Arthur Miller's Theory Of Tragedy And His Masterpiece Death Of A Salesman

Tragedy, one of the most important literary genre, is Greek's contribution to human civilization. In a long time, it had been used to deal with the nobles and their lives only. It was thought that the tragic hero must be one with a high rank or of noble birth. He suffered a major reversal in fortune due to his tragic flaw and fell from a high status to a low one. Tragedy was not supposed to tell about the lower social classes or average men since the earliest Greek time. So many critics are hesitant to bestow the term "tragedy" on plays dealing with the ordinary life of the common man. Some people even declare that the exalted art of tragedy has died in the modern times with the disappearance of the noble class, and is no longer suitable to be written in the contemporary world.As a critic and dramatist of great insight, Arthur Miller has been seriously concerned with the study of the tragic mode and thinks of it in a different way. In his well-known essays on theater he sets forth his unique views on tragedy, which demonstrate great advancement and innovation.He has a strong conviction that tragedies are still responded to today as the earlier times, though it needs to be developed to meet the changing need of the modern society. In his theory he boldly breaks the mold of the previous formula and develops his theory in a practical rather than a theoretical way. He thinks that a common man without any high social status may also be a suitable hero for tragedy.Besides elucidating his unique views of tragedy in his essays, Miller also successfully presents his theory in his famous play Death of a Salesman (1949), which is agreed to be the greatest tragedy in American theater after the War. In this play Miller takes an average man, Willy Loman, as the protagonist. By the painful conflicts within the Loman Family, Miller shows how the country has failed so many of those who believe in the American Dream, which promises the inevitability of success in the so-called blessed land. It tackles larger issues regarding American national values and examines the cost of blind faith in the national myth. Willy Loman's struggle symbolizes the common men's struggle under the social pressure, and his tragedy is one of everyone. By this play, Miller questions the society, proves that the most touching tragedy lies in the real and common life and a little man can be qualified to be a tragic hero.This thesis provides an insight into the theory of tragedy developed by Arthur Miller in the light of his masterpiece Death of a Salesman.In the first chapter, I mainly talk about Arthur Miller's views on tragedy. An thorough study is carried out to show the differences between the traditional tragedy and Miller's developed one. In classical tragedy, the tragic hero should be one of noble birth. He suffered a major reversal in fortune due to his tragic flaw, and fell from a high status to a low one. By learning from his downfall and by overcoming his tragic flaw, the tragic hero conquered his fate and proved to be a better person. In this way the elevation and purification were gained. Tragedy was supposed to deal with the people who were highly renowned and prosperous. Due to the lack of the characters of nobility, the exalted art of tragedy was once thought impossible to flourish in modern times.However, Miller looks at it from a different way and boldly breaks the limits of previous eras in his theory. Miller thinks that a common man without any high social status may also be a suitable hero for tragedy. The statue should not be confused with rank, and the stress should be on the action of sufficient magnitude to change the character's life. The insistence upon the rank of the tragic hero is just clinging to the outward qualities. He argues that the tragic feeling can be evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life to secure his sense of personal dignity and to gain his rightful position in society. Tragic scale can be definitely achieved by finding dignity in the struggle of the little man. Miller goes beyond the requirement of the "tragic flaw", and considers that a "tragic flaw" is no necessarily a weakness but a man's unwillingness to remain passive when his right and dignity are challenged. Here the accepted notion of the tragic flaw as a shortcoming in the hero is transformed by Miller into what seems a condition of greatness. Miller further states that the tragedy is the consequence of man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, and his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or evil in his environment. Miller usually regards man as the victim of society.Another point that distinguishes Miller's theory of tragedy is the optimistic sense implied in his works. All his tragedies are optimistic and hopeful. According to Miller, the final result of the tragedy, even the death, ought to be the reinforcement of the onlooker's brightest opinion of human beings.The Chapter two is devoted to analyze tragic fate of the protagonist. Willy Loman, an aged salesman, is a committed believer in the American Dream. He believes whole-heartedly in the national myth which promises easy success and wealth for everyone in the blessed country. He values material success more than spiritual aspects and thinks his love for his family should be expressed by means of material properties. Willy sticks superficially to the idea that to be well liked is the key to success and tries to values his self-worth by the material possessions. He has two ideals all his life: one is to make himself a great fortune and be a true success; the other is to make his sons successful men. He devotes all his life to pursue his goal but fails to achieve it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. At