In the fourth century B.C., Aristotle set forth his description of dramatic tragedy, and for centuries after, tragedy continued to be defined by his basic observations. It was not until the modern age that playwrights began to deviate somewhat from the basic tenets of Aristotelian tragedy and, in doing so, began to create plays more recognizable to the common people and, thereby, less traditional. Even so, upon examination, the basic plot structure of some modern tragedies actually differs very little from that of the ancient classics. In spite of its modernity, Arthur Miller’s great twentieth-century tragedy, Death of a Salesman, can be successfully compared to the Aristotelian description of traditional tragedy.
According to Aristotle, the protagonist, or tragic hero, of a tragedy is a person of great virtue and of high estate, usually a member of a royal family. The tragedy then carries the protagonist from his position of esteem and happiness to one of misery. Although Miller’s protagonist, Willy Loman, is not of high estate, he is the head of his household. His wife, Linda, aware though she is of his failings, sees him as “the dearest man in the world” (1.1373). Furthermore, he is a man whose intentions to be the best salesman possible are honorable, although misguided. It must not be overlooked that prior to the twentieth century, almost all literature had as its protagonist someone of high estate. The typical protagonist of the modern age, however, is one whose main conflict is survival, and that conflict is certainly true of Willy Loman. Linda summarizes the plight of the modern tragic hero when she says, “A small man can be just as exhausted a…
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… don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am” (2.1421)?
Tragedy did not end with the modern age. Instead, it has found new form and is perhaps more recognizable with the common man as its protagonist. Traditional tragedy is intended to create in the audience pity and terror for the tragic hero’s condition. Most of us see enough of ourselves in Willy that we sympathize with him, even when we disagree with him. Furthermore, it is difficult for late-twentieth-century Americans not to feel terror when considering how the forces that destroyed Willy might destroy us as well. Perhaps that fear is, indeed, the very heart of the tragedy Arthur Miller created.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman, The Riverside Anthology of Literature. Ed. Douglas Hunt. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1991. 1345-1426.
Multiple Meanings of a Symbol in Paseo
Multiple Meanings of a Symbol in Paseo
The use of symbolism has long been a technique by which an author can present far more than the literal meaning of a story. However, symbols are not always easily defined; indeed, it is sometimes possible that one symbol in a story may be endowed with multiple meanings, all of which lead the reader to a greater understanding of the author’s message. Such is the case in Jose Donoso’s short story “Paseo.” The story is told from the point of view of a grown man looking back on the isolated, frightened child he was. As the boy’s jealousy focuses on the attention gained by a nondescript but persistent dog, Donoso leads us into the realm of multiple symbolism.
Perhaps most obviously, the dog represents emotion. The boy in the story grows up with cold people in a house that is “not happy” (316) and that expresses “an absence, a lack, which because it wasunacknowledged was irremediable” (316). The boy wishes that his family’s “confined feeling might overflow and express itself in a fit of rage . . . or with some bit of foolery” (317). Of course, he knows it is not to be. The dog that his Aunt Mathilda adopts, however, represents the opposite of repressed, or perhaps nonexistent, emotion: “Her whole body, from her quivering snout to her tail ready to waggle, was full of an abundant capacity for fun” (323). It is the dog’s expression of emotion that permeates Aunt Mathilda’s cold exterior and provokes her to express emotion of her own. Yet the boy is still isolated, perhaps more so, as his jealousy takes hold. As he watches his aunt stroke the dog sleeping on her lap, he realizes the extent of his own isolation and feels the loss of any hope that he, too, might be the …
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…nt come in, the boy recognizes the final influence the dog and the madness it represents are to have on his aunt: “I went to bed terrified, knowing this was the end. I was not mistaken. Because one night . . . Aunt Mathilda took the dog out for a walk after dinner, and did not return” (327).
Who is to say whether the aunt’s disappearance is a manifestation of her madness or simply a rebellion on her part, an affirmation of the life she has never before experienced? Yet, in the boy’s mind, she is dead, and her death has been brought about by the dog and all it symbolizes. The repression of emotion in his aunt has been freed by something not human, and in doing so, it has brought disorder to order and madness to composure.
Works Cited
Donoso, Jose. “Paseo.” The Riverside Anthology of Literature. Ed. Douglas Hunt. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1991. 315-27.