All My Sons

Hello everyone, This blog is a part of my thinking activity. In this blog I will discuss about Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons".

Introduction

All My Sons is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller. It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1947, and ran for 328 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan (to whom it is dedicated), produced by Kazan and Harold Clurman, and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. It starred Ed Begley, Beth Merrill, Arthur Kennedy, and Karl Malden and won both the Tony Award for Best Author and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. The play was adapted for films in 1948 and 1987.

About Author

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, including The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, he received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Premiums Imperials prize in 2001, the Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.

Summary

The curtain rises on Joe Keller reading the newspaper in his backyard in a small town soon after the end of World War II. A strong wind the night before has toppled an apple tree that was planted to honor Larry Keller, Joe and Kate’s son. A neighbor, Frank Lubey, visits and says that Kate has asked him to use Larry’s horoscope to determine whether November 25, the day Larry disappeared, was a “fortunate day.” Another neighbor, Dr. Jim Bayliss, engages in conversation with Joe, too.


A young woman named Ann (Annie) Deever arrived the night before and sleeps inside. Ann is staying in Larry’s room and used to be Larry’s girlfriend. Sue Bayliss and Lydia Lubey also appear and converse with their husbands. A boy named Bert pretends to be a police officer that Joe hires, and he imagines a jail in Joe’s basement.


Chris Keller, Joe and Kate’s other son, enters and tells Joe that he saw Kate in the yard the night before when the tree fell and that she ran into the house, crying. They agree that Kate clings to the hope that Larry will return, but they both acknowledge that it’s impossible. Chris tells Joe that he has invited Ann to visit because they are in love and intend to marry. When Kate appears, she describes a vision she had of Larry flying his aircraft over their house, calling for his mama. When Kate admits that she can’t handle the reality of Larry’s death, Joe and Chris agree that they will tell Kate about the impending wedding that evening at dinner after a few drinks.

When Ann joins them in the yard, Jim asks about her father in prison. It is revealed that Ann’s father, Steve Deever, and Joe were business partners. Three years earlier, their factory built aircraft engines for the Air Force. When it was discovered that someone had knowingly shipped cracked engines that resulted in the deaths of twenty-one American pilots, Steve Deever was found guilty, but Joe was exonerated because he wasn’t in the plant the day the faulty engines were shipped. The entire play revolves around this past event. Ann accepts Chris’s marriage proposal and listens to Chris’s own war story. At the end of Act One, Ann gets a phone call from her brother, George, who has just visited Steve in prison. George will arrive soon to talk to Ann, but no one knows why.

Chris saws the broken apple tree in the beginning of Act Two. Sue and Ann discuss marriage, and Sue criticizes Chris’s idealism. She suggests that everyone knows that Joe was guilty, too. Jim has gone to pick up George from the train station and returns, warning Joe that George is angry and means to start trouble. George has come to confront Joe and to bring Ann home. When George appears, he and Chris talk about work. George is wearing his father’s hat and confesses to Ann that they have treated Steve poorly by not communicating with him and not believing his story of what really happened at the factory. Steve told his son the truth, that Joe gave the order to ship the cracked engines and then faked being sick so as not to come to the factory that day. George wants to confront Joe directly, but Ann talks him into waiting. Lydia is happy to see George because they were once romantically involved.


When Joe appears, he inquires about Steve and offers him a job at the plant when he is released from prison, but George makes it clear that Steve hates Joe and anyone else who profited from the war. When Kate claims that Joe hasn’t been sick in fifteen years, George immediately recognizes the lie about having the flu, which was his excuse for not being at work the day of the incident. Joe tries to correct Kate’s slip, but it’s too late. Suddenly, Frank appears to tell them that Larry’s horoscope reveals that he might still be alive, which only reinforces Kate’s delusion. Chris calls the idea insane, but Kate holds fast, and George wants to leave with Ann. In a moment of clarity, Kate reveals to her son, Chris, that she knows about Joe’s role in the munitions shipment. Stunned by the truth, Chris explodes at his father in fury.


Act Three takes place in the dead of night. Chris has driven away, and Kate sits on the porch alone. Jim appears and reassures her that Chris will return. He also tells Kate that he’s known all along about Joe’s guilt. Kate tries to explain to Joe that Chris believes in more than money and family, a value that Joe cannot agree with. Joe claims that he’d kill himself if there was something more important than family. Ann appears with a letter from Larry, a piece of evidence that she’s been holding back from the family. Ann wants Kate to free Chris from the lie about Larry, but since Kate refuses, she must share the truth. Chris appears and apologizes to Ann for being a coward. He can no longer be in Joe’s business and will find a new life in Cleveland. His idealism has turned into cynicism

When Joe reappears, another fight ensues. Joe tells Chris to throw away the family money if he considers it dirty. Chris admits that he worshiped Joe blindly and now sees the world for what it is. Ann chooses to share Larry’s letter, which contains the revelation that finally breaks this family in half. In the letter, Larry confesses to committing suicide in response to Joe’s crime. Joe responds to this news by quietly claiming that he now understands and goes inside to shoot himself. The play ends with Kate holding Chris, trying to comfort him, and telling him that he must go on living.


