This semester we went through three tragic plays from different periods of time, “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles from the Classical Greek period, “The Tragedy of Hamlet” by William Shakespeare from the Renaissance followed by “The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, which is a modern drama. In this paper, I’m going to discuss about the evolutionary process that took place from Classical Greek times to the modern era tragedy, and also explain why Death of a Salesman cannot be considered a tragedy. Because, in terms of the Classical Greek and the Renaissance period I believe that to be a tragedy, the main character has to belong to the royal family or a nobleman and they must evolve around tragedy. Whereas, in The Death of a Salesman, the protagonist, Willy Loman, is just a mere man who was just lost in his dream of becoming a successful person who didn’t achieve anything in his life. In addition, each plays to differs from each other, there’s transition to the play…show more content… By the time it was 19th century, literature changed, most of the main characters that were either noble or from royal family were totally cut off, which is a notable evolutionary change. And instead of having hero now we have the protagonist which is the main focus of the play or on any novels. In the 19th century or you can call it a modern period, mostly middle class families were the main characters and they began to be the part of the novel genre instead of having kings and queens like in the Classical Greek and the Renaissance era. During the Classical and the Renaissance period churches were the center of the life however, in the modern period families became the center of life. Since it’s mostly about the family, the conflict in the family keeps the action moving, like in The Death of a Salesman, where the protagonist has conflicts with himself and his
