"Man is here too little and too passive to play the tragic hero". In Death of a Salesman, Miller presents us with a new version of what we define as tragedy. If we look to the Greek plays such as Oedipus Rex, we are shown very fixed ideas of tragedy that involve a hero falling from high stature to the depths of depravity by the mistakes that he has made. Indeed, Aristotle termed tragedy as …showed first 75 words of 1326 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1326 total…death and leaves a rather obvious implication instead. If Willy had been a "somebody" at any stage in the play, then perhaps his death would be tragic. Aristotle terms tragedy as being "the representation of an action that is serious, complete, and has a certain magnitude" (www). Whilst Willy's death allows him to escape from his continuing battle with life, the magnitude of this event may be sad but can hardly be described as tragic.