Hagel's Tragic Hero With Relation to Death of a Salesman

Are Willy's self-destructive actions caused by an attempt to act ethically?

Willy's self-destructive actions include;

• Cheating on Linda, as it makes him feel guilty and ruins his relationship with Biff.
• His envy of his brother Ben, as it just makes him feel bad about himself.
• Lying about how much money he makes, as he has to admit it anyway and it damages his self-esteem.
• Advising his children in the wrong direction, as it indirectly makes a failure of Biff, plus they both resent Willy for it.
• Ignoring his natural talents e.g. being good with his hands, as it narrows his horizons and he ends up pursuing the wrong lifestlye because of this (salesman).
• His pride, he is always beating away opportunities e.g. he denys Ben and Charley's job offers, this causes his self-destruction as he regrets it and sticks with his dead end job which highlights his weakness as a salesman.

I am going to look into Willy's self-destructive action of pushing his children in the wrong direction, in more detail. I think this action supports Hagel's idea that self-destructive actions are an attempt to act ethically, an attempt to be good. For example I'm pretty sure Willy doesn't intend for his boys to get as lost as they appear to be in the play. Both Biff and Happy seem totally unfulfilled and confused in life. Biff can't get what Willy considers a 'real job' ie a salesman, whereas Happy has everything he's ever wanted but is still really lonely and not sure if it is what he truly wants. However I think Willy was trying to act ethically by encouraging his sons to be salesmen. He has a warped perception of society and strongly believes that in order to be a success you have to follow the American Dream. So he was trying to make sure his sons had a good chance in life, and push them towards the lifestyle he saw as bringing fortune and happiness. Willy doesn't see that the career of selling isn't for everyone, he seems to assume he is the exception, and despite his own disatisfaction with sales, he still pushes his sons in that direction. So this then makes Biff and Happy very unhappy and to an extent I think they resent Willy for putting so much pressure on them to follow in his footsteps, for example both sons express wishes to work outdoors with "your shirt off", however Willy's rejection of being good with your hands as being a special skill has meant that Biff and Happy feel the same. So Willy's self-destructive action of denying his physical talents has indirectly led to this action. Willy then feels upset about how his sons have turned out, particuarly Biff as he appeared so promising in high school.  So this is a key example of Willy attempting to act ethically but it turning into a self-destructive action as he feels responsible for Biff's 'failure' in life in particular. However this example doesn't support the idea that Hagel put forward about the self-destructive action benefitting other characters.