Langer Essay: Death of a Salesman Mapped

Prompt:Literary critic Susanne Langer argues, "Tragic drama is so designed that the protagonist grows mentally, emotionally, or morally by the demand of the [tragic] action, which he himself initiated, to the complete exhaustion of his powers, the limit of his possible development," in this way, "the tragic hero lives and matures in some particular respect; his entire being is concentrated in one aim, one passion, one conflict and ultimate defeat."
Choose a major work, novel or play with a protagonist who is not initially seen as a tragic hero, yet by the end of the work proves to be one based on Langer's claim that he has grown "mentally, emotionally, or morally" by the demands of the action he or she caused. In your discussion you need to establish the protagonist's initial unheroic nature and then show how he/she has grownthrough defeat into a tragic hero by the story's end. / Read the prompt, highlighting the key words that define the task you must accomplish.
You might jot down the steps needed to complete the task to serve as a check list when you write.
1.Biff Loman from Arthur Miller's play The Death of a Salesman is initially portrayed as a true "low man," one who would seem to be the opposite of a tragic hero of elevated stature. He is, in fact, the definition of a loser. He has failed to achieve much of anything in life, despite his early promise as a star quarterback with charisma, confidence, and the unwavering adoration and support of his family. At the age of 34, he is stagnant. Yet by the end of the play, he fulfills Langer's requirement of developing to the "exhaustion of his powers." He discovers his fate and his true nature through his suffering, growing to the point where he achieves tragic heroic status, when he finally accepts who he is and stops trying to achieve a dream for which he is ill-suited. / Points back to the Prompt Focus.
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2.Initially, Biff Loman underwhelms with his lack of achievement, in spite of his early promise. Seventeen years earlier, he failed to attend college even though he had an athletic scholarship to the University of Virginia. His reason was selfish and childish: he caught his father Willy, his hero, cheating on his mother. After discovering his father's infidelity, he experienced a crisis of faith in his father and himself, willing himself to fail in life because he had discovered his father was a "phony little fake." He gave up, refusing to try anymore. His immaturity has resulted in a tantrum of defying his father's hopes for him for seventeen years. His pathetic behavior hardly seems make him a possible tragic hero. / Prompt focus
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3.In addition to being a childish man, Biff is a compulsive thief. He has been stealing since his youth, when his father "filled him full hot air," making him feel entitled to take whatever he wants. In high school he stole footballs, and his father told him the coach would be impressed with his "initiative." Since then, he has stolen his way out of every job, even landing in jail in Kansas City at one point for stealing suits. In fact, in the present he steals a pen from Bill Oliver, a man he is seeing about investment, simply because Oliver did not give him an appointment. All of this shows how Biff is a morally challenged man, unworthy of being a tragic hero who supposedly possesses noble character. / Prompt focus
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4.But it is the stealing of Oliver's penthat leads him to his breakthrough to growth and tragic heroic status. It is this moment that allows Biff to see the lie of his life, giving him the opportunity to fix it. As he runs down the stairwell to escape Oliver's office, Biff realizes he has been making a fool of himself for the wrong dream his entire life. He has been trying to live up to his father's dream of his being a star in business, but what he really wants is to be a simple man who works a physical job. He realizes that his father has set him up for failure. He realizes he was not meant to be a star. He now knows that he steals and lies in order to get something he doesn't want and he doesn't deserve. He is now beginning to grow into a tragic hero, according to Langer's standards. / Prompt focus
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5.In order to complete the process of becoming a tragic hero, Biff must confront his family with this truth, especially his father Willy. It is the test where he will prove his heroic passion for the truth that separates him from the rest. He tells his family that they are living a lie based on the ridiculous and unrealistic dreams of success his father has pushed on them. He tells them they "haven’t told the truth for five minutes" in their home. He demands that his father see him for who he is, a man who is "as dime a dozen." He pleads with his father. He cries for his father. He tells his father to let go of the "phony dream" before it destroys them both. In this manner, he proves his growth in awareness, emotional maturity, and morality. He now knows who he is and he knows his place in the world. / Prompt focus
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6.In the end, Biff Loman fulfills the status of tragic heroby virtue of his noble confrontation of the truth and by his difficult journey to personal growth. He has to sacrifice the lie upon which his entire self-image has been built, upon which the entire Loman family has built their fantasies of success. His father will not accept this truth, turning to suicide in order to maintain the fantasy of Biff's greatness, but Biff's future oddly depends on his father's death. Willy's death is the death of the faulty dream and of the pathetic Biff. It is also the birth of Biff's realistic dream and of his heroic self. The devastating loss of his father as well as his entire world view is required for Biff's achievement of heroic status. In the end, he becomes truly heroic because he rises to an honest assessment of his self and his role in the world, accepting the truth. The catastrophe was worth it because, in the end, Biff is a tragic hero who knows who he is. / Prompt focus
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