Literary Analysis

            In Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman the main theme throughout the story is pride. Willy is a struggling business man and very unsuccessful yet he tries to portray to his family mostly his sons that he is very successful. His sons grow up thinking that their dad is a great business man and want nothing more to receive his approval. It’s interesting how Miller uses Willy to strongly demonstrate pride in the story. At the beginning of the story Willy is lying to his family saying he is so important in the cities he is visiting even though he is vastly unimportant. Willys pride is also shown though his son and sports. Willy wants Biff to grow up to be just like him because of how athletic he is. However at the same time he is almost neglecting his other son. Willy puts his pride above having an honest relationship with his wife. Instead of telling his wife he lies about his sales and commission to make it look as if he is still the provider. Linda is not fooled and lets him continue to lie to her because she knows how little of himself he would think if she told him. The biggest disrespect throughout the story is Willy’s affair he had with the woman on a business trip. Not only does Willy hide the affair from Linda but he continues to daydream about it and lets it consume his thoughts. Willy continues living in the past thinking about the woman even though he knows it’s disrespectful towards his wife. After a flashback of a scene with the woman Willy admits his wrong doing towards his wife. Biff even walks in and catches his dad but because Biff had always seen his dad as an idol he didn’t know how to respond. Throughout the story Miller set a sense that Willy’s pride would eventually lead to his characters deconstruction. Sure enough this is what happened. Willy put his pride above his family again when he decided to commit suicide. However it worked out for the best for his family Willy’s pride was so high he couldn’t stand up and tell his family especially Linda who he really was. So basically the downfall of Willy in the story was his pride.