Analysis of Willy Loman as a Tragic Hero

Kaitlyn Utkewicz

ENGL 200

Paper 1

Willy Loman: Tragic Hero?

The idea of a tragic hero has been around since Aristotle, who defined the concept as a “great man, who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake”(Brown 1). This person is a good human being, neither unbelievably good nor extraordinarily bad. Through some weakness of their character, their downfall is inevitable by the end of the tragedy. There is much debate around Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman and whether the protagonist, Willy Loman, qualifies as a tragic hero in the modern world. In his critical essay, Robert A. Martin explores the elements of tragedy in Death of a Salesman and concludes that Willy Loman is indeed a tragic hero. Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero, however, lays the groundwork for Martin's essay, yet Martin fails to leave the modern setting and recognize that Willy Loman lacks the characteristics that Aristotle originally defined. When looking directly at Willy's fantasy life, it is easy to see that he is solely an ordinary man blinded by a delusion and not heroic in any sense.

Martin provides significant textual evidence for his thesis about Willy Loman’s status as a tragic figure. His essay addresses the question of whether Willy’s character “has the opportunity to develop as a free human being, or are his actions and choices those that proceed from a pitiful and confused character in an impossible situation that leads inexorably to his self-destruction” (176). Martin’s arguments fall in favor of the latter and explore Willy Loman as a tragic hero in the modern sense of the word. He claims that we see more than a pitiable character in Willy through his idealistic views and will to succeed. The essay becomes a discussion of what exactly constitutes a tragic hero and if it is wise to stray away from Aristotle’s definition. Martin points out that though...