last, when he realizes that he has been fired after so many years' work for the boss and hasn't lived up to the standard of success he sets for himself, he can not accept the fact, and death becomes the only redemption. In order to leave an inheritance of hope and wealth for his sons to continue the pursuit of the goal, Willy sells himself.Chapter Three has its focus on the analysis of the tragic elements on personal side of the protagonist. One reason that leads to Willy's tragedy lies in himself. Willy has false values about success and life. He is a believer in the American dream of becoming and possession who struggles with knowledge of failure. He is firmly confirmed that the meaning of his life can only be derived from the society and willingly chooses it as the standard to measure himself. When Willy is fired by the company and realizes that he has achieved nothing, he decides to trade his life for the success he has been seeking but never achieved. By accomplishing 20,000 dollars death, Willy fulfills his life-long dream of material success, completes the ultimate ideal and justifies his life. Willy dies to sustain a notion of himself. He represents the commonplace "individual attempting to gain his rightful position in his society", "his willingness to throw all he has into the contest, the battle to secure his rightful place in the world". Miller grants Willy stature and significance as a tragic hero because of his dogged commitment to a pernicious ideal. One can not take away Willy's dream without diminishing him. His tragedy is the tragedy of man's lost values in modern society, is the one of man's rebuilding values on illusion for defending his dignity. He brings tragedy down on himself, not by opposing the lie, but by living it. There are two other reasons that result in his unhappiness: one is the wrong choice of his career, and the other is the neglect of the family love. Both of the two surely have close relations with Willy's false values about the world.Then in Chapter Four, I turn to the social elements that cause the fatal destiny of Willy. Arthur Miller confirms the social forces as one of the most important source of tragedy. According to him, man is seen as constantly in the process of becoming, shaped and not merely stimulated by his environment. The individual both forms the society and is formed by it. Human is considered to be product of forces outside the individual person and the tragedy inherent in the situation as a consequence of the individual's total onslaught, against an order that degrades. The fate of seemingly insignificant individual must be the fate of the society, and the social conflicts must be the individual's conflicts. Man's destruction in his effort to evaluate himself and to be evaluated justly, posits a wrong or an evil in his environment. Man's failure to achieve or to maintain the needed sense of personal dignity is the fault of society. Willy believes in personal attractiveness. His dream is actually derived from the American myth. The distorted dream suggests that the social status and the personal values are judged by the fortunes one possesses. Willy embraces it completely. However, its empty promises are devastating. The values the myth suggests are not designed to assuage human insecurities and doubts, but unrealistically ignore the existence of such weakness and ignore the need of emotional and spiritual life of human beings. It seems that total commitment is demanded without any regard for human values. Living in the society of success-oriented and product consuming, Willy is accustomed to taking matters into consideration in terms of success and money. His values, though false, are labeled by the society. Willy journeys forth into the business world full of hope and ambition, but fails to receive the fruits that the American myth promises. He pays the death as the price of his blind faith. Willy's individual fate is emblematic of the prevalent materialistic ideology, and exemplified materialistic society. Willy sells good and at last sells himself. He is a victim of the hollow values of society. His tragedy is a sad version of the American Dream. His fate is neither private nor isolated, but is really the social tragedy. It is never possible to reduce Willy's pathetic death to social criticism.Chapter Five presents an explanation of Miller's view about tragic victory in the death of the protagonist. In Miller's tragedies, the plays are optimistic and hopeful. By accomplishing a 20000 dollars death, Willy will not only justify his life, gain him back his dignity, he will also redeem his son, and provide his son an approach to success. His death at the end is purposeful, self-sacrificial. He puts an end to his life with a joy, pride and a hope that his death will beneath something useful to the living. He just lays down his life for the ones he loves. He chooses death as a fulfillment, not mere escape. Willy's final act shows that the father wins out over the salesman. In the same time, Willy's desperate commitment to his persistent illusion and dignity also gives the audience great hope and thought rather than mere pity and terror. The hero struggles for a right way to live and dies for it. Here a moral triumph can be observed. Death becomes an assertion of bravery, and serves to separate the death of man from the death of animals. This is the very concept of victory in death.Arthur Miller thinks, "tragedy is the most accurately balanced portrayal of the human being in his struggle for happiness". And the play Death of a Salesman gives a perfect interpretation. In his theory, Miller provides a more practical and encouraging outlook for tragedy, and develops a new tragic mode. His innovation breaths fresh air into the genre and gives vigor to the creation of tragedy in the modern times.