Well, those elements you just mentioned and which I have written about, are qualities which I see in the tragic character and tragic situation. For example, 'Tragedy makes us aware of what the character might have been' 'Tragedy is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly' and later, in the 'Preface' to the Collected Plays, you said, 'The less capable a man is of walking away from the central conflict of a play, the closer he approaches the tragic existence.' Since you wrote those lines, there have been three more plays, and I am wondering if you feel that tragedy is still basically the same, or, in the light of After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, and The Price, has it become something else? A.M.
In earlier essays and statements you have said that tragedy reflects certain qualities, and I take it that when you wrote All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge, tragedy was a definable quality to you. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ĪRTHUR MILLER AND THE MEANING OF TRAGEDY (Interview by Robert A.
