Death Of A Salesman :: essays research papers

In the first B.C dramatist known as Aristotle started to write a series of plays called the tragedies. They were as follows: the play revolved around a great man, such as a king or war hero, who had a tragic flaw. This flaw would eventually become his downfall and he would fall from his glory. In the case of obvious it was his hubris; and Oedipus, his pride and curiosity. Through out the play the hero has many opportunities to overcome his mistakes. On the other side, the reason that his nature he sarcomas to it and deals with a sever punishment. Even though these types of plays are still written today most authors have varied their loom of writing a tragedy. An example is Author Miller. He attempts to illustrate the misfortune in the common man; he shows this in â€Å"Death to a Salesman.† According to Arthur Miller, "the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who ready to put his life aside, if necessary, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity." (Tragedy and the Common Man p.1) He is saying in this quotation is that even that the common man can even be tragic because occasionally the one thing that she prizes the most, his sense of self-dignity, can be so jaded that he will sacrifice his own life to secure this dignity. In â€Å"Death to a Salesman†, Arthur Miller successfully shows that you do not have to be someone important or king to show that. The classical model of a tragedy is that of someone of a high position contains superior qualities such as leadership for instance a king. However the hero always has a flaw, which may be an excess of one of these qualities such as hubris. This hero while trying to accomplish a goal such as a quest will eventually be dealt punishment, which is usually death. One could argue that not only Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is true but that there can be many different kinds of tragedies. From the tragedy of a common man to that of a family or group of people. In opposition to Aristotle's view one could argue that any type of man could show tragic qualities, no matter what social environment the man comes from. The hero could range from a highly intellectual and educated man with great potential but whose flaw is lack of motivation, to a crack addict living on the street who refuses to enter rehab. The fate of people such as this might not be as appalling as death; however may be economic failure or social rejection.