Is Death of a Salesman tragedy or drama?

There is no question as to whether this play is a drama.
It is a drama. The question is whether or not it is also a tragedy. Drama and tragedy
can and do coexist, with essentially all tragedy falling into the category of
drama. 

Drama is the broader category here and tragedy the
narrower. The situation is akin to that of the relationship of rectangles and squares.
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. All tragedies are
dramas, but not all dramas are tragedies. 

As in the case
with rectangles and squares the determining factors are fairly clear. Are all sides
equal in length? If so, the rectangle is a square. In our case, we will ask, is there a
tragic hero who demonstrates some strength (moral strength) and fails through no fault
of his own? If so, the play is a tragedy and Willy a tragic
hero. 

Willy does have some redeeming traits and some moral
strength. He strives to succeed for egotistical reasons, it's true, but he also seeks to
be an example for his children (he fails, but he tries) and to provide for his family
upon his death. 

Willy's weaknesses in the play outweight
his strengths, but we can see Willy Loman as an average man with average weaknesses and
average strengths. Seen in this light, Willy is not a bad person. He is not a poor
example of what people are, what they do, and how they
suffer. 

As a representative man, Willy qualifies
(marginally) as a potential tragic hero. Does he cause his own demise or suffer a fate
that is out of his control? 

To argue that Willy does not
cause his own demise requires an energetic interpretation of Miller's intentions with
the play. It is possible to read the play as an indictment of a system that shows no
loyalty to those who helped to build it. Willy is fired when he asks for a different
position in the company, though he worked there for decades. Willy is also smitten by a
dream that he did not create, a dream of success and greatness which he inherited,
effectively, from his culture. These two concepts combine to portray Willy as a man with
no chance at simple happiness and moderate success. 

Willy
is an "all or nothing" person and this mentality can be argued to be derived from his
cultural situation. If this mentality led to his death, and it did, and if it is not his
own personal flaw but a flaw of his culture, then we can say that the play is a
tragedy. 

However, a more simple argument interprets Willy
as being entirely complicit in the development of his flaws. He is not loyal. He is bent
on a dream that he can give up, as Biff does, yet he refuses to relent in his "all or
nothing" stance. 

Seen in this way, the play is a drama
and, technically, not a tragedy.