How Does Miller Justify Death of a Salesman as a Tragedy When Critics Argue It Is Merely the Pathetic Demise of a Small Man?

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How does Miller justify Death of a Salesman as a tragedy when critics argue it is merely the pathetic demise of a small man? Death of a Salesman is a controversial tragedy play written in the 1950’s by Arthur Miller. It is set in the 1930’s with the main protagonist being Willy Loman an out of prime business man struggling to pay the bills in his old age and struggling to accept the fact that his sons are failures (in his eyes). The theme I will be explaining is how this play and the traditional tragedies of Greek and Shakespearean are compared and contrasted with each other and why critics contend with Miller by saying that it is just the pathetic demise of a small man. This is because Death of a Salesman does not follow the traditional principles of every tragedy such as: * The main protagonist must have a fatal flaw which eventually leads to his death at the end * The main protagonist and ALL of his family and friends plus the audience must learn from the mistakes the main protagonist made but only after its too late for the characters to save him The main reason why Death of a Salesman is considered a tragedy is because like all traditional tragedies the main character always has a fatal flaw which causes their demise. In Macbeth it was his lust for power and in Hamlet it is his want for vengeance. Willy’s flaw is that always believes that his principles of being “well liked” are the keys to success to reaching the American dream where and nothing else matters. This is what led to Biff failing in the first place because he felt that if he couldn’t reach the top of a job In two weeks it wasn’t meant for him. This is why Biff kept moving from job to job because Willy “filled him full with hot air” that he could do anything. Willy also believed that the reason Biff dropped out was payback for cheating on Linda. Another of Willy’s flaws is his refusal to

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