Tragic Heroes

Paper Summary:

The paper compares the roles of the tragic heroes, Willie Lowman, in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", and Oedipus, in "Oedipus the King", by Sophocles. The paper first provides a definition of the tragic hero and explains that the tragic hero and the tragedy also emerge from the particular society that creates it, with the hero being representative of the values of the time. The paper then looks at how many of the elements of the tragic hero and tragedy can be seen in both the character of Oedipus from "Oedipus the King" and in the character of Willy Lowman from "Death of a Salesman".

From the Paper:

"Perhaps in the society that formed him, suicide was the only final attempt at nobility that was an option for Willy. In this, he is parallel with Oedipus, also a product of his society. Oedipus believes it would be best not only for himself, but also for his people if he were to step down as king and made a public display of his humiliation and pain. Oedipus however fell much farther than Willy in concrete terms from the beginning to the end of the play. He begins as the ultimate symbol of success for the society of his time. At the end, he is humiliated and all sources of power are removed from him."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman Penguin, 1976
• Johnston Ian. Fate, Freedom, and the Tragic Experience : An Introductory Letter on Sophocles's Oedipus the King. 2007. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/oedipus.htm
• Sophocles. Oedipus the King. classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html

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