Calamity: A narrative that tells of the ruin of a great adult male. In calamities the chief character can sometimes be characterized as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is “a literary character. who makes an mistake of judgement or has a fatal defect. ” ( Merriam Webster ) which is really their ruin. In Oedipus The King. the chief character. the male monarch of Thebes. is seen as the tragic hero on this peculiar calamity. Now. fast-forwarding through clip to 1949 Arthur Miller wrote Death of A Salesman. This drama has a character named Willy Lowman and he surely follows the definition of a calamity. but he doesn’t have sudden realisation like Oedipus in Oedipus the King. So. Oedipus is a tragic hero. while Willy Loman merely isn’t even though the narrative can be considered a calamity.
First. Oedipus is the male monarch of Thebes and in the beginning he finds out that the lone manner to salvage his metropolis is to “drive out a pollution” ( Kenney. 1002 ) that is keeping the metropolis back and doing illness and decease. This pollution is caused by the individual who killed the old male monarch Laius. He finds this out and has Teiresias. a unsighted prophesier. come and state him who is the culprit is that killed the old King. Teiresias says that he. Oedipus. killed the male monarch and this enrages him. Subsequently on. we find that there was a expletive on Oedipus Arauzo 2
that he was to kill his male parent and ballad with his female parent. After. long probe and delving through his history. Oedipus has a sudden realisation that after all this clip it was he who killed his male parent and he has slept with his ain female parent. This drives Jocasta. Oedipus’s married woman and female parent. to hang herself and Oedipus to force out out his eyes for he believes his sight is no longer any usage to him. He says to the chorus “Why should I see. whose vision showed me nil Sweet to see” ( Kennedy. 1034 ) .
How does all of this brand him a tragic hero in this atrocious calamity? Well his ain haughtiness and obstinacy blinded him from the absolute truth. that he was the pollution in Thebes. Now. Oedipus didn’t dice. but he sent off to populate in purdah. but he is a tragic hero because after his realisation he died on the interior. He couldn’t believe what he had done because he had spent his full life running off from his expletive. and when he found out he failed he took away his ain sight.
Now. in Death of a Salesman Willy Loman in the terminal commits self-destruction. Even though this narrative is a calamity Willy is non a tragic hero. He didn’t to the full come to a realisation. like Oedipus. that he was the mistake of his ain death. He does recognize a few things about being a salesman by reminiscing. but he doesn’t recognize that he has left his household in ruins. He doesn’t see this as his mistake at all. alternatively his selfishness get’s the best of him and he merely realizes how he had failed in bring forthing a better kid ; how “Nothing’s Planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” ( Kennedy. 1296 ) . This was said at the terminal after Willy yelled at Biff yet once more about how he is non making anything in his life. Rewinding. Willy said in the beginning “Not happening yourself at the age of thirty-four is a shame! ” ( Kennedy. 1241 ) Arauzo 3
Yes. he notes some concern in his tone but more toward himself and non towards the success of Biff. Since he Is ever reminiscing about his yesteryear and merely about how he has failed himself. he ne’er looked at how he failed his household. This makes him a non-tragic hero.
In decision. Oedipus is seen as a tragic hero because he has a self-fulfillment that he was the full cause of the convulsion in Thebes. and because by the terminal he besides realizes that his ain haughtiness and obstinacy blinded him. These to features about him are his tragic defects. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is non a tragic hero merely because he doesn’t have a full realisation on why everything is distraught in his household. alternatively he fundamentally blames Biff. his boy. alternatively of himself.
