Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Arthur Miller was an American playwright, essayist, and screenwriter took birth on October 15, 1917, and died on February 10, 2005. Some of his popular plays include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. He won Tony Award for Best Author for All My Sons in 1946, while he gained the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Death of a Salesman in the year 1949. His work is known for portraying complex characters who cope with real-life situations and who confront their guilt and remorse for their past actions. His stories talk about the mistakes a person makes and how he looks forward in his life knowing that he has committed a grave mistake.
Arthur Miller wrote his first play No Villain in 1936 while he was still a college student. The play examines the Marxist theory and its inner conflicts using a story of an individual facing problems as a result of a strike. It tells the story of the Simons, an immigrant family, in their parlor, anxiously awaiting the return of their son from university. The Simons were once successful, but appear to have fallen upon rough times.
In 1946, he wrote All My Sons which became his first commercial success. All My Sons is a three-act play based on a true story. In 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use. It was covered by newspapers and Miller used the news to make his most successful play.
Characters of All My Sons:
The main character is Joe Keller, a middle-aged businessman who has been exonerated of the charge of knowingly supplying defective aircraft engine cylinder heads during World War II. He cleverly blamed his partner and former neighbor Steve Deever for the whole episode while pretending to be innocent. However, his wife Kate Keller who is in her late 50s knows his secrets. She knows that he is "the guy who made 21 P-40s crash in Australia". Larry Keller is the younger son of Joe and Kate who has been missing for the last three years since he went to participate in the war. Kate believes that he will return and maintains that Anne Deever, who had a relationship with Larry before he went missing, is still his girl. Chris Keller is the elder brother of Larry who returned from World War II two years ago. He respects his father and idolizes him until he comes to know that his father was responsible for the defective aircraft engine cylinder heads. Chris is an idealist and many people don’t like him for that. Chris and Ann have been in contact with each other through letters since Larry went missing. Anne knows that Larry is not going to come back ever and she has moved on. She is trying to make Chris’s parents agree to her marriage to Chris. George Deever is Ann’s elder brother. Like Chris, he is also a WWII veteran. He is a successful lawyer in New York and a close friend of Chris. He was angry at his father for his doing but when he visited Steve Deever, he realized that his father has been wrongly trapped by Joe Keller, and he feels deceived. He decides to convince Anne not to marry Chriss. Dr. Jim Bayliss is a successful doctor and a friend of the Keller family. He wished to be a medical researcher but he acknowledges his responsibility towards his wife and family. Sue Bayliss is Dr. Jim’s wife. She is demanding but affectionate. She is also a friend of Keller’s family but doesn’t like Chriss much. Frank Libbey is one year older than Chriss and George. He missed the draft because of his age and remained at home. He married Linda Lubey who used to be George’s girlfriend before the war. As George went to war, she married Frank and had three children within three years. Bert is an 8-year-old boy living in the neighborhood. He is a friend of Jim Bayliss’s son Tommy. He plays cop-and-robber games with Joe Keller.
Summary:
The play begins at Keller's residence where Joe and Kate Keller live with their elder son Chriss. Joe is a successful businessman living in a luxurious life in an American city. He is living his American dream along with his wife Kate. The only thing that troubles them is their missing younger son Larry who went to fulfill his national duties for World War II but didn’t return. The army declared him missing. While most people know that he is already dead and will never come back, Kate is full of hope and believes that Larry is alive and will soon come back. Larry Keller and Anne Deever were in love and were planning to marry before he went to the war front. Since h was declared missing, Anne moved on and developed a relationship with Chris, Larry’s elder brother and now she hopes to marry him. However, Kate still insists that she is Larry’s girl. Chris has invited her to Keller's residence to make things work for them. Anne’s father Steve Deever and Joe Keller were business partners. During the war, Joe and Steve gained a very profitable project for providing airplane parts to the US Army. One day, Steve found a defective supply of aircraft engine cylinder heads. It was a time of need and the Army was pressurising Steve and Joe to provide the cylinder heads immediately. Joe wasn’t at the factory at that time when Steve called him to ask what should he do. Joe nonchalantly asked him to weld the cracks in the airplane part and supply them to the army. Steve was reluctant but he was under pressure. Joe told him that he had flu and couldn’t come to the factory that day and he will have to send the cylinder heads on his own and he did the same. Thus, they provided such cylinder heads to be used in war aircraft that they didn’t know will work properly or not. Later on, some of the defective cylinder heads busted during the war causing 21 American airplanes to crash and their pilots to die. After inquiry, Steve and Joe were charged and arrested. During the hearing, Joe denied that Steve ever called and informed him about the defective cylinder heads and claimed that Steve is solely responsible for the mischievous act that caused the death of 21 American soldiers. Joe was absent from the factory that day while Steve was there. Steve didn’t have any proof of him calling and informing Joe about the defective heads. He lost the case and was convicted and jailed while Joe was exonerated. Joe’s wife Kate knew that Joe never had any flu and he deliberately didn’t go to the factory to avoid any responsibility in case of a mishap. Steve Deever swore he would never forgive Joe, so Kate worries that Ann will try and harm her family to gain revenge for her father. Thus, she objects to Chriss marrying Anne.
