characteristic feature which shows Willy as a
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tragedy character, as searching for something in
his life, he has failed to become a personality.
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Conclusion
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To sum it up, it should be mentioned that
the ideas Arthur Miller presents in his
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essay Tragedy and the Common Man are perfectly
reflected in his play Death of a Salesman. The
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main character of the play, Willy Loman, is a
tragic hero as it is stated in the author’s essay.
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All the reasons the author provides in
the essay are confirmed by the character’s
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description in the play. It seems that
the author tried to reflect all this
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ideas about a tragic hero in Willy Loman to
show the reader that such characters exist.
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This essay on Willy Loman is a Tragic
Hero According to Arthur Miller’s Essay
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Tragedy and the Common Man was written
and submitted by user Vincent Brock to
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help you with your own studies. You
are free to use it for research and
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reference purposes in order to write your own
paper; however, you must cite it accordingly.
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