Death Of A Salesman Willy's Tragic Flaw

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In the play, Death of a Salesman, the father Willy seems to be struggling throughout the whole play not only physically but also mentally. From the beginning of the play it is noticeable Willy is a hard worker and works hard to provide for his wife and two sons, but there is one major flaw that hinders his relationship with his family. Willy’s tragic flaw is that he can't seem to grasp the reality of his betrayal of himself and his family.

Throughout the play Willy Loman struggles with insecurities about his job, his wife, his son Biff, and what he could have been. He is so worried about the past he completely ruins his relationship with his family, and his future. When Willy’s son Biff finds out about his father having an affair, things only get worse for Willy. The constant feeling of hate he received from Biff after the encounter never went away for WIlly, and he believed Biff would never forgive him. The embarrassment of his own son catching him with another woman haunted him. …show more content…
As children, Willy’s sons were star athletes, and made him very proud. Due to failing his math test, Biff could no longer attend college to play football, and loses all chances of playing football out of high school. This hurts Willy immensely, because although he felt like he could never amount to anything but a salesman, he wanted his sons to succeed because he had failed to. Willy tries to live through his sons, and felt that if they succeeded than he too would feel successful.

After failing to maintain stable jobs, Willy’s two sons later return home only to be taunted constantly by their father. Because of witnessing the affair, Willy is even harder on Biff, treating him as if he’ll never do anything good with his life. The overall hatred Willy portrays to Biff is mainly composed of hate towards himself. Willy hates himself for cheating on his wife and is constantly thinking about the

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