Death of a Salesman: Tragic but Not a Tragedy Although a more modern version of tragedy in its classical sense, Death of a Salesman in many ways is very similar an ancient Greek comedy. In his "Poetics" Aristotle tries to expose the ideas common in all tragedy, attempting to demystify the elements necessary for such dramas. One of his main ideas was that of the "Three Unities": that of Space, that of Time and that of Action. He stated that all the action of a tragedy had to take place in the location, which was often the facade of a building, which allowed the poet to have many characters coming and going, and allowed chance encounters to easily occur, rather than having to "explain “ 'why any meeting should occur. However, it was possible for the poet to report events that occurred in other places through the use of messengers, who could talk about the events without the public seeing them. All the action would have to take place in one day, and it would have to be performed in "real time": time would pass quickly for the characters in the play as well as for the actors and the audience watching. This prevented the use of act and scene breaks, as time could not jump forward, it had to flow normally. Again, references to the past often came in the form of speeches by characters who had often not been seen for a long time, such as Oedipus' shepherd Rex explaining how he had come to Oedipus as a child while tending his flock. The entire play had to revolve around a single plot, and subplots, such as those seen in many Shakespeare plays, were not permitted. Aristotle thought that if there were other plots interfering and violating the main plot, we could not focus entirely on Antigony's plight, ... middle of paper ... accept her refusal to act rationally. Audiences can accept that "real" tragic heroes are often irrational and driven by feelings very different from those of normal human beings, but ultimately Willy Loman evokes no tragic emotions because he is, simply, a dime a dozen. Works cited and consulted Aristotle. Poetics. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1997.Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.Costello, Donald P. “Arthur Miller's Circles of Responsibility: A View from a Bridge and Beyond.” Modern drama. 36 (1993): 443-453 Florio, Thomas A., ed. "Miller's Tales." The New Yorker. 70 (1994): 35-36. Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982. Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman. New York: Viking, 1965.