The Truest Tragic Hero In Ethan Frome, Oedipus The King

The Truest Tragic Hero
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Hamlet by Shakespeare, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, and Oedipus the King by Sophocles, are all literature defined tragedies. Death of a Salesman is a story of a tragic hero named Willy Loman who gets wrapped up in his delusional world and causes internal explosion leading to his downfall. Hamlet is the play of a man in the search of truth that ends with the demise of him and others. Oedipus the King is known for his intellect and wisdom, but in the end finds himself blind to the truth of his life. Ethan Frome is the story of a man trying to escape the isolation of the Starkfield winter he calls his life. Willy Loman, Ethan Frome, Hamlet, and Oedipus are all tragic heroes, however

Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman is the truest tragic hero of them all.
Willy Loman is the truest tragic hero, but what makes a tragic hero?

A classic tragic hero must have noble stature and greatness about them. They are often admired for their outstanding qualities. Also, a tragic hero possesses a fatal flaw, often called Hamartia. Excessive pride, or Hubris, is a traditional tragic weakness often seen in a lot of tragedies. Hubris and Hamartia lead to Pathos, or tragic acts destructed to life. Pathos happens to tragic heros without them even knowing that they are happening because their ignorance and pride make them blind to their flaws. The suffering and consequence of Pathos leads to Anagnorisis, or the recognition of facts, but this understanding comes too late to avoid Peripeteia, or reversal of fortune, which brings about Catharsis. Catharsis is the suffering, death, and the purging of emotion. Tragic heros like Willy Loman, Ethan Frome, Hamlet, and Oedipus are all seen to follow this structure of being a tragic

hero.
However, the structure of a classic tragic hero has changed as the times have. Arthur Miller in “Tragedy and the Common Man” says, “It is time, I think. That we who are without kings, took this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time-the heart and spirit of the average man” (Miller 1). Today, kings and queens have gone and passed and common men, like Willy Loman, are more relatable than a prestigious king like Oedipus or Hamlet. Willy Loman is a salesman by occupation, and harbors a tremendous ambition that in the end kills him. The Death of a Salesman comes to a conclusion after Willy Loman commits suicide. Our common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings like Oedipus and Hamlet are. Willy purges more emotion in which the reader can pity and empathize more because of the relation a common man has with another common man.
While Ethan Frome is a common man just like Willy Loman, Ethan Frome has qualities that he could change to escape his environment, social status, and flaws.

One tragic flaw of Ethan is the town of Starkfield. "I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters.” (Wharton 13) The small town of Starkfield doesn’t let Ethan grow and slowly makes him more isolated. However unlike Willy, Ethan had choices and free will. Ethan could have made the decision to move out of the town of Starkfield, unlike Ethan who lost his job and grows old. Also Ethan lives in moral isolation and loneliness because of his wife Zeena. Edith Wharton writes "Ethan looked at her with loathing. She was no longer the listless creature who had lied at his side in a state of sullen self-absorption, but a mysterious alien presence, and evil energy secreted from the long years of silent brooding" (Wharton 103). This passage is taken from a time when Ethan is looking at his wife Zeena and the audience sees how much pain Zeena caused Ethan. However the reader has no sympathy for Ethan because he could have changed this by moving away with Mattie, or getting away from Starkfield and Zeena all together. It is easy to see the pain and loneliness that Ethan is in

because he is a common man and we all face challenges like this, however he could have made decisions to make himself happier and feeling less alone, but Ethan didn’t and therefore had to live the life he did.
Similar to Ethan Frome, another Tragic hero that struggles with his free will is Hamlet. Hamlet is a hero that struggles with indecisiveness and rational decisions. Hamlet was so worried about his morals and afterlife that it distracts him from killing his uncle Claudius and getting the revenge he had always wanted. One of his bad choices is when Hamlet says “I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice: I shall win at odds”(Shakespeare V.II.208-209) Horatio is trying to talk Hamlet out of agreeing to fight with Laertes because he made the irrational decision to fight Laertes and that ends with the death of Hamlet. Hamlet’s death and Willy Loman's deaths are very different in the fact that Hamlet chose to die by being indecisive, but Willy commited suicide so his sons could live a better life than him with his insurance money. Willy had to make the choice of life or death for the better of his family because his old and aged body could no longer provide the profits that the young and ambitious Willy Loman could. Willy could not change the fact that fate brought him old age, whereas Hamlet could change his death but not choosing to battle with Laertes. Willy Loman is our truest tragic hero because he allowed the reader to understand his struggles and dealt with his fate without using irrational or indecisive decisions.
A classic tragic hero by definition must be of noble birth, although in this age few tragedies are written this way. Noble birth in the world today is uncommon and therefore leaves the connection to evoke empathy for them lost. Oedipus is a tragic hero of hubris, or excessive pride and self-righteousness. Oedipus is the ruler of Thebes and the son of King Laos and Queen Jocasta. Oedipus is so blinded by his tragic flaws that he can’t even find the truth in his own life. Sophocles says “I will begin the search again, I will reveal the truth, expose everything, let it all be seen” (Sophocles 161-162). Ironically Oedipus says this thinking that if he kills Laos then Thebes will be better, however Oedipus is the murder of Laos and he can’t even see it with his own eyes because of his self-righteousness. Oedipus death begins with the stabbing of his own eyes, which is ironic in the fact that he physically made himself blind from the world whereas earlier in the play he was just blinded by his own self-righteousness and hubris. In comparison to Willy Loman, our common man, Willy evokes more empathy from the audience because his death is in hope of a better life for his children. From a modern day audience’s point of view, it is very difficult to find an excuse not to evoke empathy for the catharsis, or purging of emotion that our common man suffered.
Arthur Miller says in “Tragedy and the Common Man” “ The inevitable conclusion is, of course, that the tragic mode is archaic fit only for the very highly placed, the kings or the kingly, and where this admission is not made in so many words it is most often implied. I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” In summary Arthur Miller was telling us that a common man like Willy Loman could be just as much of a tragic hero as Hamlet, or Oedipus even though they aren’t a common man. Willy Loman is the truest hero of all of them though because he was relatable to a modern day reader. In this age, parents want the best for their children and would do anything for them. Willy Loman does exactly this in his moment of catharsis. Willy wasn’t as indecisive, self-righteous, or full of hubris and free will like Hamlet, Oedipus, and Ethan Frome but Willy Loman dealt with the fate he was given and that is what makes him the truest tragic hero of them all.