If Willy Loman Has a Tragic Flaw, What Might It Be, and How Does It Lead To His Death?

Introduction

The basic flaw in Willy Loman's life is his self-denial and deception that makes him live a lie by denying awareness of the reality and instead pursuing a path that is filled with delusion. Willy Loman's self-denial has its roots in childhood where he was denied to live like a normal child with a father figure and instead he was brought up by his older brother Ben. However, Ben Loman also at some point abandons Willy Loman in search of wealth in faraway non-familiar land. This indicates that all the Lomans not only Willy are self-deceptive and delusional which leads to a life full of struggle as Willy try to live a life of his own creation that is not the reality of his life (Smith, David). Willy in himself believes that he is successful and his appearance makes him more appealing to people. In addition, Willy believes that his sons are to be great based on his individual deductions. Therefore, Willy pursues a life of fantasy that ultimately leads to his own death.

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Pursuing a Life of Illusion: Willy Loman's Fantasy World

Willy Loman during his childhood he becomes aware of his talent in construction and woodwork as a carpenter but Willy deviates from his true calling to pursue a fantasy of wealth and opulence based on his looks and self-deception. Instead of pursuing what he is talented in and what he can ultimately succeed in doing Willy chooses the path of quick money in the field of sales. Willy relates himself to the success of the legendary salesman David Singleman as he hoped that he will be able to achieve similar success as a salesman. Therefore, Willy continues to live many years based on another man's success which is the ultimate cause of his failure. Another aspect of denial is evidenced when Willy denies his children to follow their dreams by imposing his own version of goals and dreams on his children. Willy goes to an extent of imposing his own dream on his children which denies them the freedom to do what they like. Willy believes that his physical impression plays a significant role in one's success a self-denial from the reality that only individual efforts and hard work. Willy lives a false life with superficial assumption and denial of the reality of the way to success. "That's just what I mean. Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him (Act 1)" (Smith, David).

The Allure of Appearance: Willy's Superficiality and Denial of Reality

As Willy becomes an elderly man he continues to live in a dream which for him it is his reality. Willy leaves a life of regret of what he could have done but he did not do at the time when it was appropriate because of his self-denial and deception. Self-denial is evident to have destroyed Willy's life in Act 2 where he is planting seeds in the garden at night after his realization that he has not been able to achieve anything in his life. When Willy is questioned by Linda he responds that he has to leave behind some seeds because so far he had not planted any seeds. Having been denied love in childhood Willy grew up to become a bad father and he leads a life seeking validation from other people. Willy's suffering is all his own doing by failing to embrace who he truly is and living a life of fantasy. In Act 1 Willy denies that the cause of his family poor performance and lack of wellbeing because of his self-denial but instead blame it on the rise of the population "WILLY: There's more people! That's what's ruining this country! The competition is maddening! Smell the stink from that apartment house! And the one on the other side... How can they whip cheese? (Act 1)" (Smith, David).

Willy's self-denial and deception is his tragic flaw in that he wants to live the American dream based on the success of other people whose path has been a success not realizing who he truly is and his potential. Willy self-deception makes him make wrong decisions on following a path of materialism where he puts material things to be of more preference other than other things such as love and family. As a result, Willy Loman rejected other occupations that he was more qualified such as carpentry and insisted on following the path of a salesman. As a result, Willy becomes a casual liar to others and fails to embrace the reality until it is too late when he realizes that he has not planted any good seeds at the garden in the midnight where Linda questions him what he was doing in a garden at the middle of the night. Willy lies to his family and friends about how good he was playing as a salesman but in reality, he was miserable for pursuing what he did not have any skills and talent (Smith, David).

Conclusion

At the end of the play, Willy is unable to cope with living a lie and he becomes a tragic character in the "Death of a Salesman" by eventually taking his own life through suicide after seeing no hope of success like he has always hoped for in his life of deception. In conclusion, Willy became a tragic character by losing his true identity and talent to pursue the American dream. However, in his occupation as a salesman, Willy did not have the necessary skills and he was unable to achieve success and ends up committing suicide.

Work Cited

Smith, David. "Death of a Salesman." The Arthur Miller Journal 12.1 (2017): 60.