American Literature

The play entitled Death of a Salesman was authored by Arthur Miller showcasing Willy Loman as a compassionate salesman who matched the views provided by Aristotle of a dreadful hero. Willys up and down life is similar to the view of Aristotle about the weaknesses of a hero. In particular, his failure in life is characterized with his continued financial struggles, flawed personality and his incapacity. He is an old salesman who sells nothing, exploited by his buyers and consistently borrows money from someone named Charley in meeting his ends. His boss named Howard terminated him after thirty four years of working. As a result, he is struggling for his life, searching for ways for sustaining himself. The problem of Willy Loman lies on his complete acceptance of the values created by the society which means adjusting himself to the social standards rather than on human needs. This deficiency in terms of insight is remarkably identical to the characteristics of a tragic hero. Meanwhile, his failed personality is evident in his abandonment of his family members namely Linda, his wife and his two sons, Happy and Biff. The cruelty of Willy over his son Happy was evident on this line Youll retire me for life on seventy goddam dollars a week (Miller, p. 41). Willys cruelty is also showcased with his wife as he always shouted Linda especially in times of conversations with two sons. As a result, his wrongdoings outweighed the good things he has done for his family. His struggles continued especially when he was terminated from his job as a salesman due to his consistent requests to be assigned anywhere and yet he couldnt generate any sale for the firm. As a result, he loses control of his life as he attempted to kill himself just to provide anything for his family. In the end, he is considered as the tragic hero identical to the description of Aristotle (Miller, p. 41). Willy Loman showed the nature and characteristic of an average man which is being strong by showing his will power over the people he governs. In addition, he is a model of a good father despite of the fact that he struggles on his own as he tries to fill the needs of his family.