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Notes on Modern Domestic Tragedies
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Some important notes about the features of Modern Domestic Tragedies.
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Charlotte CorriganModern Domestic Tragedies
Anti-heroes are depicted:
An anti-hero is a central character of a text who lacks characteristics associated with the
hero. Whilst guided by good intentions, the anti-hero is a flawed character who possesses a
fatal flaw (their hamartia) who has a history of bad decisions and a questionable moral code.
The anti-hero also lacks conventional heroic qualities which would have been typical of an
archetypal Aristotelian tragic hero e.g. idealism or wanting do something to improve society.
Furthermore, they tend to be selfish or morally ambiguous and be of a lower class than the
previous aristocratic protagonist. Willy Loman is an example of an anti-hero. He is a
‘salesman’ who represents everyman of the working-classes. Notably, his selfishness seems
to catalyse his tragic demise at the end of the play and his moral code of being ‘well-liked’
further aligns him with the typical characteristics of an anti-hero.
Characters are ordinary people – not the great men or women of earlier tragedies:
Driven by disastrous events that have begun before the start of the play, an ordinary
character is somebody who has chased the wrong dreams. The main protagonist, or anti-
hero, is often an ordinary person for example, Willy Loman. He seems to also be of a lower-
class status and representative of the common man, which is evident through the
charactonym ‘Loman’.
Although family life is central, it is presented as somehow inadequate and diseased. This
inadequacy undermines faith and belief in the whole order of society:
Family is central in modern domestic tragedies and plays a significant role in eliciting greater
tragedy. In ‘Death of a Salesman’, it appears as though the Loman family have exacerbated
Willy Loman’s inner turmoil and encouraged his tragic demise through their ignorance of
reality and through their acceptance of Willy’s false beliefs and achievements. The image of
the father is mythologised by both sons. Biff seems to be presented as deficient because he
is not married, ‘I’m like a boy. I’m not married’ supporting the view of the inadequacy of
family. Additionally, the nuclear family is also presented as the norm perhaps illustrating
how the family is representative of every other working-class family in American society.
Ultimately, the collapse of the Loman family seems to occur as a result of Willy violating
family society through his affair with ‘The Woman’.
The world can be full of deceit, and prizes and dreams can turn out to be illusory:
The American Dream was an empty illusion. The Dream created a distorted reality which
encourages the tragedy of the play to occur. A critic argues that Willy Loman only commits
suicide at the end of the play as a direct result of the falseness of the American Dream. The
American Dream was a belief perpetuated by upper class Americans. It promoted the newly
established Consumerist society which exploited the working classes whilst aiding the
wealthy.
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