death of a salesman

While constructing the play, Miller was intent on creating continuous action that could span different time periods smoothly. The major innovation of the play was the fluid continuity between its segments. Flashbacks do not occur separate from the action but rather as an integral part of it. The play moves between fifteen years back and the present, and from Brooklyn to Boston without any interruptions in the plot. The flashbacks are important because they apprise the reader of what happened in the family's past (specifically Willy's) that made him the man we meet in the play.