Yes, Willy Loman and King Lear can be seen as tragic characters. This is because they both seem to br trying to make the right decisions, but in the end their tragic flaws get the better of them and they end changing in different ways, and make the wrong decisions as a result.
When examining King Lear, it may be said that his tragic flaw of always wanting to be flattered, led him to be gullible and mentally blind to the obvious events that were taking place in front of him. For example, in Act 1 scene 1 when King Lear's daughters Goneril and Regan used all sorts of flattering statements to make him believe that they loved him as much as they said they did, when in truth, they just wanted the riches and portion of the kingdom that was being granted to them.
In addition, his crave for flattery led him to shun his favourtite daughter, Cordelia, just because she was unable to profess her love for him with flattering words like her sisters.
Slowly but surely King Lear's tragic flaw of want for flattery led him to turn crazy and eventually die in the end. Leading him to have a seemingly tragic death because of all the situations he went through and caused him to go so crazy.
Furthermore, Willy Loman may also be seen as a tragic character because Willy has a lot of pride and is very ambitious. Even though being ambitious is a good quality to have, Willy seemed to be ambitious for all the wrong reasons. This would mostly have to deal with Willy's ambition to achieve the " American Dream" which causes him to lose sight of what he should really be doing, which is trying to make money to keep his family financially stable, and working hard to do so. He thinks that being well liked and seemingly known will help him attain the perfect job and family along with wealth he hopes to get, instead of working hard for it like his friend Charley. In the end, all the wrong decisions and thoughts of what he hoped to have and would have wanted to come true, comes back to haunt him as delusions in his head, and shortly causes him to end his life when he killed himself at the end of the book.
In conclusion,it may be said that Willy Loman and King Lear are considered to be tragic characters based on the various tragic flaws each character poses which leads them to go crazy and end their life in the process.
I agree completely with the statements written above. It makes since that King Lear was ruined by his need to be flattery and Willy was unfortunately brought down by his false notion of the American Dream. Good job!
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