Order 781381: How Pride is Willy′s Tragic Flaw in Death of a Salesman and how it is the central theme of the play

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How Pride is Willy′s Tragic Flaw in Death of a Salesman and how it is the central theme of the play

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, pride is the central theme of the play and plays a role in many of the other themes such as identity, values, legacy, change and honesty. Willy’s identity is heavily influenced by his false sense of pride, as it is the driving force of his decisions, the cause of his behaviour in society and within his relationships. The stubborn nature of his pride hinders his ability to learn from his mistakes and change from his obstructed mindset which has negative consequences that lead him to his own demise and continue to have lasting effects on his family, making false pride his tragic flaw.

In Death of a Salesman, pride is used by Willy as a coping mechanism to the changes within himself, his family and society in which his pride aids him in his self-deception where he does not have to face nor accept his reality, which further consists of his mistakes and their consequences. Willy Loman is excessively prideful despite the fact that the source of his pride is not in any way founded in reality. Steven Centola also demonstrates the theme of pride in Willy’s denial of reality and inability to accept the changes within himself and in the society. Looking at the two works, one can easily see that the identity that Willy heavily assumes is built upon his false sense of pride which plays a directive role in all the decisions that he makes. His unjustified pride goes a long way in preventing him from being able to learn from his mistakes and adapt to the changes taking place around him.

While it is a good thing that Willy is a dreamer, part of his excessive arrogance and pride comes as a result of his unrelenting belief in his dreams. To him, his dreams are not only pristine but are also absolute where they are free from any defects and nothing can be done to change his stand on his country or his dreams of what he wants to accomplish. As a matter of fact, Willy never excises any form of introspection of reflection in a bid to see things as they are and not how they ought to be. This state alone builds the premise for his pride. To start with, Willy never take time to question some of his beliefs and dreams. A good example is when he was having a conversation with Linda about the failures of Biff. It becomes clear that his belief in the American dream is unrelenting where he believes that American dream is superior, which is a belief that he instils onto his sons that has significant impact on Biff especially. Believing that the American dream has no faults demonstrates Willy’s great sense of pride in America as being, “the greatest country in the world.” A country that is full of “beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people” (Miller 126).Willy completely fails to accept the contrast of his opinions displayed in reality. The effects of his denial become symptomatic as he continuously contradicts himself and how he shifts into and out of reality such as how people are suffering which makes his exceptionalism in this context to reflect his false sense of pride where he simply fails to not just see the truth but to accept it.

At the same time, at this time Willy is falling terribly as a salesman where his financial situation is nothing to be proud of. But despite this fact, Willy’s use of his unrelenting pride as a coping mechanism reinforces his beliefs and denial and that his problematic circumstances will be solved with time and require little to no intervention or self-improvement. This false sense of pride steers Willy in his world full of delusion when reality no longer makes any sense to him. Whether or not he can simply chose to ignore the reality, his false sense of pride lays the foundation for his downfall. What is even worse is the fact that he passes his delusions sense of pride onto innocent parties such as his family. Steven Centola perfectly captures this aspect where he observes that “Willy fails to see the folly of his dream and ends up passing on not only his dream but also his confusion to Biff and Happy” (Centola 32)

Willy belief that “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interests, is the man who gets ahead” (Centola 26) makes him very keen about his look and appearance in the world at the expense of doing what is right to change his personal and financial problems. He identifies with his false-sense of pride, he is so convinced that he is destined for success that it leads him to “constantly dress the part” (Centola 26).Willy’s false sense of pride surfaces where he selfishly believes that the values associated with one’s family have a way of opening doors for success. His pride in his family leads him to look down on manual labor and argue that it cannot be translated to success. Willy’s constant assentation of his idea of success and the implementation of his values onto his family jeer his sons into an unrealistic interpretation of reality and methods towards success. When Biff confronts Willy about the bad state of their situation he suggests that they should work as carpenters. Full of arrogance and undue pride, Willy quickly asserts that “even your grandfather was better than a carpenter…Go back to the West! Be a carpenter, a cowboy, enjoy yourself!” (Miller 222). He is simply too proud to accept that he is financially dwarfed, and that he can change his fate by doing manual works rather than continue to strive for a dream that does not suit him.

As established above, it is Willy’s false sense of pride that leads him to believe that he is successful as a businessman and as a father. While he may have been successful in the past, his pride blinds him from accepting his current situation. His dreams and ambitions are baseless where to him it only makes sense that he is fated for greatness. He fails to accept that he is both failing as a salesman and as a father and chooses to be proud when he has nothing truly to be proud of. It is this false sense of pride that eventually leads to his downfall.

Works Cited

Centola, Steven . “Family Values in Death of a Salesman.” American Literature, vol. 47, no. 2, 1993, doi:10.2307/2925484.

Miller, Arthur H. Death of a salesman. Royal National Institute for the Blind, 1949.