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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 9 page paper which critically defines a tragic hero and examines to what extent each of the protagonists of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Hamlet” is a victim of forces beyond his control as well as considers what they could have changed in their lives had they done so. Bibliography lists 8 sources.
Page Count:
9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGwilham.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
been fought for more territory, more control and more wealth, although more altruistic excuses have been made. Rulers have been assassinated to serve the needs of others seeking their
power. Corporations have engaged in conduct later found to be illegal for the sake of profit, yet we do not view Hitler or Togo or Mussolini as tragic heroes;
nor do we see the leaders of Enron or WorldCom as tragic heroes when their excesses are exposed. Instead, they can perhaps be viewed as the natural outgrowth of
their societies and the circumstances in which they acted. Can the same be said of William Shakespeares Hamlet or Willy Loman of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman, or
many other literary characters? Many of these characters, who traditionally, have been considered tragic heroes, may instead only be victims of their respective societies. It is not fate that
makes a hero tragic, as Barbara Jean Hunt observes in her literary criticism: "The tragic condition... is a result of the tragic process: it is not a cause but a
result of the action. The tragic condition exists not externally to the action but because of the action. The tragic condition involves the paradoxical feeling on the part
of the spectator that what has happened could not have happened otherwise, given the incidents and plot. Thus the term fate is often misapplied to the tragic condition, and
is in turn mistakenly thought to precede and thus cause the tragic process. In short, a mule is called a horse and then the cart is put before it"
(35). For example, Willy Loman could not be construed as tragic because his pursuit of the American Dream fell short of his own expectations and ended in his suicide.
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