Death of Salesman as a Modern poetry.

Death of Salesman is one of the famous drama  written by ARTHUR MILAN performed in American Stage in October 17, 1915.  Arthur Miller is widely regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century dramatists. Over the course of his career, he wrote around 35stage plays, the best known of which include Death of a Salesman (1949), All My

Sons (1947), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955) and The Price (1968).

 Death of a Salesman was awarded both the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. This play was written on American dream. It shows how a salesman cannot fulfilled their dream and what is the dream of common people in America.

v  What is a Tragedy?

Most people know it as s disaster or misfortune but in literature it mainly refers to a somber theme that ends in a tragic or unfortunate ending. Tragedy contains catharsis which is when a writer evokes a pity, fear and other strong emotions in the audirnce. A tragedy is usually defined as a piece of literature which contains somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force.

v  Modern Tragedy

Modern tragedy first started to become popular in the 20^th century after second world war . Tragedy started evolving from more tradition to modern by focusing more on self discovery and less on tragic mystery and fate.

            The  elements of a tragedy that have not changed are the intensity and the contribution of many characters to the tragedy. In any of theses aspects are missing than the tragedy becomes more of a comedy than a tragedy. Most people think that the oppositive of tragedy is a comedy but it actually would be cynicism or despair. A modern tragedy does not have to be portrayed to look real but is more like fiction, unlike a traditional tragedy which is made to seem like a real life.

The main character involved in a modern tragedy is usually just a regular person like you and me. A tragic story usually involves more than one character who take part in tragedy. The characteristics are mainly the same as a traditional tragedy where the characters have a fatal flow and external pressure.

A modern tragedy focuses less on fate and supernatural forces. It focuses more on the environment the character creates and the choices that the main character makes. A modern tragedy also focuses on more of nonverbal expression and more on expression through sub text. A  modern tragedy is now shown now as more of a ‘fairy tale’ than making it seem like it is a real life.

                                                Titanic, Gladiator, Brave heart, Ladder 46, The perfect storm are the examples of modern tragedy.

v  Death of Salesman as a modern tragedy

Death of a Salesman is typically classified as a modern tragedy. This implies that it follows the example of the classic Greek tragedies, Roman tragedies and Shakespearian and Jacobean tragedy. There are, however, subtle but vital differences between these forms. Aristotle’s classic view of tragedy saw the form as one which only properly deals with the fate of gods, kings and heroes. In the twentieth century, such a restricted definition would consign tragedy to the waste bin literary history, consequently in death of salesman Miller changes this view and presents us with an entirely view one. Our  increasingly secular world no longer believes in gods, and kings and heroes are increasingly humbled, brought down to the level of ordinary men and women. Miller therefore embarked upon a project to reinvigoral the classic tragic form in order to make it more relevant to the world we live in. miller uses elements of the classical tragedy to create a new and compellingly human drama, one which is true to tradition but convinced on a domestic scale so that audience can identify with the chief protagonist and draw parallels with their own levels.

The basic elements of the Aristotelian tragedy may be summarized as follow.

·         A play with an  un happy ending,

·         serious, wide in scope and complete in itself.

·         Having a hero who, because of particular tragic flaw goes from happiness to misery and death.

·         Frequently having a sense of waste of the death of the tragic hero, together with relief that he no longer has to endure pain and suffering.

·         A catharsis of purging of emotions at the end, often leading to a sense of ultimate peace and regeneration or the rebuilding of lives and societies.

    Death of a Salesman is a play that has come to redefine the concept of modern tragedy. A challenge to Philip Sydney's judgment that "tragedy concerned the high fellow" Death of a Salesman is the tragedy of the common man of the low-man. Many critics charge that Death of a Salesman falls short of tragedy and is therefore disqualified as a "great" play. Tragedy is developed as a form of drama that incorporates incidents arousing pity and fear, to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions. The ancient philosopher, Aristotle, wrote the first, and in many ways the most significant, thesis on tragedy in his Poetics. He argued that the protagonist of a tragedy must be a man of noble birth, who due to some predestined flaw, or hamartia, in his character, suffers greatly.   Aristotle argues that many tragic representations of suffering and defeat can leave an audience feeling not depressed, but relieved and perhaps even exalted. He also argues that a tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. For Willy to be a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense, he would have to be a man of obvious virtue who has a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. This would place the blame for the events of the play firmly on Willy's shoulders, even though the

v  Conclusion

All in all, Death of salesman is a modern tragedy. It shows the frustration about unfulfilled dream of America. It shows an American culture of America. Death of salesman addresses the painful conflicts within one family . it also tackles larger issue regarding national values. Willy loman is a failure as a family man is an anti hero, and never achieves the American  dream. His life is an example of a true downfall, which affects those close to him. As a result, his death is a final confirmation of his failed life, and reiterates everything that is stressed millers play . true successes could never  be achieved in his life even if he had made multitudes of sales. By giving up his dreams and desires wily died, that led him to become every bit of the failure that he will always be remembered.

v  Findings

We never be frustrate from failure to fulfilled our dream rather than we should fight with reality and truth. We should believe in our ability and courage. Death of salesman encourages us to live happily in the family. We should encourage to all of family members to supports to achieve our dream.