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  • Essay / How pride is Willy's tragic flaw in the death of a salesman and how it is the central theme of the play

    There is a reason why Willy Loman is considered a tragic hero where a great part is linked to his pride. In fact, through the character of Willy, Arthur Miller is able to build the theme of pride around himself, with pride emerging as the main theme. The same theme of pride also helps establish other smaller themes such as the theme of heritage, change and identity. In Death of a Salesman, pride as a means of self-deception and as a coping mechanism. Willy Loman is shown to be extremely proud even though the source of his pride is in no way based in reality. Steven Centola also demonstrates the theme of pride in Willy's denial of reality and his inability to accept changes in himself and in society. Looking at both works, one can easily see that the identity Willy ends up assuming is heavily built on his false sense of pride which plays a huge role in almost every decision he makes. His unjustified pride greatly prevents him from being able to learn from his mistakes and the changes taking place around him, an event which will lead to his downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Although Willy is a dreamer, that's a good thing, but part of his excessive arrogance and pride results from his unwavering belief in his dreams. For him, his dreams are not only blank but also absolute when they are free from any flaws and nothing can be done to change his stance on his country or his dreams on what he wants to achieve. In fact, I will never rule out any form of introspection or reflection with the aim of seeing things as they are and not as they should be. This state alone constitutes the basis of its pride. For starters, he will never take the time to question some of his beliefs and dreams. A good example is when he was having a conversation with Linda about Biff's failures. It becomes clear that his belief in the American dream is unwavering where he believes the American dream is superior. Believing that there is nothing wrong with the American dream will demonstrate a great sense of pride in America as the "greatest country in the world." A country full of “beautiful towns and honest, honest people (Miller 126).” Willy completely fails to see how much people are suffering, so his exceptionalism in this context reflects his false sense of pride when he simply fails to see the truth. At the same time, at this point, the willpower is terribly down as a seller where he has very little to be proud of in his financial situation. But despite this fact, Willy uses his relentless pride as a coping mechanism where he believes things will work out in time. This false sense of pride makes Willy live in a world full of illusions where reality no longer makes any sense to him. Whether he simply chose to ignore reality or not, his false sense of pride laid the foundation for his downfall. What's even worse is the fact that he passes on his sense of pride to innocent people. (Centola 32) captured this aspect perfectly by observing that “Willy fails to see the madness of his dream and ends up transmitting not only his dream but also his confusion to Biff and Happy.” Willy's believed that "the man who makes a In the world of business, the man who creates personal interests is the man who gets ahead" (Centola 26), which makes him so concerned with his appearance at the expense of doing what which is just to change one's personal financial problems. He has a sense of pride.