Willy Loman as the Tragic Hero of the Death of a Salesman Willy Loman, the title character of the play Death of the Salesman, shows all characteristics of a modern tragic hero. This essay will support this thesis by drawing on examples from Euripedes' Medea, Aristotle's Poetics, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, while comments by Moss, Gordon and Nourse strengthen the thesis. Death of the Salesman, by Arthur Miller, corresponds to the characteristics of classical tragedy. ?.... this is, first and foremost, a play about the death of a man. And the tragedy addressed this fantastic experience from the beginning, considering it significant and moving.? (Nourse). The first defining point of a tragedy is the hero. The traits of a tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle in the Poetics, are social rank, hamartia, the ability to arouse pity, peripeteia, hubris and anagnorisis. Will Loman's classification as a tragic hero has been debated because he lacks the high social rank and nobility to be considered one. Arthur Miller chose to support this, however, stating that Willy Loman was "a very courageous spirit who cannot be satisfied but must pursue the dream of himself to the end". (Moss, 27) which reaffirms the character of a modern hero as noble, not in position... in the center of the card... Twayne Publishers, 1967.Nourse, 'Death of a Salesman' by Joan T. Arthur Miller and " All my children." New York, 1965.Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Elements of literature. Edwina McMahon et al. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1997. Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Elements of literature. Ed. Robert Scholes, Nancy Comley, Carl H. Klaus and David Staines. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990. 714-757.Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1991. Clinton W. Trowbridge, “Arthur Miller: Between Pathos and Tragedy,” Arthur Miller, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House, 1987)