Tragic Heroes of Oedipus the King & Death of a Salesman

The tragic heroes of Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Oedipus and Willy Loman respectively, refuse to passively accept their fate. In his essay Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller (1949) argued that the tragic hero is ready to die to secure personal dignity mainly from an "unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status" (1726). In both Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman, the tragic heroes are tragic for their inability to remain passive in the face of a challenge to their dignity, even if it means their demise.

In Oedipus the King, Oedipus' city of Thebes is being wracked by war and plague. Oedipus demands an inquiry into the source of these troubles. He discovers from the Oracle at Delphi that the individual responsible for killing the former King of Thebes is the individual responsible for Thebes' troubles. As King, Oedipus' dignity is challenged because the city he leads is in crisis. At the outset of the drama, Oedipus swears to bring the individual to justice and restore order to Thebes. He is also viewed as the savior of Thebes, who by his "coming saved our city, freed us from tribute which we paid of old to the Sphinx, cruel singer" and as "Greatest in all men's eyes" (Sophocles 1967, 112).

However, Oedipus discovers from Teiresias, a blind seer, that he is, in fact, the murderer of King Laius. Te