An ideal tragic hero, in Aristotle's opinion, should make the viewers feel anxious and sympathetic. Aristotle stated: "Pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear is aroused by the misfortune of a man like ourselves" in his analysis of tragic hero deaths. (Rozett 33). According to Aristotle, a tragic figure must have a certain set of qualities. The leader must first be a good person. In keeping with Greek mythology, the hero should be an aristocrat. This calls for the sad hero to be both skillful and powerful, qualities that make them appealing. Second, the protagonist must have a flaw that ultimately causes their demise. Audiences should be able to relate certain traits to the tragic hero, which include inevitable failures and dominant tragedies. Finally, Aristotle believed that a tragic hero should undergo a setback of fortune. In light of this, this must shift from good to bad for the character; the character should end up dead or in tremendous suffering. On the other hand, Miller’s definition of a tragic hero differs from that of Aristotle. According to Miller “Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him” (Miller & Randall 38). Miller defines a tragic hero as an individual who is obstinate to forces swaying him from realizing his dreams. Aristotle referred to the reluctance discussed by Miller as a flaw, which in reality is the inability to compromise self-integrity or ideas.
Willy Loman and Shelly Levene are tragic heroes who conform to both Aristotle’s and Miller’s definition. Willy desperately attempts to take the responsibility of his family’s needs as well as keep up with his pride. He lays anticipations considerably on himself and his children on what is termed as “the American dream”—financial success, pleasure and a high socioeconomic class. Miller portrays Willy’s plights through Ben’s words, "the jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy" (Miller & Randall 103). As the time passes, Willy is an old man who is about to get laid off by a firm that he has selflessly worked for his entire life. Besides, the forecasts on his sons fade away. He fails to believe that he can neither accomplish the American dream nor provide for his family. For that reason, his urge for dying supersede that of living, and therefore he commits suicide with a hope of his family being compensated with his insurance cover. On the other hand, Shelly Levene—an underprivileged salesman—similarly lives longsuffering life like Willy. Shelly’s disappointments on the unfruitful trade appear through his statement, “but these leads are shit. They’re old... I’ve seen them 100 times” ("Glengarry Glen Ross"). The author as well describes Sherry as a man who used his daughter’s health condition to seek sympathy from an obstinate sales office manager. Shelly consecutively commits crimes in the hope of fixing his miseries only to end up a disillusioned man with numerous scandals. Characters represented in a tragedy plot like Shelly and Willy are well referred to as tragic heroes. Typically, the author presents such heroes with qualities that earn them compassion of audience, yet they additionally have imperfections that eventually result in their disgrace. The term “tragic hero” was first coined by Aristotle basing on the ancient Greek anthologies. A tragic hero may not be a real-life hero—some written works also place antagonists as tragic heroes. Given the above, both Shelly and Willy are tragic heroes who are unknowingly flawed, have enormous obsessions for success that eventually lead to their awful endings.
Prompt Two: Critique of Capitalism
Death of a Salesman
The story centers on Willy, a young man obsessed with the model of capitalism. According to Willy, success is all about riches and material processions. The main disappointment for Willy is his inability as well as that of his children to succeed in life. Miller brings forward several themes: family behaviors, sexual role, principles, capitalism, and disenchantment. The aspects of modernity are as well appear in this play. The modern society attempts to create a concept of disorder, which consists of a catalog of rules and deems anything that fails to meet the regulations as a disorder (Kretzschmar 207). In miller’s context, he portrays the letdown of capitalism by illustrating Willy as a man wasted by the ideology to the point of lacking the basic concepts of life. Willy’s habits hurt not only him but also his entire family. Miller also brings forward the themes of gender and morality; this is depicted through the manner in which capitalism oppresses the female sex. Willy lives an adulterous life by confining his wife at home while he has sexual affairs with other women. Miller even highlights that Willy treats his illicit lovers with more compassion than he does to his wife. The plot narrates how Willy purchased some stockings for his mistress while as his wife survived with worn-out stockings (Miller & Randall 90). Unfortunately, his two sons inherited his character by establishing affairs with women and later dumping them. Miller’s work vividly outlines values cultivated by capitalism with an evident revulsion. His critique conforms to modern writing, which echoes the standards of the age of modernity. Modernity is an age where collective norms describe order. Along similar lines, miller judges capitalism as what he or his culture deems right.
Glengarry Glen Ross
In his play Glengarry Glen Ross, brings forward similar themes as Miller, though, they are based on postmodernism. Several salespeople endeavor to succeed in their ambitions for riches. The sales managers go beyond the normal by forcing money from colleagues to give the salesmen leads. Unlike Miller, Mamet objectively articulates his theme by using an impersonal methodology to mirror the elements of postmodernism. Modernism differs with postmodernism because the latter does not endeavor to outline disorder. As highlighted by Klages, postmodernism only holds relative truth (Kretzschmar 209). In light of this, postmodernism infers things with regard to social setting. It identifies changes and appreciates the notion of fragmentation as well as incoherence. It also put forward that there exist no perpetual reality. In conclusion, Mamet fails to take a position on matters because he considers them from many viewpoints.
Works Cited
"Glengarry Glen Ross." Dailyscript.Com, 2017, http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/glengarry.html.
Kretzschmar, William A. Language And Complex Systems. 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Miller, Arthur, and Val Randall. Death Of A Salesman. 2nd ed., Oxford, Heineman, 1994.
