Death of a Salesman as a Modern Tragedy It has been stated that the audience must have mixed feelings about the destruction of a human being for a play to be a tragedy. To establish Death of a Salesman as a tragedy, we must demonstrate that not only does the audience feel sadness over Willy's death, but they also feel that justice has been served to Willy for his behavior. In this case, I will first examine the reasons why the audience feels sadness for Willy, and then I will then look at why the audience also feels that Willy deserves the punishment that fate inflicts on him. It is evident throughout Death of A. Salesman that Willy Loman's life is bad and getting worse, despite Willy's dreams and aspirations. His first major problem concerns his work. From the first scene, we see that all is not well. Willy returned from a work trip the same day he left, and it is clear that this is not the first time that an incident of this type has occurred. Thus, the audience is aware that Willy is having problems with his job, and it does not take long for them to discover that Willy's difficulties getting to work are the least of his problems. The real problem lies in the work itself. It seems that for all Willy's boasting, he isn't actually a very good salesman (the lack of people at his funeral perhaps indicates not only that he isn't one, but also that he isn't one). was never particularly good in the first place). ). He actually "borrowed" money from Charley to make Linda believe that he is still successful. Willy lies so often about his job (as well as other things), that he almost forces himself to believe his own lies, and one of the only indications to the contrary is...... at middle of paper..... The actor in the play inspires several different feelings, including Linda who, although loyal, is too subservient for her own good, and Biff, who despite the fact that he is honest and has good intentions, is too direct to help things much. Cited Eisinger, Chester E. "Focus on Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman': The Wrong Dreams", in American Dreams, American Nightmares, (1970 rpt In clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1976 vol. 6:331 Foster, Richard J. (Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller's 'Salesman' (1959) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:316Gardner, RH ("Tragedy of the Lowest Man", in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320Gordon, Lois “Death of a Salesman”: An Appreciation, in the Forties: 1969) written in clc.. 26:323