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Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman presents a new take on the genre of tragedy. Miller writes of a tragic hero much like each and every person, an everyday man named Willy Loman. Willy Loman's very name explains his social position, that of a 'low man'. Arthur Miller felt that one of the key elements in the modern day tragedy was that "the compulsion within the protagonist gives rise to his insistence upon securing …

…his dignity, and Willy values dignity above morality, and even life itself. Throughout Death of A Salesman, that he is obsessed with his own dignity and self-worth, and therefore epitomizes the statement that Arthur Miller made regarding Willy's motives as being, "the compulsion within the protagonist gives rise to his insistence upon securing his personal dignity.". Willy Loman wanted his dignity, and paid for it with his mind, with his sons, and with his life.