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Willy Loman Tragic Hero Essay

637 Words3 Pages

Aristotle once said that “A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall”. The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller shows a dramatic story of a tragic hero; Willy Loman. Throughout the play it shows how Loman's mental state is slowly deteriorating and how his choices affect whether he is qualified as a tragic hero or not. He meets the criteria of being labeled as a tragic hero; Having showed nobility, Showing a reversal of fortune brought by the hero's hamartia, and having died a tragic death. A tragic hero consist of having nobility, wisdom, or often both. Having consist this, it also goes along with the character's hamartia. One of Lomans hamartia is when he is in Boston “attending” to business, instead having …show more content…

At first the readers can see how he is more of a normal character and how he does not show any difference between being a perfect character nor an awful one at it's best. As the play went on readers can see how his mental state is decreasing and how he keeps having his ‘flashbacks’ from when the boys and himself are much younger and happier. When his flashbacks are occurring he seemed to be so much more happier to be back in the past when his boys were younger, and they were doing good. His motto to the boys and everything in general is that no matter what you should always try to be liked. Being liked is the best possible thing in the world. Loman`s motto gets him nowhere in life. This is showing how much he has been living inside of his head. His sons are at home and don't have a stable life or anything going for them, His wife stays at home and pretends everything is okay when it is not, and Loman is slowly losing it all. There is absolutely nothing going for him,and secretly deep down he knows that. There is tension between the boys and their father, this is because they see how their father is verbally and somewhat physically abusive toward their mother. Finally after having enough Billy took a stand for not only his mother but also for himself. He explains to his father how what he is doing is not

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