Death of a Salesman revision booklet AQA A Level English Lit B
compare & contrast of the characters Willy Loman and Charley in the play Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman as a story told through mind and memory of Willy Loman
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English Literature B
Aspects of Tragedy
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AS 2017 - Explore the view that Willy Lomanʼs
and Tessʼs tragic flaw is their inability to
connect with others.
2017 - Explore the view that Willy Lomanʼs and Tessʼs tragic flaw is their inability to connect
with others. Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on dramatic methods.
[25 marks]
Tessʼs tragic flaw being the society she is in and the men who misunderstand her
exemplified by Angel Clare and Alec.
Willy Lomanʼs tragic flaw being his society also – as seen in the scene with Howard/Lindaʼs
speech.
Willy being unable to connect with characters due to his own psychological breakdown –
he moves from past to present struggling to have a “firm grip on life”.
Tess connects strongly with others – she denies Angel the man she loves because of the
milkmaids – helping the peasant birds and also her going to Trantridge because of her
family.
Typical to Aristotelian tragedy texts, Death of a Salesman and Tess of DʼUrbervilles present
tragic heroes with a tragic flaw within them, known as a hamartia, which interacts with society
and fate to result in the catharsis at the end of the tragedy. However, different interpretations
view different hamartiaʼs within the characters. The tragedy can be a result of hubris, myopia, or
folly in the tragic hero, however in this essay I will discuss to what extent ‘Willy Lomanʼs and
Tessʼs tragic flaw is their inability to connect with othersʼ.
Critics have stated that Tessʼs tragedy is “bound with social progress” or a lack of it morally.
She is presented as an itinerant character who moves from place to place with each phase
ending on a separate personal tragedy for her which arguably does not stem from her inability
to connect with others, but the Victorian societies inability to accept a woman who was classed
as both “virgin and whore”, as the critic Foss stated. Through this her hamartia can be seen as
society itself. Tess is both pure and ruined. Both victim and murderer, and it is this complexed
characterisation which prevents her from having a stable place within the Victorian society
where the patriarchal vision was fundamental to the culture. As she is hanged in the final Phase
ironically titled ‘Fulfilmentʼ for a Victorian society her death appears to be a restoration of
natural order to a woman who subverted traditional roles of the time. Her death positions her as
a victim again just after she took control of her life in murdering Alec. Through this Tess
dramatises the tragedy of any woman in the Victorian era ever truly being pure or virginal, by
being more “sinned against than sinning” but also being punished for a sin which was not her
own.
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