Death of a Salesman/Oedipus the Essay

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Though critics such as Sheila Huftel characterize Willy Loman's "fall" as only a fall from "an imagined height," it is nevertheless still a fall, which makes Willy Loman, like Oedipus, a tragic figure. Willy has created very powerful ideas about what he wants his life to be and what he wants his sons lives to be. But these ideas are part of what make Willy who he is. He cannot help but persist with these ideas and that is what sends him on a path headed for failure inevitably. Just like Oedipus was doomed by fate, Willy is too doomed because of his inherent desire to achieve things that society puts out of his reach. No matter how far away his dreams go, Willy always strives to reach them, and it puts a rift between himself and others in his life.

Willy's idea of "success" goes way beyond any kind of desire for wealth, security, goods and status.

According to Aristotelian standards, a tragic character has to have some kind of flaw which causes them to fall. Huftel has remarked that Willy Loman and Death of a Salesman, in general, simply represents the "collapse of a Philistine,"

but it is much more than this. Willy Loman is different from the Everyman in that he doesn't evoke our emotions because he is mediocre; he moves us because of his all of his frustrated energy that goes into striving for what is more than mediocre.Society, however, constantly denies Willy what he is striving for; Willy's ideas are, in a way, too powerful for society to allow him to have and for this we can feel sadness for Willy's struggle and see that he has not failed in wanting and striving for his American Dream; it is society that has failed Willy.

Willy Loman can be considered a tragic character along the lines of Oedipus because both are out of control of their fate. Oedipus is doomed from the beginning as is Willy, yet each character keeps on fighting against strife; this is what makes them both tragic figures.

Works Cited

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." American Literature,47(2),

pp. 247-258.

McManus, Barbara F. "Outlines of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics." 1999.

Accessed on 11 Dec 2010: http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics). Penguin Classics, 1998.

McManus, Barbara F. "Outlines of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics." 1999. Accessed on 11 Dec 2010: http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics). Penguin Classics, 1998.

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." American Literature,47(2), pp. 247.

Ibid., p. 247.

Ibid., p. 247.

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." American Literature,47(2), pp. 247.

Ibid., p. 247.

Ibid., p. 247......