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 | | All My Sons by Arthur Miller, C. W. E. Bigsby (Editor) ISBN-10: 9780822200161 ISBN-10: 0-8222-0016-3 ISBN-13: 9780822200161 ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-0016-1 Paperback 1999-06 Dramatists Play Service Inc Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Joe Keller and Herbert Deever, partners in a machine shop during the war, turned out defective airplane parts, causing the deaths of many men. Deever was sent to prison while Keller escaped punishment and went on to make a lot of money. In a work of tremendous power, a love affair between Keller's son, Chris, and Ann Deever, Herbert's daughter, the bitterness of George Keller, who returns from the war to find his father in prison and his father's partner free, and the reaction of a son to his father's guilt escalate toward a climax of electrifying intensity. Winner of the Drama Critics' Award for Best New Play in 1947, All My Sons established Arthur Miller as a leading voice in the American theater. All My Sons introduced, themes that thread through Miller's work as a whole: the relationships between fathers and sons and the conflict between business and personal ethics. | ||
Reviews | ||
Arthur Miller's First Great Success: Darkness Under The American Dream Critics tend to compare ALL MY SONS to various plays by Henrik Ibsen--and most particularly so to THE WILD DUCK, which it tends to mirror in theme. There is a certain truth to this: having failed in his previous efforts, Arthur Miller set out to create a commercially viable play, and the resulting script echoes "the well-made play" style that Ibsen created. But this comparison will take us only so far: when it arrived on stage in 1947, ALL MY SONS made clear a new and powerful dramatic voice, and critics and audiences were so taken with it that the show even bested Eugene O'Neal's THE ICEMAN COMETH in terms of accolades and popularity at the time. In general terms, ALL MY SONS presents us with what seems to be an "all American family" in the aftermath of World War II. Joe and Kate Keller are a middle aged couple with two sons, one missing in action since the war. Joe runs a factory; Kate is obsessed with the notion that the missing son will some day return; and son Chris has fallen in love with is missing brother's former girlfriend, Ann. At first the play seems to be about Kate's resistance to Chris and Ann's romance, which she clearly sees as a betrayal of her lost son--but the play takes a gradual turn that lifts it out purely domestic drama and into the realm of wider social issues. It transpires that Ann's father was once in business with Joe and the factory they owned sold faulty aircraft parts that resulted in the loss of 21 pilots during the war. In a subsequent trial Ann's father was held responsible and Joe was found entirely innocent of wrong-doing. As the play progresses, suspicion begins to arise about whether these findings were correct--and if they shouldn't have been the other way around. Did Joe Keller, who seems such a likeable family man, knowingly send out the faulty parts and shift blame to his partner? The first two acts of the play are remarkably well-crafted, presenting us with vivid characters and some of the most realistic dialogue ever heard on stage. Toward the third act, however, the mechanics of the play become a bit too obvious. This is particularly true when Ann reveals to the family a letter she has had in her possession all along, the content of which precipitates the final climax of the play. The phrase "deus ex machina" comes to mind: an artifical device unnaturally inserted into the play in order to bring the story to a conclusion. Whenever I review a play I feel called on to note that playscripts are essentially a blueprint for a performance. They are not really intended to be read, but to be seen on stage, where performing artists give the author's writings the final breath of life. As such, it is not always possible to see how a particular script "plays" when it is on stage before an audience. Like most of Miller's plays, ALL MY SONS reads very well--but I have the distinct feeling that the flaws of the play are much more noticeable on the page than they are on the stage. Although the play suffers a bit in comparison to Miller's later works, it is nonetheless an essential for anyone seriously interested in 20th Century American drama; recommended. GFT, Amazon Reviewer | ||
The voice of conscience, morality, and idealism The late Lord Bertrand Russell once said, "Actions have consequences." Arthur Miller makes it clear: Bad actions have bad consequences in his early play, "All My Sons." Set not long after the end of World War II, the play concerns big issues: life and death, and the necessity of living a moral life. The conflict pits the idealistic son, Chris Keller against his pragmatist father, Joe Keller, owner of a manufacturing plant that shipped out defective airplane parts during the war. As a result, twenty-one pilots died when their planes crashed. This early play foreshadows the disillusionment by the son of the father that plays so predominantly in "Death of a Salesman," the flagship of Miller's dramatic output. Miller also introduces the idealist's version of moral behavior. When younger son Chris discovers his father's flawed decision to continue production of cracked engine parts, he berates him for lacking the high caliber of character of which he thought his dad was made. His father sincerely asks Chris: "What could I do?" The key line and one which comes to fruition in "The Crucible" is "You could be better." Actions have consequences. Yes, I am revealing a key secret in the play, but it is the consequences of this revelation that is really the clincher of Miller's powerful morality play. That I will not reveal. But lack of idealism, lack of moral turpitude show the inner essence of a person. Everyone is born with this pure core. Time and circumstances chip away, a day at a time, a person's idealism. Only the few survive. Joe Keller has revealed a seriously hacked core; Chris's is still intact. But at what price? Two other stories deal with the consequences of idealism. Miller's The Crucible (Penguin Classics) shows John who can confess to witchcraft (although not guilty) and live, or deny his involvement, be found guilty, and die. He must sign a document; in doing so, he besmirches his name. Because of his idealism: "It is my name, I have no other," he cannot sign and thus dies. In the other story, Gone Baby Gone Casey Affleck's character believes it to be just to turn in the kidnapper and return the child to her neglectful mother and a probable miserable life, or leave the child with the kidnapper who would inevitably give the child a good home. Each decision shows the impact of idealism. Actions have consequences. Good or bad? Chris forces his father to acknowledge his misdeed by realizing he caused the pilots' deaths. Joe says, "Yes, they were all my sons." Even this is not the end of the misdeeds. Two other secondary plots involve moral choices and evil consequences when morality is not chosen. Ann Deaver, the girl next door who was engaged to the older brother when he went to war, and now recently engaged to Chris, must live with a flawed decision she made. The other plot line goes to Ann's father and the consequences surrounding him. "All My Sons' is a powerful play that holds up to scrutiny an American story of success at a high cost and the devastation that malignant success brings to so many others. With this play Miller established himself as a major talent and voice of conscience which would become so important in "The Crucible" and McCarthyism to come. | ||
Accounts and accountability The story line of this family tragedy centres on an entrepreneur's/ manager's bad decision under heavy pressure: deliver a faulty product even when you know it can cause serious problems to the customer? Try to hide the product flaws? Or risk the ruin of the enterprise? And once started on the wrong trajectory, do you accept accountability or do you put the blame on a weaker link in the chain? This basic dilemma is known to everybody from politics to business life. Miller wrote this play after WW2, and his example of the problem are faulty cylinder heads delivered to the airforce under time pressure. The man who did it compounded his crime by dodging truth and letting another man go to jail. The families of both men are heavily interrelated and as it turns out, the damage is unreparable. Not just to the crashed pilots, but also to sons and daughters. Reading the play now gives me a feeling of meeting a stereotype, but then, was the theme really as well explored at the time as it seems now? Quite possibly Miller was a pioneer in it, I don't know. I give only 4 stars because the play is a bit over-didactic. I have not researched this, but I seem to remember that Miller got some flack from the McCarthy-committee for this play. Must have looked awfully un-American apparently, to explore questions of accountability. Certainly not a tradition in presidential circles. P.S. I read an old interview with Miller where he says that he got 'invited' to the committee only because the guys were hoping for a photo shooting with Marilyn. | ||
'they are all my sons' I have noted in a review of Death of A Salesman that Arthur Miller had a good ear for the foibles and traumas besetting the ordinary people of the old middle class, here upper middle class, put up against the wall in a world that was dramatically changing after World War II. The difference between success and failure is sometimes very close. As we know Willie Loman did not make it. In the final analysis Joe Keller the `hero' of this play does not make it either. Here Miller gets to take a peek at the strivings, legal and illegal, of a small time capitalist, Keller, who in the afterglow of success via lucrative government war contracts is confronted with exposure and ruin. That his factory's `shoddy' work may have contributed to own his son's death in war and that a co-conspirator in his governmental dealings, his partner, is slated to be the fall guy only add to the moral tension of the drama. Is this Arthur Miller's best drama? No, Death of a Salesman is the one that will stand throughout the ages. Nonetheless this is a thought provoking look at a modern moral dilemma concerning personal responsibility in a maddeningly impersonal world and deserves a read. | ||
Betrayal and Denial Betrayal and denial run rampant through Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons. This play brings to light the effects of war profiteering on those who participated in it, as well as those who benefited from it. Miller's first successful play, All My Sons is a precursor to his most famous work, Death of a Salesman, both of which deal heavily with the relationship between father and son. The play is in three acts, the first of which serves as an introduction to the Keller family and their neighbors. As the play progresses, the action heats up and the consequences of the characters' actions are revealed. World War II has been over for a few years and the Keller family is still adjusting back into their normal lives. The family consists of Joe and Kate Keller and their son, Chris. Larry, the other son, was reported missing 3 years earlier, but Kate refuses to believe that her precious son is dead. Larry's fiancée, Ann, is staying with the Keller's because Chris hopes to marry her. The trouble really begins when Ann's brother, George Deever, comes to take Ann away and prevent her from marrying Chris. Although George and Ann grew up with the Kellers, George harbors deep resentment towards Joe Keller. During the war, Joe's manufacturing plant made alot money by selling airplane parts to the Army. One day, Steve Deever, George's father, made a batch of defective parts. The parts were sent out anyways and both Steve and Joe were sent to jail, but Joe was not convicted and went home free. George believes that Joe was the one who told Steve to ship the defective parts. Whose fault is it that twenty one pilots died because of the parts and what does it have to do with Larry Keller? This play reveals the seedy events that occur during wartime and the never ending pursuit of the American Dream. Sixty years after it was written, All My Sons remains relevant today in both its themes and entertainment value. | ||