Kate is also hopeful of Larry returning back. She invites Frank Lubbey to check Larry's horoscope to confirm if the day he went missing was fortunate for her. Frank claims that it was an auspicious day for Larry and he couldn’t die that day. This further fills Kate with hope. Joe opposes Kate and says that most probably Larry no more. To this, Kate says that Joe must believe that Larry is still alive, because if he is dead, then Joe is responsible for his death.
George Deever is Anne’s elder brother, a childhood friend of Chriss. He is happy about the prospective marriage of Anne and Chriss. Being a World War II veteran like Chriss and Larry, he is ashamed of his father’s act. Yet, he goes to jail to inform him about Anne and Chriss getting married. At the jail, when George meets Steve he realizes that his father is comparably innocent and the whole plot was of Joe Keller who is the main culprit yet escaped any punishment. This fills him with rage and he decides to stop Anne from marrying Chriss.
At home, Chris and Joe try to suggest to Kate that she should learn to forget Larry. Kate says that Joe should believe that Larry is alive, because if he is not, then their son's blood is on Keller's hands. At the same time, George arrives there and confronts Joe. However, Joe convinces George with his sweet talk that he is innocent. He claims that he was ill and absent the day the incident happened. George gets convinced but after some time, Kate unknowingly says that Joe hadn’t been ill ever for many years. As George notices it, Joe adds that except for a flue that he suffered. While George again gets convinced, Chriss notices something odd in Kate and Joe’s behavior. He again confronts Kate and says that she must understand that Larry is no more. To this, Kate says that Chriss must believe that Larry is alive because If Larry is dead, it means that Joe killed him by shipping out those defective parts. Chriss is devastated after hearing this. Everything is clear to him now. He understands that his own father is the main culprit. Chriss is an idealist who always stands up for the right. But in this case, his most loving father is on the wrong side. He shouts angrily at his father, accusing him of being inhuman and a murderer, and goes away to solitude.
Kate then confronts Joe and asks him to go to the authorities and commit his crime and accept jail. Joe tells her that whatever he did, he did for the welfare of his family and goes away. Kate confronts Anne again and says that she must believe that Larry is alive and wait for him. Anne then shows her a letter that Larry wrote to her the day before he went missing. The letter written by Larry is essentially a suicide note. Kate comes to know that Larry’s airplane got crashed, but it was not because his plane’s cylinder head was defective. Larry deliberately crashed his plane because he knew that his father supplied defective airplane parts that caused the deaths of other soldiers and he couldn’t bear the shame. Kate is devastated after reading the letter. She asks Anne to hide the letter and not let Chriss or Joe read it. But Anne doesn’t agree with her. As Chris returns, Anne shows him the letter. Chris says that he is not going to send his father to jail but he will leave the family and will not marry Anne too because if he does, Anne will continue to expect justice from him.
Joe enters the room and Chris shows him the letter, saying that Larry knew his father was responsible for the unfortunate deaths of 21 pilots. He reads Larry’s letter aloud. Joe realizes that Larry believed that he is not only his father but he is like a father to all the 21 pilots that were murdered by him. He accepts that he is responsible and agrees to go to jail as all the dead pilots were his sons. He tells Chriss to wait for him as he takes his jacket. But as he goes away, Chriss, Kate, and Anne hear a gunshot. Joe Keller shoots himself and the play ends.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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