Discuss Death of
a Salesman as a Modern Tragedy.
In 350bc, Aristotle wrote Poetics, and in that discourse he defined the
elements of a tragedy as compared to other plays like an Epic. According to
Aristotle, “Every Tragedy…must have six parts, which parts determine its
quality- namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song.” When
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is compared to Aristotle’s
definitions for tragedy, we can indeed put it in the ranks of Aristotelian
tragedy in more of a modern form. My senses tell me that a Greek tragedy played
out in exacting 350BC Greek style would seem strange to the modern viewer. The
choric song, for example, would not suit modern tastes any more than three
actors changing full head masks. Therefore I submit that, short of the
modifications necessary to make a play interesting to a modern audience, Death
of a Salesman indeed fits the spirit of Aristotelian tragedy in a modern style.
According to Aristotle, the plot is “the soul of a tragedy.” The plot is “…the first and most important thing in tragedy.” Aristotle’s idea for the plot in tragedy is such that it has a beginning middle and end, that all parts follow each other in concise fashion, the parts should not be “…'episodic' in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence.” Aristotle goes on to say that the events should not occur simultaneously like the “epic” play. “we must confine ourselves to the actions on the stage.” Miller’s play fits this entire criterion well. With the artistic development of the play stripped off (Miller’s version of Aristotle’s suggested arrangement “not on the simple but on the complex plan.”), we have, quite simply, a beginning where the hero becomes a successful salesman with family, a middle where our hero and his family go through the unsurprising and easily identifiable struggles and realities of being a salesman, and a classic tragic end wherein our hero dies. The sequence of Willy Loman’s life is indeed “probable” and all parts are necessary to the wholeness of the play. Lastly, no events occur simultaneously; in no case do we find simultaneous stage events.
