In Death of a Salesman and Oedipus Rex, pride plays an integral part of the plot development. In each play, the hamartia for Willy and Oedipus is pride, along with other minor things. Willy and Oedipus's sense of self-worth seems to come from their pride, as misguided as that may seem. Pride is the hamarita that connects Willy and Oedipus, in which case pride makes them live in their past and prevents them from seeing the present, resulting in their tragic end. For Oedipus, pride drives him to seek the truth in his hidden past, inadvertently causing him to be the instrument of his own downfall. Willy's pride causes him to live in an unrealistic past, preventing him from seeing what he currently has instead of what he does not have, leading to a pointless death. Finally, the sense of pride shown by Willy and Oedipus and how it affects their past extends to those close to them. For Willy, his pride and his past are imposed on his sons, and to some extent on their mother, while for Oedipus, his search for the truth in the past leads to the loss of his own wife and mother. Pride misleads the way Oedipus and Willy view their past, affecting their current lives and leading to their tragic end. CS Lewis said: "A proud man always looks down on things...as long as you look down, you cannot see something that is above you" (Lewis), and so for Oedipus and Willy , they are unable to see what their life is because pride always leads them to look down and towards the past. For Oedipus, it is his past that gives him all his troubles. Although his pride is his hamartia and what triggers his tragic downfall, Oedipus' past is the small fire that burned his world. Initially, Oedipus initiated the curse on Thebes, ...... middle of paper ...... for the benefit of his family, but which in turn benefited no one. Their hamartia, their pride made them unable to let go of the past, which caused their tragic downfall. Two proud men couldn't just accept the current state of things and had to try to change things that didn't need to change. Oedipus and Willy, because of their pride, did the exact opposite of what they wanted: Willy wanted to help his family, and instead, he settled for harming them. Oedipus intended to find the murderer of Laius to further glorify him; on the contrary, it simply caused him to shame himself. This is the price they paid for their pride, and even though Willy does not realize what he has done before he dies, Oedipus must carry the shame of his actions until his death. Pride destroyed both men, in different ways, and such is the path of hamartia and the tragic fall of a tragic hero..