The Death of a Salesman as a Modern Tragedy It has been argued that audiences must have mixed feelings about the destruction of a human being for a play to be a tragedy. To define Death of a Salesman as a tragedy, we must demonstrate that not only does the audience feel sadness over Willy's passing, but they also feel that Willy was served justice for his behavior. This being the case, I will first examine the reasons why the audience feels sadness for Willy, and then I will look at why the audience also feels that Willy deserves the punishment that fate reserves for him. It is obvious in Death of A Salesman that Willy Loman's life is bad and that it is getting worse, despite Willy's dreams and aspirations. His first big problem is with his job. From the first scene we see that all is not well. Willy returned from a business trip the same day he left, and it is clear that this is not the first time an incident of this type has occurred. Thus the audience is aware that Willy has problems with his job, and it isn't long before they discover that Willy's difficulties going to work are the least of his problems. The real problem lies in the work itself. It seems that, for all of Willy's boasting, he isn't actually a very successful salesman (the lack of people at his funeral perhaps indicates not only that he isn't, but also that he was never particularly good in the first place). ). In fact he "borrowed" money from Charley to make Linda believe he is still successful. Willy lies so often about his job (as well as other things), that he's almost forced himself to believe his own lies, and one of the only indications to the contrary is... half a sheet of paper... .The actor in the comedy inspires several feelings, including Linda who despite being loyal is too submissive for her own good, and Biff, who despite being honest and having good intentions, is too straightforward to help matters. Cited Eisinger, Chester E. "Focus on Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman': The Wrong Dreams", in American Dreams, American Nightmares, (1970 rpt In clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1976 vol. 6:331 Foster, Richard J . (Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller's 'Salesman' (1959) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:316Gardner, R.H. ("Tragedy of the Lowest Man", in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 2l6:320Gordon, Lois "Death of a Salesman": An Appreciation, in the Forties: 1969) rpt in clc. 26:323