Death Of A Salesman

The tragic tale Death of a Salesman fulfills Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy to a great degree. The play conforms to Aristotle’s definition seamlessly for the factors of plot, thought, diction, and spectacle, satisfying all of the key necessities for each section. Character, also, fits well with his definition, but there are a few deviations from Aristotle’s perfect tragedy that prevent a seamless fit. The use of a chorus is completely ignored in this play, but being one of the least important elements, it does not affect the overall worth of the play. When the individual parts of the play are examined, it satisfies Aristotle’s requirements for a perfect tragedy. In Aristotle’s definition of a perfect tragedy he delegates plot as the

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman satisfies all of these stipulations completely. The structure of Death of a Salesman has a beginning, middle, and end as required by Aristotle, however the order of these are not necessarily true to form. Some events that occur in the middle of the play should be at the beginning if examined as purely a cause and effect chain, and some events at the beginning should be at the middle. The inciting action when Biff discovers his father’s infidelity during one of Willy’s business trips. The climax of the play is the argument between Willy and Biff where Biff realizes that Willy is a cause of his short comings. Biff’s statement, “And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!” (Arthur Miller), shows how Willy influenced Biff so greatly that he set Biff up for failure. The final resolution occurs when Willy takes his life to provide for his family. This set up of rising action, climax, and falling action is reminiscent of Freytag’s pyramid, the plot contains defined beginning, middle and, end. When Aristotle stipulates that a play must be self-contained, he means that there cannot be an outside event that is a

Spectacle is the use of props and the stage draw emotions from the audience. Aristotle states that this used be used minimally as it is less the writer’s job and more so the prop master’s (McManus). Miller uses the stage very conservatively but effectively to present some underlying ideas. The area around them that once was free and open is now closed in and constricting. This represents the constriction and pressure that time has placed upon Willy, and it shows how he feels that there is no other choice but to take his own life. The only other uses of the set to draw about emotions is the downtrodden house in which the Lomans live. However, this set is necessary because it exemplifies the financial situation in which they live, enticing pity from the audience. This limited use of spectacle would be applauded by