This is an in-depth summary of all tragic aspects in Death of a Salesman for A level AQA English Literature. Refer to Bundle for all info on Death of a Salesman. It is everything you need for any essay question on Death of a Salesman. just memorize and regurgitate: it’s what got me an A*
Tragic aspect Death of a Salesman
Anagnorisis After he gets fired and his sons abandon him, Willy has finally realised he
Realisation is not a good salesman and his life is ruined.
that reversal
was caused Biff forces Willy to face reality: ‘I was never a salesman for Bill Oliver’ and
by himself of course Willy refuses to accept it, prompting him to purposely kill
himself in a car accident. He dies without self-recognition.
His realisation also comes through the remembrance of the affair scene
(which is where the peripeteia is, without recognition of the effects at
that time), where he recognises the effects of his actions, with reality
slammed on him by Biff, who labels him a ‘phone little fake!’
Peripeteia The sudden reversal of fortune due to his hamartia is seen in the Affair
Reversal of scene, where he has an extra-marital relationship, because of his
fortune hamartia (excessive pride, wanting to be well liked). This is where things
because of completely change from losing his son to contemplations of suicide.
hamartia
Catharsis Catharsis for an audience may come at the end, where:
1) Biff has finally found himself and is going to go on to live his own
life, not under the American dream ‘formula’ of his father
2) Willy is finally ‘free’ from the constraints of the American dream,
which have caused him to sell himself as a commodity. He is now
free from the shackles of money, capitalism, materialism and,
particularly, the desire of achieving the American dream, and the
fear of not achieving personal goals: which an audience would
reside with. His death is a noble sacrifice to help his family and
especially Biff move forward. He still believes that a man’s worth is
defined by how much he is well liked, but, as least he is free from
pursuing likeability now.
Myopia / This, indeed, can be interpreted as one of his tragic flaws.
Blindness
His search for materialism and likability obscures or ‘blinds’ the path of
truth and morality, which is the original American Dream as described by
the country’s founders. He is ‘blinded’ mentally, due to his wish to
achieve a non-existent American Dream, which is actually fuelled by the
society: “His [Willy’s] destruction posits a wrong or evil in society” (Miller)
– a Marxist thinker would agree with this
He is self-deluded, believing in dreams which are in fact destructive, he
suffers acutely and causes terrible suffering in his family.
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