The American Dramatic Tradition: Idea and Technique in the Plays of Arthur Miller

Exploring Dramaturgical Techniques and Social Relevance in Arthur Miller's Plays

Abstract

Arthur Miller has stated that his first concern, when writing a play, is dramaturgical “I ask of a play, first, the dramatic question… What is its ultimate force? How can that force be released? Second, the human question – What is its ultimate relevance to the survival of the race? Society is inside of man and man is inside society, and you cannot even create a truthfully drawn psychological entity on the stage until you understand his social relations and their power to make him what he is and to prevent him from being what he is not.”1