For Leon Trotsky, art was not a simple extension of ideology. “The belief that we force poets willy-nilly to write only about smokestacks or a revolt against capitalism is absurd” (Eagleton 43). A Marxist critique can bring new and exciting insights, but it is limited by the fact that it too is ideologically bound. Marxist critics suggest or allude to Miller's latent Marxist tendencies due to the work's overt attack on capitalism. Marxism has its own ideological program; seeks to replace Miller's economic doxa with its own doxa. Even with these limitations, the questions that Marxist criticism raises about Miller's world and our own are challenging and even profound. To have value, his questions must be posed in an ideological perspective. Although not in the most obvious way, Marxist criticism nevertheless provides ample justification for the merit of "Death of a Salesman." Through the admission of our own ideological fragility not so different from that of Arthur Miller or Willy Loman, we can see the nature of their tragedies, and also the nature of the tragedy that may await us all. Whether Willy is Oedipus' stature or not, the possibility of learning exists. Since such texts offer us the opportunity to learn from them, we need to pay attention