Characters

Joe Keller

Husband, father, and patriarch of the Keller family. Joe is the protagonist of All My Sons. Before the play begins, he and his business partner, Steve Deever, owned a munitions business that manufactured and shipped faulty aircraft engines to the Air Force during World War II. Steve went to prison for the crime, but Joe was falsely exonerated. During the time of the play, Joe’s son, Chris, is part owner of the business. Joe appears to be successful and happy, but he is actually tormented and plagued with feelings of guilt.


Kate Keller/Mother

Wife of Joe and mother to Larry and Chris Keller. Kate waits in vain for Larry to return from the war even though he’s been missing in action for three years. A nervous, emotional woman, Kate knows about Joe’s role in the munitions crime but lives in a state of denial. Kate is superstitious enough to believe that astrology will reveal whether Larry is alive. She suffers from headaches, nightmares, and insomnia, symptoms of a tortured soul.


Chris Keller

Joe and Kate’s son and Larry’s brother. Chris commanded a company during the war and now works in Joe’s business. Chris wants to marry Ann Deever, Larry’s former girlfriend, and does not support Kate’s denial of Larry’s death. Chris has been changed by the war and is morally upright, empathetic, and compassionate.


Ann Deever

Steve Deever’s daughter, Larry’s former girlfriend, and Chris’s fiancée. As the antagonist in the play, her visit to the Kellers’ home by Chris’s invitation sets the play’s action into motion. Ann is compassionate and loving, though she hasn’t spoken to Steve since his incarceration. She loves Chris and wants to be honest with his family. She is realistic about what happened to Larry and carries a secret that she hesitates to reveal.


George Deever

Ann’s brother and Steve’s son. George served in the war, and as Kate observes, the war left him looking much older than he is. He cares deeply for Ann, but he believes that he has the power to forbid her to marry Chris. George is an attorney who works in New York City. Ashamed of his father’s munitions crime, he has rejected Steve, who is in prison.


Dr. Jim Bayliss

One of the Kellers’ neighbors. Jim, about forty, and his wife, Sue, live in the house where Ann and George grew up. Jim longs to be a medical researcher rather than a practicing physician but feels constrained by both the postwar culture and his wife to make money in a more traditional way.

Sue Bayliss

Jim’s wife and neighbor to the Kellers. Sue is concerned about status and appearances and is a bit of a neighborhood gossip. Jim blames his unhappiness on Sue and her need for money. Sue is not afraid to tackle sensitive issues with Ann or Kate. She speaks her mind and doesn’t back down.


Frank Lubey

Another neighbor to the Kellers. Frank, age thirty-two, was not drafted during the war because of his age. He has agreed to create an astrological chart to determine whether November 25, the day Larry was reported missing, was a “fortunate day.” Frank and Ann had a romantic relationship before the war. Frank ended up marrying Lydia instead of Ann, but he feels happy to see Ann again and has some second thoughts about his marital decision.

Lydia Lubey

Frank’s wife, a mother of three, and neighbor to the Kellers. Lydia, age twenty-seven, engages in small talk with Kate, Ann, and George and makes her own hats. Lydia is happily married and well-adjusted.


Bert

An eight-year-old boy from the neighborhood who visits the Kellers’ home twice in the play. Bert plays a game with Joe in which he is a police officer who can lock up criminals in an imaginary jail in Joe’s basement.

Themes

Social Responsibility

The story highlights the interdependence of people and societies. Human communities are built on ties greater and beyond mere families and friendships, as seen in the context of a war.

In the story Joe absolves himself of war profiteering because it helped his family survive but on reality it destroyed 21 lives and so 21 families.

Every individual, no matter how free, has certain social obligations and duties to other people and thus his/her actions have direct and indirect ramifications for the greater society.

Thus, Joe’s narrow outlook of the World is juxtaposed with that broader outlook of his son Chris who understands the interconnectedness of the World and its society of diverse communities and individuals.


Tragedy

The central theme of the story is of tragedy like the tragedy of losing a parent (to jail) and the tragedy of losing a young son to war. Further, there is tragedy of losing one’s sweetheart for Ann.

There are tragic remonstrations of Sue for her husband prefers research and service over profit and money. There is lamentation of George losing his love, Lydia to another man.


Guilt

Almost every character in the story is carrying guilt for one thing or the other. Joe Keller is guilty about Larry’s death and Steve’s incarceration. Chris is guilty about not telling his parents about marrying Ann.

Ann is guilty about withholding the suicide note of Larry from his parents and Kate is guilty about hiding her husband’s complicity in the crime for which Steve is imprisoned.

Larry was guilt-ridden for his family’s involvement in the death of his brothers in arms. All the characters try to divert attention on other people’s fault to evade any accountability.


Money

The story highlights the need for money and wealth in the post War capitalist American society. Joe and Steve gave into their greed and profited from war.

It was driven by his protective instinct for his family, but Joe did throw his friend Steve to save his own name and business.

His insistence on the fact that Larry did not die in a plane carrying their cylinder also points to his disregard for other lives lost in the war, a testament to his self-preserving nature.

Sue Bayliss complained about her husband’s insistence on public service over money-grubbing practice like other doctors. She even criticized Chris’s idealism even though he survived on his father’s business money.


Love

In spite of personal differences and conflict, there is lot of love shared between the characters. Joe and Kate love their sons. They have toiled all their lives to build a happy home.

Larry and then Chris love Ann passionately, who reciprocate their sentiments equally. Joe loves his neighbors including neighborhood kid Bert. Chris and Jim Bayliss show a greater love and compassion for other people.