the tragedy of modern man in arthur millers world

what miller wants is a theatre of heightened consciousness. he speaks of two passions in a man, the passion to "feel" and the passion "know". he belives that we can have more of the latter. he says: drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us know more and not merely to spend our feelings. the writing of the crucible shows us that he is trying to give more heightened self-awareness and knowledge back to threatre. and death of salesman explictily shows us how feeling and knowledge are put together in the drama. how we experience the tragic downfall of the protagonist, and how we feel by gaining this knowledge. the "feeling" that one experiences in reading deat of a salesman is more than millers other plays. so arthur millers strength as a playwright is an acute awareness of the "public" nature of theatre and the desire to see and report life realistically, and also the desire to see a theatre of "heightened consciosness". by putting these concerns before the public, arthur miller has shown that his sights are as high and as good the other great playwrights of time.