Willy Loman as a Tragic Hero The tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle in his works "Poetics" is one who falls from grace into a state of extreme unhappiness. According to that definition, Willy Loman, the husband and father in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, can be classified as a tragic hero. Willy becomes increasingly miserable throughout the play as he falls from being a loving and successful father into a suicidal, delusional man. …
showed first 75 words of 554 total

showed last 75 words of 554 total
…that his character follows the model of the tragic hero as defined by Aristotle. Willy falls from prosperity into misery, in which he eventually commits suicide. However, we can see that although he has made mistakes, we understand that none of them were intended to hurt anyone. This makes him not a "wicked man" or a "virtuous man" according to Aristotle, but "a man whose place is between these extremes", by definition, a tragic hero.