Character roles in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman
Characters in conflict
Souriau’s 6 character roles
According to French philosopher Étienne Souriau any plot in world literature can be
analysed as the interaction of 6 elementary so called character roles. These are:
1. the desiring subject:
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2. the object (or value) which is desired:
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3. the intended receiver (= the desiring subject or a different person):
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4. the opponent (if identical with the desiring subject: a conflict within the hero):
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5. the arbiter (or ‘superhelper’) who decides the conflict between the desiring
subject and the opponent:
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6. the helper:
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TASKS
1. Try to identify Souriau’s 6 character roles in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a
Salesman” and fill in the blank rows accordingly.
2. Do you find Souriau’s classification a helpful tool of analysis or rather artificial
and inflexible? Discuss.