Willy Loman as a Tragic Hero

Willy Loman as a Tragic Hero Willy Loman, the troubled father and husband in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," can be classified as a tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle in his works, "Poetics." In Aristotle's text, a tragic hero was defined as one who falls from grace into a state of extreme unhappiness. Willy, as we are introduced to him, becomes increasingly miserable as he progresses from a dedicated, loving father, though not …

…of the fact that he does not always succeed. Lastly, we can see that Willy has indeed made mistakes in his life, and we can recognize that they are mistakes and were never intended to harm anyone, but instead to satisfy his own needs. These characteristics then, by Aristotle's determination, make him not a "wicked man" (1303), and not a virtuous man, but "a man whose place is between these extremes"; (1303) by definition, the tragic hero.