Willie....a hero?

The question of whether or not this play is a tragedy is discussed in the study questions at the end of the play and also in the questions found on page 1119. In order for a play to be considered a tragedy, there needs to be a tragic hero. This tragic hero is then the one that dies at the end making the play a tragedy. But can Willie be considered a hero. This is a tough decision to make. On one hand, Willie has cheated on his wife, taught his children wrongly has they were growing up through their childhood years, and quite frankly treated Linda like crap. But while Willie did commit these sins, he also has one heroic trait that stick out more than anything else. He has devoted his life to travelling on the road and solely working on commission for over 30 years without break. Where he was once promised a position at the firm (which wouldn't require him to travel), he never received it and ended up spending his whole life having to leave his family for long lengths of time and go on the road and make sales. He did no do this for himself, but solely for his family. When looking at this, I think Willie is deserving of being called a tragic hero. We all have our faults, even the tragic heroes in other plays such as Romeo. While those heroes may not have their faults as emphasized as Willie's, they do have their faults. Willie made the mistakes he made because of the high demanding, low paying job he had just to barely support his family. He deserves to be called a tragic hero.