Exam (elaborations)
AQA A-level English Literature B Paper 1 Section C: ‘In tragic texts, although the villains are far from good, they are not evil’
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‘In tragic texts, although the villains are far from good, they are not evil’In many Aristotelian inspired tragic texts, the villain is often presented sympathetically,
whilst occupying an antagonistic role. In the case of Willy Loman in ‘Death of a Salesman’,
whilst he does not come from a place of importance, he is the patriarch of his family, whom
he prizes. He occupies the position of the antagonist to Biff and himself, as he actively
subordinates his son and contributes to his own demise. However, misguided his decisions
are, it is hard to judge him as ‘evil’. Whilst Alec, heightened by his own self-importance, is
straightforward in his villainy. His directly contributes to the destruction of Tess, the titular
hero, and creates chaos in her life throughout the novel. Hardy uses the novel to make a
social comment on Victorian society and it could be argued that Alex is positioned as a
construct to expose how upper-class men would exploit their higher status in a contest of
power. Tess’s initial rejection of Alec seems to motivate him to pursue Tess in a bid to
dominate and control her. Lord Acton, in the Victorian age, propounded the idea that
‘power corrupts’, and this ideology seems to be explored in the construct of Alec.
From the outset of the play, Willy Loman is influenced by the American Dream which
motivates his behaviour. Willy dreams of achieving financial prosperity, as well as providing
for his family. Perhaps Willy’s failure to achieve the Dream, leads to the formation of his
hamartia and subsequent downfall because of his inability to achieve the unrealistic
standards. At the beginning, the audience are introduced to Willy and psychological burden
which he faces. Miller cultivates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and the image of the
Loman family’s entrapment, illustrating the damaging effects of consumerism which the
Dream exacerbates. The audience learn that the house is surrounded by ‘apartment
buildings’ which are ‘under’ and ‘over’ the house, cultivating a suffocating feeling, Willy is
trapped in his working-class position. Furthermore, Miller highlights that ‘an air of a dream
clings to the place’ perpetuating the entrapment of the Loman family. The verb ‘clings’
further creates a feeling of claustrophobia and illustrates the oppressive nature of the
dream, aiding the wealthy and failing to support the vulnerable. This conveys that whilst
Willy possesses the wrong ideals; the pressures of society force Willy to act in an
antagonistic way. Whilst it is possible to judge Willy unfavourably, the audience can see
Willy is a victim of the American Dream, and his character is not malicious. He is a victim of
his social status; he is simply misguided as a result of possessing the wrong ideologies. Willy
can be likened to Joe Keller who is motivated by the societal ideals and the capitalist society.
Just as Clarke argues, it is of course the brutal capitalist system that has done Willy’.
In the case of Alec, his power is clearly a corrupting influence and arguably his hubris stems
from his superiority as a member of the middle classes. Alec is a wealthy, lustful young man.
This is evident when Tess approaches the house commenting that, ‘Everything looked like
money’. The utilisation of the indefinite pronoun ‘everything’ conveys the extent of their
wealth and provides a dichotomy to Tess who instead lives in a ‘blighted world’ because of
her impoverished family. Even the fact that the Stokes-d’Urbervilles bought the title,
‘d’Urberville’ to become nobles, conveys the family’s superiority. The reader’s initial
interaction with his character reinforces this social superiority and highlights the predatory
nature of Alec. He is described as emerging from the ‘dark’, which semantically alludes to his
villainous act that destroys Tess’ life. Moreover, he refers to Tess using the epithet, ‘my,
beauty’ showing his objectification of her sexuality. His exploitation of the first person
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