How is DoaS a Tragedy? 🎭

How does Willy have megalopsychia?

Despite Miller’s atypical views of a tragic hero not needing to possess the Aristotelian trope of Megalopsychia, Miller still achieves this by having Willy strive for political greatness, idolising Ben, Dave Singleman, later Bernard, and the American Dream as a whole.

It could be argued that Willy’s position as a ‘common man’ solidifies his megalopsychia, he has everything he needs, but not in abundance. It is is desperation to seek abundance that causes his downfall.

Why is Willy’s tragedy arguably more pitiable than a classic tragedy?

Willy has nothing but gives everything to try and find his place in society.

Classic tragic heroes have everything but squander it for more.

Why does Miller believe tragedy is optimistic?

He believes that a tragic protagonist must be active in order to face tragedy. When applied to his ‘Common Man’, it tells a story of an individual following a dream that ends in tragedy.

Why does the title of the play subvert the tragic genre?

Typically, classical tragedies have an eponymous hero (e.g. Macbeth, R&J, Titus, Othello etc.) but ‘Death of a Salesman’ reduces our tragic hero to one of many, he is an iteration of a wider group of people.

What is Willy’s ‘fatal flaw’?

His inability to accept his reality. He appears angry in moments where he is forced to face reality (‘the woods are burning!’) and so fabricates his reality to conform to his desires which ultimately lead him astray.

Miller: ‘His inherent unwillingness to remain passive.’

What does DoaS lack in terms of tragedy?

A clear moment of an anagnorisis.

There are moments of clarity that change the course and catalyse aspects of the tragedy, but they never fully succeed.

E.g. Biff realises he shouldn’t have to ‘make a contemptuous, begging fool’ of himself and seeks the American West, leading him away from the main tragedy despite being affected by it.

Willy realises that Biff ‘likes’ him at the end of the play, but this doesn’t allow him to realise his tragic flaws but instead inspires him to carry out his ‘$20000 death’.

How does Miller have Linda assure Willy’s role as a tragic hero in Miller’s terms?

‘‘He’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him, so attention must be paid.’’

What did Miller say about classical tragedy?

‘‘The classic mode is archaic, fit only for the very highly placed.’’

What does Miller disagree with about the perception of tragedy?

That tragedy is allied with pessimism, as the activeness of the tragic heroes implies optimism.

How does Willy present himself as great?

He boasts that he sold ‘thousands and thousands’ and positions himself as a conquerer by saying that he ‘sluaghtere’d em in Boston’

What did Miller say about the Wall Street Crash (1929)?

‘‘The day the money stopped their identity was gone’’

When was DoaS written?

1949

Why did Miller choose to write the play in 1949, twenty years after the Wall Street Crash?

After WW2 Americans were excited by the prospect of a new American Dream, as by 1949 the economic devastation caused by WW2 was starting to alleviate.