Martyrdom as Heroism

Abstract

In Key Largo, Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire the idealistic protagonists’ conflicts with the materialistic society may end in their physical destruction, but they also signal their moral triumph. The protagonists are destroyed, and the audience is made to believe that they have been condemned by an environment that failed to conform to the moral standards set by the playwright through the protagonist. Theirs is a struggle against a valueless world and against a cynical majority (often embodied in the protagonist figure) bent upon alienating or destroying the outsider; the protagonists’ victories most often reside in the preservation of personal integrity and in the uncompromising adherence to an idealized vision of the world, even at the cost of self-destruction.