End of Act 1 of Death of a Salesman

I feel the end of Act 1 conveys a visual imagine of two things happening simultaneous which reveal that Willy may be a 'fake' as he wants to commit suicide, however shows a false sense of happiness, although I feel this could be him simply reminiscing of his old life and saying goodbye to his new life. The end of act 1 leaves suspense as I feel there is tension between Biff and Willy which is unresolved, as they are very similar characters, despite Biff being more outspoken about his true feelings. They both have delusional views of how to be successful and alternating moods towards each other. It could be seen that their relationship is tragic because they cannot help each other.

Tragic Hero - Hagel

Hagel's theory was that by attempting to act ethically, the characters actions would inevitably become unethical. Willy Loman fits with this to an extent because he does try and act in an ethical way sometimes, e.g. providing for his family by working as a salesman, however this is self destructive because his real talents lie with working with his hands, so not only is he damaging his own life he is damaging the life of his family. He also tries to forge a positive relationship with his children which is ethical, however the results of his actions are destructive because it ends up that his children share the same distorted views as him, that being 'liked' is the most important trait to be successful. However it can be that Willy's actions are unethical but still destructive, for example he has an affair which leads to his guilt and dishonesty to Linda, which is self destructive. His negative attitude also is self destructive as it means he can never be as successful as he would like because he does not believe in himself.