Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman - Essay Example

?Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman People in real life as well as in fictions will maximally expect happy endings. However, creators of fictions could incorporate tragic endings and particularly sketch tragic heroes to make a stronger impact on the readers’ mind. Through tragic endings and tragic heroes, they would expect the readers to ‘hold on’ to the creation for a longer time. In addition, they would end stories in a tragic manner as a logical end for all the events that would have occurred throughout the story. Creators would also end the protagonist as a tragic hero as a justification for all the actions committed by him/her. On the whole, tragic endings or tragedies are being created by the authors from time immemorial. Despite being separated by more than a period of two thousand years, the two plays, Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller have several similarities as both belong to the same genre of tragedy. So, this paper focusing on these two plays will compare how the protagonists in these plays, Oedipus and Willy Loman undergo various phases of tragedy. Setting for the tragedy or Hamartia Willy Loman, the patriarch of the family, lives an insecure and deluding life with his wife Linda Loman and two sons named Biff Loman and Happy Loman. Willy is a traveling salesman, who does not achieve expected success both in his professional as well as in his personal life, thereby ‘setting’ him to become a tragic hero later. As the society of his times was filled with heightened expectations due to the phenomenon of American Dream, Willy not to be left behind wanted to become hugely successful. However, his American Dream can be a misguided one because he wanted to achieve success without putting his best efforts. He was working as a salesman for sizable years, but he failed to achieve the expected sales results. Although, his original love was carpentry, he did not wanted to take it has a profession. He wanted to work only as a salesman, and felt ‘memorable’ to be a failed salesman than a contented carpenter, who did what he loved. Even, when his eldest son, Biff questions his mother, Linda, why his father could accept that he is a failed salesman, and take on the vocation of carpentry, like the grandfather, Willy takes offence to it and counters Biff by stating that “Even your grandfather was better than a carpenter” (Miller 43). Apart from his unsuccessful professional life, personally also he suffered because he was abhorred by his sons especially Biff. As Willy once indulged in an immoral act of non-marital sex with an unknown woman, and as Biff came to know about it, he hated his father. Thus, with Willy Loman experiencing struggles both in his professional and personal ‘spheres’ of life, Hamartia gets initiated or the stage is set for the onset of tragedy. On the other hand, in the play Oedipus Rex, the setting for the onset of tragedy developed through different set of events. Oedipus was born to King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jacosta, but he was given away to the foster parents, because of the fear that the prophecy of he killing his own father could come true. “…was doomed to kill him,” (Sophocles 109). However, that prophecy comes true when he kills King Lauis without knowing that he is his father. That incident further leads to the fulfillment of the second prophecy, as Oedipus solves the Sphinx puzzle and marries the widowed queen, Jocasto, again without knowing that she is his mother, thus becoming the King of Thebes. “Oedipus with the answer, but only so that he may enter the grateful city, be hailed as its hero, and marry its widowed queen” (Smith 93). Although, both the protagonists’ life events moved around their family and profession/kingship, there are certain differences. That is, as discussed above, Willy’s initiation of Hamartia is due to his own mistakes and inefficiencies, while Oedipus’ setting of tragedy seems to be driven by external factors, than him committing mistakes. He did not intentionally killed his father nor willingly married his mother, instead fate seems to have pushed him to commit those mistakes, thereby initiating Hamartia and setting the stage for the onset of the tragedy. Onset of the Tragedy and reversal of fortune The underperformance of Willy Loman in his sales job, leads to his firing by a junior executive, thereby initiating the tragedies to unfold. Willy becomes offended, when a junior colleague of his questions him about the sales targets. As Willy could not give a convincing reply, he was dismissed from the job. This dismissal does not immediately lead to a tragedy, as Willy refused to view it has a tragic event, and instead tried to mask or suppress it. Still believing in the American Dream of achieving success, Willy goes to the extent of cheating his family by borrowing 50 dollars from Charley every week and faking it to be his salary. However, reversal of fortunes happens and tragedy gets initiated when Biff, during a scuffle with Willy breaks down into tears and says “Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” (Miller 102). It was then only Willy Loman undergoes anagnorisis or recognition and thereby realizes that although Biff criticized him for all his wrong actions, he still cares for him. With anagnorisis setting in, the reversal of fortunes occurs in Willy’s mind, but that reversal did not lead to positive results, ending only in tragedy. Willy Loman “powerfully illustrates self psychology principles governing profound deficits, shame, and the possibilities of self-restoration” (Wellek 213). On the same lines, in Oedipus the King, anagnorisis and the associated reversal of fortunes occurs, when Oedipus finds out that he is the killer of his father from Teiresias. That is, when there was an onslaught of plague in his Kingdom, Oedipus was advised that he can solve this problem, only if he finds King Lauis killer. When he seeks Teiresias advice regarding it, he was revealed about the truth. However, Oedipus refuses to accept that truth and even threatens to kill Teiresias. However, Teiresias retorts, "you with both your eyes you are blind: You can not see the wretchedness of your life, Nor in whose house you live, nor with whom….You don't even know the blind wrongs that you have done them." (Sophocles 92). This makes Oedipus undergo anagnorisis, as he comes to know about the profound truth that he is the killer of his father King Lauis, and mistakenly and immorally married his own mother. When this anagnorisis or ‘recognition’ happens, reversal of fortunes also follows, with Oedipus changing from a strong and confident king to a weak and depressive man. Thus in both cases, recognition and reversal of fortunes happens with both Willy and Oedipus recognizing it through another person, Biff in the case of Willy and Teiresias in the case of Oedipus. However the difference is, when the reversal aspect is focused, Willy Loman tries to change from an insecure and unrealistic person to a responsible person, while Oedipus contrastingly becomes a weak person from being a strong king. Eventual Tragedy Due to the reversal of fortunes, Willy wanted to monetarily help his sons, but by taking his own life. That is, by killing himself, Willy mistakenly expected that the money from his life insurance policy could be given to his sons. However, Willy’s reversal of fortunes did not fully actualize into any positive thing and instead ended in tragedy because the rule stipulated that money could not be given to the beneficiaries, if the insurer commits suicide. As his family could not change or reverse the prevalent sadness to happiness, the reversal fortunes only led to further tragedy. Likewise, Oedipus life also ends in tragedy, when he, after undergoing anagnorisis and reversal of fortunes, blinds himself using the golden brooches taken from his mother’s dress. He does that tragic action, because he did not want to see the repercussions of his earlier mistakes. “For the King ripped from her gown the golden brooches. That were her ornament, and raised them, and plunged them down/ Straight into his own eyeballs, crying, 'No more, No more shall you look on the misery about me'.” (Sophocles 126-7). However, if viewed from another perspective, Willy’s character also becomes blind, not physically blind but mentally blind. That is, he makes his life miserable by going on the search for materialistic pleasures, which obscures or ‘blinds’ the path of truth and morality. "what a ridiculous lie whole life has been," (Miller, 78). Willy becomes ‘blinded’ mentally, due to his wish to achieve a non-existent American Dream, which was actually fueled by then society. Although, both the characters have different endings, with one dying and another blinding himself, both are tragic to the core. Although, the death of the tragic hero does not occur in Oedipus the King; his blinding serves as the substitute for the traditional ending of the tragic play. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman. Edited by Val Randall. London: Heinemann, 1994. Sophocles. Four Greek Plays: The Oedipus Rex of Sophocles. Translated by Dudley Fitts. London: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002. Smith, Helaine L. Masterpieces of classic Greek drama. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Welleck, Judith. S. “Kohut's Tragic man: An Example from Death of a Salesman” Clinical Social Work Journal 21.2 (1993): 213-225. Read More