Tragedy and value: Miller's Death of a Salesman

Abstract

In the many years since the performance and publication of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, one central question has haunted literary critics and students and keeps recurring in any discussion of the play: is it or is it not a tragedy? The question of the tragic and genre definition in relation to Death of a Salesman followed the publication of Miller's essay "Tragedy and the Common Man" in The New York Times (February 27, 1949), only two weeks after the opening of the play.