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Arthur MillerTragedy and the Common Man
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1949A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Rhetorical Context: Response to Critics
Miller wrote “Tragedy and the Common Man” in 1949, only two weeks after the debut of his most famous play, Death of a Salesman. The two-act tragic play follows Willy Loman, a traveling businessman, during the last hours of his life. The action is told through a montage of Willy’s memories and dreams as he tries, and fails, to pursue the idea of the American dream. This pursuit leads him further into fantasy and disconnects him from reality, eventually costing him his life.
“Tragedy and the Common Man” is Miller’s direct response to immediate criticisms of his play and, specifically, of the protagonist Willy Loman. Some critics objected to the notion of categorizing Death of a Salesman as a tragedy, given that Willy Loman is an everyday, working man rather than a man of high stature or importance, as is traditional to the tragic genre. In arguing that the common man is an apt subject for tragedy, Miller defends Willy—and his own work—against these critics. He insists that Willy—and, by extension, common people of modern times—are fit to be considered tragic heroes, and that a hero need only be someone willing to lay down their life for their sense of “personal dignity.”
It is important to note that, although “Tragedy and the Common Man” was written in direct response to criticism, Miller does not explicitly mention his own play at all in his essay. Instead, he speaks in general terms, presenting his groundbreaking approach to tragedy as a universally strong and valid argument, not merely a personally motivated defense of his own work. Miller presents his ideas on tragedy as a form of general manifesto, and they reflect a theory of tragedy that was well developed in his own mind and intentions when he wrote Death of a Salesman. The themes, setting, and characters of the play, including Loman (“low man”) as a prototypical common man, show that his theory of “tragedy and the common man” is deeply embedded in Death of a Salesman and essential to its design and purpose. As a result, while the timing of the essay makes it a response to the play’s reception, it is reasonable to consider it a parallel and revealing exposition of Miller’s creative concepts.
Literary Context: Greek Tragedy
Tragedy as a genre of drama originated in ancient Greek traditions and has been maintained, adapted, and revived through Western Culture, especially by the Romans, Renaissance dramatists, and the naturalists of 19th-century Europe. While the genre has altered over the centuries, many of the original influences of Classical drama remained strong, and were still considered definitive in the early 20th century; the high social stature of the protagonist was one of these established generic characteristics. In Classical tragedy, the hero is a person of high stature or importance (whether recognized or incognito/displaced from their birthright) who experiences a disastrous downfall brought about by his own flaws, shortcomings, or accidental mistakes. In ancient Greece, tragedies were attended by the whole community (including women, who were usually barred from public activity) and were recognized not only as entertainment but as important ritualistic, social, and semi-religious events. As a result of this significance, the formal rules of Greek tragedy were quite rigid. The plot of a tragic play traditionally took place over the course of a single day and in a single location. In his work Poetics, the Greek philosopher Aristotle explained that tragedy is meant to evoke fear and sympathy in the audience, leading to “catharsis” (the permitted and beneficial purging of otherwise challenging or suppressed emotions and ideas). Renaissance tragic drama, including the hugely influential tragedies of Shakespeare, reinforced and reimagined the classic elements of the noble hero, heroic flaw, and catharsis, reestablishing this paradigm in the Western dramatic tradition.
Miller makes direct references to both classical Greek works (Orestes, Oedipus Rex, and Medea) and Shakespearean tragedies (Hamlet, Macbeth) in order to highlight the strength of the tragic tradition and to show that he is knowledgeable regarding it; his departures from it are deliberate and intellectual and not the result of ignorance. Miller also uses the very fact of this tradition evidence for his argument: He argues explicitly that these works, and the genre as a whole, continue to resonate with audiences because they speak to universal themes and fears. Referencing and examining the classical forms and expectations of tragedy, including its cathartic, social purpose, is key to Miller’s challenges to his audience that they consider common, contemporaneous life as the most suitable subject for modern-day tragedies. This speaks to the larger theme of Miller’s essay: The Common Man as Tragic Hero.
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