Editing Death of a Salesman (section)

=== Tragedy ===
In several statements, Miller compared the play's characters to Greek tragedy. Miller wanted to show that the common man and those with status had much in common.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Arthur |title=Tragedy and the Common Man |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/12/specials/miller-common.html |work=The New York Times |date=27 February 1949 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A449656101}} {{ProQuest|1782245770}} |last1=Thompson |first1=Terry W. |title='Built Like Adonises': Evoking Greek Icons in Death of a Salesman |journal=The Midwest Quarterly |date=22 March 2016 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=276–288}}</ref>

Writing in ''The New York Times'' in 1999, journalist [[John Tierney (journalist)|John Tierney]] argued that the play was not constructed like a classical tragedy. He observed that the mental illness suffered by Loman was a "biochemical abnormality" that was "not the sort of tragic flaw that makes a classic play." But he noted that "Willy's fate is supposed to be partly a result of his own moral failings, in particular the adulterous affair [...], he is haunted by the memory of his infidelity and by the fear that it ruined his son's life."<ref name=":1" />