How, through dialogue and other dramatic effects, Miller has constructed a credible representation of human conflict.

"In all my plays and books I try to take setting and dramatic situations from life which involve real questions of right and wrong. Then I set out, rather implacably and in the most realistic situations I can find, the moral dilemma and try to point out a real, though hard, path out. I don't see how you can write anything decent without using the question of right and wrong as the basis." Arthur Miller, 1948, …

…when others tell him, by characterising him as falling back into ignorance. Arthur Miller creates a man with a strong, understandable (if not entirely acceptable) affection for his niece. We are presented over and over again with someone who wants a particular lifestyle and it is easy to believe Eddie will not see that it just cannot happen. This is a truly human quality: human beings always seem to be wanting what they cannot have.