The Idealizing Impulse

I was looking at The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. I'm not wild about Miller, but he was a gifted craftsman, and I think he hit the ball out of the park with his play, The Crucible.

This general comment about drama, which occurs on page 84, jumped out at me:

It is as close to being a total art as the race has invented. It can tell, like science, what is-but more, it can tell what ought to be.

Emphasis mine. Miller is usually thought of as a naturalist, but here you can see his idealistic side coming out. Without that idealistic side, I don't think he would have kept all those theater seats filled all those years.

If you fall to mere reporting
In your play-writer position,
You'll soon see the crowd resorting
To fleeing at intermission.