Willy Loman a Tragic Hero - Essay Example

Willy Loman – a tragic hero In death of a sales man, Willy Loman, the main character has a complicated and an intriguing tragic character. The principles that he grew up and believes in, the society does not value them any longer. He struggles to hold onto them against the society. His foolish pride, poor judgment, and disloyalty, is equally to blame as the society is to for all his misfortunes .He believes firmly in the American dream. He also believes that all men can equally come from humble beginning rising to greater heights. He particularly argues that a man can succeed by telling people his ideologies and that he should let people know clearly his personality. He was on the idea that, if people like your personality, then you are on the right track and this is the greatest asset any man can have. For 30 years, he made his livelihood out of this. However, as he grew older, people started to grow cold towards him. This was a big blow because he could no longer sell anything to them. Therefore, he could no longer support himself. He aspired to be great. That is, working hard and be a high profile member of the firm. His problem started when he discovered that he could not sell to the end of his life just because he did not earn their love. He also realized that people might not come to his burial to pay their last respect. In the play, Willy and his family were in the sorry state because of his several faces of his personality. The main one was his foolish pride. This makes him a tragic hero. One of his problems was the way he brought up the boys. He never considered qualifications as one of the tool a man should have in order to succeed. He taught them that as long as people like them, there is no need to worry. They will always succeed. There is a point he misses; ordinary men get reach either through hard working as shown by Ben, or by good luck as shown by Ben. Willy did not always get it when it you talk of luck. Children grow up following their primary role models. The boys grew believing all that their father taught them. They followed his example as a sales person. Biff did not fully follow his father’s instructions. He realized earlier that his father’s values could not be applicable in his life. He did not care anyway to be on top as advised by the father. He just wanted to know himself. Happy kept his father’s ideologies to his heart, even when his father died he continued with the ideals even when his father died he continues to believe that his name Loman will thrive. According to Miller, Salesman died with low class people instead of being with kings. In his saying “Loman did not have self-awareness the same as King Lear. Both of them died while trying to secure their personal dignity” in the middle of the play we feel sorry for Willy. His character of a foolish pride can disappoint you. He is too proud to accept a job offer by Charlie. He could progress fairly if he accepted this job. At the peak of the play, you will realize that the family members would lie about their position. The family lived at the top on this false pride for years, having the notion that every person knew and liked the name Loman. When the act by which Wily present himself as a major contributor is a complete dishonesty. He also lied to Happy and Biff that he accompanied mayor for a cup of coffee. He claims that he can park his car in street of his own choice in England and the police know his name and the will protect the car We can see another way that Willy did not brought up the boys in the right manner. Willy lied to Biff that he had a salesman for Oliver. This frustrated Biff terribly. The spirit of Willy could always dwindle when he did not see anything to go for ahead. Immediately after his spirit goes down he went into a flashback. It happened as if he was dead and life replayed before his eyes. For instance, one morning Willy and Biff went to see different people, Willy to Howard and Biff to Oliver. Willy was reenergized in the spirit, however when he was fired he goes into flashback for the incidences from past until he met Charlie. When he is at the restaurant, he expects to receive good news that will change his life positively and he seems to be happy. When they start to talk with Biff, he sensed something will be wrong and he falls into flashback again. This time by going back to a woman that he feels guilty about the affair. But he is feels okay this time round because he believes that Biff is not successful because of that. Willy realizes that his selling work is over, but he is too foolish to believe that any other job is not worth his dignity. He had some calculated thoughts and he finally arrived at committing suicide, which he thought that was the best for the family. He never thought of the psychological torture he was going to put his family through. He only thought of the way to propel his business forward. According to him, this would help the family recover the lost dignity and stabilize them financially. He knew that, his life insurance money will boost his family in living comfortable conditions; he states that he is “he was better dead than being alive” (Miller 98). Wily sees it funny and says to Charlie regrettably that after all the years, all the highways, the trains and the appointments, you will end up being better dead than being alive. This clearly shows us the state of mind that Willy is going through due to the change in his society and how they have rejected his ideals. Miller has portrayed Willy’s character as marred with sociological and psychological problems. The society has changed but he has refused to change. Willy agreed with the Aristotle in describing the term tragic hero, it moving from ignorance to knowledge (Aristotle 190) In conclusion, from the definition, we can say that: Willy did not judge correctly when he decided to follow the idea of reputation is more important than either education or any other knowledge. This was a major blow to his life because he never knew that business world was evolving and needed education in order to keep up to date with the current technology. This would help him and his family to work efficiently. If this was not depressive reaction, this was a deadly hitch with his character. His downfall was provoked with the forces that came externally. He did not understand that reputation gave him false success in his selling career. Due to the change in business technology and customers’ preferences, he became outdated and Howard fires him. Willy commits suicide coming to end of the play. Many people see this as the tragedy, because it is a deadly end. This may be different to others depending on how you define the term tragedy. There are many controversial answers for the death of Willy. We only rest on the most possible. According to some, Willy is not a pathetic man but he is a tragic hero. The reason for this the man fought for what he believed was right until the very end. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking Press, 1949. Print. Morris, Robert. Death of a Salesman and the Crucible: Robert Morris Discusses Two Plays by Arthur Miller. The Center for Cassette Studies, 1972. Sound recording. Widell, Harvey, and Arthur H. Miller. Death of Salesman. , 1956. Print. Read More