Structure, themes and motifs in The Death of a Salesman by Arthur MillerAt first glance, Arthur Miller's play, The Death of a salesman, seems to be a simple story of the tragic life of an ordinary man. Through a few flashbacks, it seems that his whole dreary life is being told and that's it. However, this cannot be the case, because Arthur Miller is known to be one of the greatest living playwrights. After reading the play for the fourth or perhaps fifth time, I became fully aware of the complex structure, many themes, and different motifs that Miller used to make this play a classic. In the case of this work, the title would pretty much sum it up. It's about a salesman, Willy Loman, quite ordinary and very unsuccessful. In the end, unsurprisingly, he commits suicide. The play takes place over three days (including the funeral) and revolves around the return of Willy's two grown-up sons. He has worked for decades traveling all over New England selling goods for a company and seems to think that because he is well liked (which is not so true) he is successful. He wishes that his sons could also be like him while knowing that they will never be good businessmen. This is a source of major conflict between brothers Biff and Hap and Willy. Linda, Willy's wife, is very naive and thinks that her husband is just an innocent, confused old man and that he loves her faithfully. She can't stand seeing her sons argue against their father, even if they are often right. Through flashbacks and events in the play, it is evident that Willy, at least subconsciously, believes his life has been terrible. He wishes he could be as big as Uncle Ben, who made his fortune in African diamond mines and not in rice cakes. Willy was having an affair with another woman in Boston and Biff found out after his senior year of high school. Incidentally, this event likely led to Biff not completing his summer school math studies, which led to him not graduating from high school. Willy attempted suicide several times with his car and the gas boiler. Eventually, the salesman became convinced that he was worth more dead than alive and finally achieved something by killing himself with his car..