The most persistent criticism about the play Death of a Salesman （1949） concerns the issue of genre and its constituents： Is it a tragedy？! If yes, to what extend is it a tragedy？ Miller himself considered the pl...The most persistent criticism about the play Death of a Salesman （1949） concerns the issue of genre and its constituents： Is it a tragedy？! If yes, to what extend is it a tragedy？ Miller himself considered the play to be the tragedy of the common man, as he presents his idea on tragedy as a genre and his idea of the tragic hero in his essay ＂Tragedy and the Common Man＂ （1942）, but for a group of critics it is not a tragedy but to others and to the author, it is the tragedy of the man who tries to survive in the modern world by using archaic weapons. This paper briefly revisits the Aristotelian tragedy concept and modern theories, and stands on what are tragedy and a tragic hero. It aims at reading Death of a Salesman as a meeting point between （ancient） concept of tragedy with modern man and his way of seeing life, and briefly examines and explores the continuing disagreements among academics and by what criteria this play is a tragedy.展开更多
文摘The most persistent criticism about the play Death of a Salesman （1949） concerns the issue of genre and its constituents： Is it a tragedy？! If yes, to what extend is it a tragedy？ Miller himself considered the play to be the tragedy of the common man, as he presents his idea on tragedy as a genre and his idea of the tragic hero in his essay ＂Tragedy and the Common Man＂ （1942）, but for a group of critics it is not a tragedy but to others and to the author, it is the tragedy of the man who tries to survive in the modern world by using archaic weapons. This paper briefly revisits the Aristotelian tragedy concept and modern theories, and stands on what are tragedy and a tragic hero. It aims at reading Death of a Salesman as a meeting point between （ancient） concept of tragedy with modern man and his way of seeing life, and briefly examines and explores the continuing disagreements among academics and by what criteria this play is a tragedy.
