How far does Willy Loman fit
as a Tragic Hero ?
Willy Loman, the troubled father and husband in Arthur
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” can be classified as a tragic hero, as defined
by Aristotle in his works, “Poetics.” In Aristotle’s text, a tragic hero was
defined as one who falls from grace into a state of extreme unhappiness. Willy,
as we are introduced to him, becomes increasingly miserable as he progresses
from a dedicated, loving father, though not without flaws, into a suicidal,
delusional man. The definition of a tragic hero, as stated in “Poetics,” also
describes a person who is influential and is of significance to others. Though,
in actuality, Willy Loman may not possess these characteristics, he perceives
himself as having them as he cares for himself, his children and his wife. A
final distinction noted by Aristotle was that a tragic hero is not a bad person
deserving of his impending misfortune, but instead, has made a series of
mistakes leading to his downfall. We can see that Willy does not purposely create
this harmful situation for himself, he is only ignorant that certain actions of
his are wrong, which contribute to his self-ruin. Willy Loman thusly
personifies the attributes of a tragic hero as proposed by Aristotle.
Willy, with a
house, a car, a job, two sons whom he adores, and a supportive, caring wife,
seems to have everything that any man could ever want. He manages, however, to
alienate himself from these things that he loves near the end of the play as he
slips into a self-induced state of altered reality. Willy, being
“…lonely…terribly lonely” (1850) has an affair with a woman during his marriage
to Linda. Even though she is not aware of this, or makes no mention of it, he
is destroying his greatest source of support. Linda is the only one in the
Loman family who seems to never give up on Willy, be it that she does not
realize his shortcomings or chooses to ignore them, she remains faithful in
every sense to her husband. His relationship with Biff and Happy also becomes
strained throughout their lives. Because Biff was the older son and football
star he made his father proud, and Happy was left without the praise that he
needed and deserved, as he was always second best. Biff also was the one who
caught his father having an affair with the woman, causing friction between
himself and Willy. More importantly, Biff is extremely disturbed by his
father’s later behavior, including talking to himself, imagining conversations
with various people and reacting to his memories of his children as though they
were happening at that particular moment. Willy’s job also falls apart from the
beginning of the play towards the end. He had been making enough money to
support his family, but through his philandering and lackluster sales, he ends
up losing his job, eventually. Willy and his family live in a house, which for
an unknown number of years still has a mortgage to be paid off and so, until
his death, the family was not even secure in their own home once Willy was
fired from his job as salesman. Finally, the family car, a symbol of pride
within the Loman household, was destroyed when Willy committed suicide. This
was the last example of Willy’s destruction of all that was once important to
him. Willy Loman, in this regard, follows Aristotle’s suggestion that the
tragic hero has “…a change of fortune… from prosperity to misfortune….” (1303)
