The Tragic Hero and Identity Crisis

Part One The Tragic Hero

What is a Tragic Hero They usually make an error which causes their downfall. A tragic hero is usually the main character in a tragedy. They usually face a serious decision. They might not deserve to have the downfall but they are punished anyway. They discover that their downfall is caused by his own actions and not what happens to him.

Quotations “Lick the world! You guys could absolutely lick the world.” He gives his sons false impressions that they are perfect and that as long they want to do it, they can do anything. However this is not true and Biff and Happy are not suitable businessmen so this leads to Willy’s disappointment and ultimately his downfall. Willy: “Ben, am I right? Don’t you think I’m right? I value your advice.” One of Willy’s main mistakes was that he trusted the advice of a person in his head and Ben might not even exist. It was due to this action that he made the bad mistake of trying to be a business man and encouraging his sons to be businessmen too. “You got a greatness in you, Biff, remember that.” Willy almost lives vicariously through Biff and puts all of his hopes and dreams that he cannot accomplish himself and forces Biff to take on the job. This puts too much pressure on Biff and when Biff discovers that Willy is not the man that he portrays, he feels betrayed and gives up all hope.

Scenes Willy had to make a decision between swallowing his pride and accepting Charley’s job or keep borrowing money from Charley and lying to his family. Willy makes the mistake of asking for a New York job. He wanted a better job but ended up getting fired. He could have stayed on working for commission. He convinced himself that since he named Howard then Howard would give him the job.

Tragic Hero in Characters Willy believes that his dream is right and that the Loman family are good businessmen and they are supposed to be rich. Willy didn’t purposely cause his son, Biff to give up on his life. Even though Willy only wanted to give his sons the best, he doesn’t realize that by telling his sons that they are like Adonis doesn’t help them in anyway. His sons won’t know how to improve. Both Linda and Willy did not mean to mislead their sons by telling them that they were perfect and that they were gods. Willy didn’t deserve to get fired or any of the unfortunates that happened to him just for having the wrong dreams.

Links to Today’s Society Modern day shoppers usually have less time to converse with the salesman so they go to supermarkets where they can just pick up and go. Although not purposely, Willy chose the wrong job for people in modern day. If he chose something that many people would need now instead of a job that people don’t need anymore he would have less chance of being fired.

Audience’s Response The audience should get a better understanding of the mistakes that Willy made and if he had made a different decision then the ending of his story would have been completely different. Audience should have sympathized with Willy instead of think of him as stupid because it is easy for them to relate to him.

Playwright’s Message It is shown through the main character Willy Loman who has worked all his life for a company and gets no thanks at all in his old age. No matter how hard Willy works he doesn’t get any award or pay back and he relies on lies and hopeless dreams to get him through the day. I think that the Arthur Miller is trying to tell us that life isn’t fair and that sometimes no matter how hard you work your just not suited for that kind of career or lifestyle.

Part 2 Identity Crisis

What is Identity Crisis Erik Erikson discovered “Identity Crisis.” People are unsure of their role in life. He believed that identity crisis is one of the most critical conflict that humans encounter through the 8 developments in life.

Quotations

Scenes

Identity Crisis in Characters

Links to Society

Links to Today

Audience’s Response

Playwright’s Message

Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_hero http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/identity-crisis-psychology-/