Death Of A Salesman Essay

Look at the way Miller defines a modern tragic hero. Tragic heroes in Miller’s construct are modern not postmodern. Using the café scene from Death of a Salesman and discuss how Willy fits into Miller’s definition of modern tragic hero. Use quotes from the essay and the play to organize your response.
In Death of Salesman, Arthur Miller is writing as an advocate of modernism and modern tragic heroes. Modernism talks about the use of technology, latest innovations and intelligent careers. Whereas, post modernism which obviously followed the modern era had nothing new and overall it can be deemed as a slow era.
Willy had high goals and dreams to achieve but he was stuck in his 9-5 job and still did everything he could to support Biff. The reason was that he thought that if Biff fails, it would mean that Willy has failed. He had always been positive towards life with big dreams. Like, on an instance of Act 1 Willy says to his boys, “Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don’t breathe it to a soul. Someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll never have to leave home any more.
HAPPY: Like Uncle

The play has so many scenes which shows the tragic hero concept of Miller and the scene from the café is one of them. After working and travelling for years, Willy seems to be tired of his hectic job. He has big dreams and expectations from Biff and he wants to stay at home and not to worry about the bills. When he goes to his boss to ask for a job for which travelling is not required but his boss does not recognize his years of efforts and hard work, he just fires him. Next comes the scene where Willy, Biff and Hap are in a café and Willy admits his failure of losing the job. That specific moment defines the modern tragic hero who has failed in his life. Even though Biff doesn’t not tells Willy about his failure to get the loan but still world seems to be ending for