A Greek tragedy is a story, which involves a character with a tragic flaw that leads to his or her downfall. In the American tragedy Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman displays many traits, which lead to his downfall. Willy Loman displays a great deal of stubbornness and a warped sense of success as well as a lack of parenting skills. Throughout the play, Willy reveals many bizarre and uncommon characteristics that in the end contribute to his suicide. Willy's stubbornness and pride plays a major role throughout the play in major scenes.

The pride and stubbornness, which Willy possesses, hinders him throughout the play. One of the most prominent scenes in which Willy's pride gets to him is when Charley offers him a job. Willy's response to Charley's first push to get Willy to take the job is, "I - I just can't work for you, Charley."(97) After Willy turns down the first offer, Charley again tries to get Willy to take the job and Willy responds by saying, "I can't work for you, that's all, don't ask me why."(98) Even though Willy lost his job and cannot afford anything, he still refuses a job offer from Charley. Willy has too much pride to accept anything from anyo

ne. Another prominent example of Willy's excessive

Willy displays poor parenting and role model skills throughout the entire play. There are many scenes early in the play, which lead the reader to recognize the flaws in Willy's parenting and role model skills. When Biff steals football from the locker room Willy first responds by saying, "I want you to return that."(30) This is obviously the right thing to say to any child who takes something that is not rightfully theirs. However, three lines later Willy then contradicts himself by saying, "Sure, he's gotta practice with a regulation size ball, doesn't he? To Biff: Coach'll probably congratulate you on your initiative!"(30) This is instilling the wrong moral ethics in Biff. Biff now believes that if he steals something his father will not get angry but will approve of the action. Many scenes throughout the play demonstrate Willy's inability to act as a role model to his children. One of these scenes is when Biff discovers his father's affair with "the woman". Biff until this point had always looked up to Willy and thought of his father as almost invincible. This incident changes many of Biff's views regarding Willy. It creates a dark side to Willy and questions Biff's previous views of his father. At this point in the story Willy's status as a role model to Biff is certainly lower than in previous scenes. Perhaps the biggest mistake that Willy makes as a parent and role model is his suicide. While Willy kills himself with the intentions that Biff will collect insurance money, this is not how other people will most likely see it. Willy's family is left to believe that Willy kills himself out of depression. Wil

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Approximate Word count = 1138
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)