An Interpretation of Ben’s Function in Intensifying Willy’s Tragedy from Aristotle’s Poetics

The play Death of a Salesman is undoubtedly the most influential play of Arthur Miller which depicts a tragic life of Willy Loman, a travelling salesman, induced by his false American Dream of making a fortune out of business. Unlike many other essays focusing on the hero Willy, this one tries to explore Willy’s dead brother Ben’s function in this play so as to demonstrate that Ben plays an important role in Willy’s life by making Willy’s life more tragic in terms of Aristotle’s tragic theory. The first part of the essay illustrates Ben’s importance to Willy and the second part centers on the way Ben pushes Willy to a more tragic situation.