Comparing The Crucible And Death Of A Salesman

Tragedy has been a prevalent theme written into many plays over the past few centuries. Each play portrays a character attempting to overcome overwhelming obstacles to no avail. The protagonists of these tales in the past have primarily been associated with the upper class and high status. However, in Arthur Miller’s works the Crucible and Death of a Salesman the author explores a new form of tragedy within the common man. Miller aptly uses the previous archetype of the tragic hero and alters it to relate to the modern world. Although Miller implements the common man into both the Crucible and Death of a Salesman, the author distinguishes between the characters of Willy Loman and John Proctor though their individual experiences, tragic flaws,

and reactions to conflict.
Death of a Salesman’s main character, Willy Loman is the epitome of Miller’s evolved form of the tragic hero, who is simply a normal man.

The readers watch as Willy goes through his mundane life as a salesman and see how the monotony of it all tears away at his personality until he is no more than a shell of his formal self. The slowly building insanity of the character contributes to the essence of tragedy evoked throughout the novel. As the story progresses the protagonist continues aiming for higher goals, but he continues digging himself into a ditch and more problems arise. For example, because he is getting older he cannot manage to make the sales he used to and is unable to travel such far distances between clients, therefore, he asks his boss to offer him a job closer to home. Instead, he gets fired and is lacking more income than before. Alternatively, the Crucible’s John Proctor faces an array of different problems during the Salem witch trials. Proctor lives in a society that accuses anything not deliberately holy of being sinful. Therefore, when accusations of witchcraft arise the entire town turns to chaos and civilians are being killed left and right based on little to no evidence. Abigail is spearheading the operation because she has a vendetta against Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife, and she desires John for herself. In John’s attempt to save his wife from certain death, he sacrifices himself and his reputation and is accused of witchcraft rather than

Elizabeth
In the previous establishment of the tragic hero, the protagonist would often be associated with a tragic flaw, or a personality deficit that would eventually lead to their demise. In Willy’s case, he desired to be well liked by those around him, but because he focused entirely on being popular he fell into temptations with women, raised his children to care less about school, and finally died when there was no one left who remembered him. Another aspect of his character that led to his downfall was his constant denial of reality. Willy often fantasizes about his past experiences and through this action the reader can decipher that Willy is vicariously living through the memories of when he was hopeful to deny the fact that his life is adamantly spiraling out of control. In the Crucible, John Proctor’s hamartia was his fatal attraction towards Abigail Williams, the maid servant in his house, and his immense pride in his family name. Proctor was a fairly wealthy man, with plenty of farming land, a beautiful wife, and three kids. Coming from a noble family meant that Proctor had a reputation to uphold and therefore because he was a good respected man and loved his wife, he felt immense guilt at his affair with Abigail. The guilt led him to confess that he was involved in witchcraft until he realized that his name would be signed, hung on the church door, and is family would suffer because of his actions. The tragedy lies, then, in the fact that Proctor’s good action, the only action he can really do while remaining a good man, leads inevitably to his death. Out maneuvered by a series of consequences beyond his control Proctor goes to the gallows a gallant man unwilling to compromise on his ideals and, thus, he dies a hero’s death.