English Notes for University Students (2024)

Arthur Miller

Joe Keller is the protagonist of Arthur Miller’splay “All My Sons. He is a sixty year old industrialist. He is a man of strongmind and body. He has risen from rags to riches by sheer hard work. Starting as a factory worker, this uneducatedman built up an engineering business in forty years. His judgements are based on hard experienceof his life. But he is a poor victim of American socio-economic system. The profit and success values of Americansociety controlled all his actions.

2. The playAll My Sons takes its title from the last words of Joe Keller who is the tragiccharacter in the play. His sense of guilt leads him to commit suicide andbefore taking his life, he quotes the words of his dead son Larry who madepenance for the death of twenty-one pilots.These pilots were killed in plane crashes because they all had used thecracked cylinder heads sent from the factory of Joe Keller. Larry’s deathopened the inner eyes of Joe Keller to the truth that all those dead pilotswere his sons. Thus Larry’s death made Joe Keller learn his socialresponsibility. As John F. Kennedy, thelate President of America reminded the people that they should not ask America what the country could do for them,instead they should ask themselves what they could do for America.

3. The themeof All My Sons is the tragic conflict between family loyalties and socialresponsibilities. Joe Keller is deeplydevoted to his wife Kate and his two sons, Larry and Chris. He is willing to make any sacrifice for thembecause he thinks his family is far greater than even American society. It isfor his family that he committed crime in the war. A batch of cylinder headsmanufactured in his factory developed hairline cracks. The commanders of thearmy want quick delivery of the cylinders. If Joe Keller did not send themthose cylinder heads immediately, his war contract would be cancelled and Keller’sbusiness would be collapsed and he would become a pauper. So he pretends to besuffering from flue at home and rings up his partner Steve to patch up thecracks and ship them. He knows that the defective cylinder heads would lead toplane crashing and the pilots would be killed. But he thought that some one inthe army would find out the defects and they would not use such cylinders. Bythat time new cylinders could be manufactured and sent to the army. But theinevitable happened. The cylinders were used in the planes and twenty onepilots were killed.

4. When thematter was taken to court and Joe Keller and Steev were arrested, Joe Kellerdenied the phone call and he was acquitted. Steev was imprisoned. Returning to society, as if nothing happened,Joe Keller again built up his business and his social status has gone up. Hehas no prick of conscience about the death of those twenty one young men in the plane crash. Joe Keller argues that all people in theAmerican society made money during the war and money is very important. One’ssocial status and honour depends on his wealth.Unfortunately both the sons of Joe Keller don’t agree to their father’sidea of money making. This is thetragedy of Joe Keller.

5. Again, Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons shows usdifferent types of realistic and interesting pictures of family life in America. The play is centered roundKeller home. But we can see a glimpseinto the family of Steev Deever, Dr.Bayliss and Lubey . Keller and his wife Kate are very muchdevoted to each other. Joe complains jokingly that in his house he wears thepants, but Kate beats him with the belt. The relation between Dr.Jim Baylissand his wife Sue presents a different picture. Dr. Jim is an idealist. He wantsto do research. But his wife has made him practical because she believes in theAmerican principle that social status and dignity is based on money and moneyonly. This type of blind materialism leads to tragedy.

6. On theother hand the family life of the Lubeys give us another aspect of life. Lydia is alwaysvery happy and Frank is not at all ambitious. He loves horoscopes and birthstars of others. So they find life rewarding and when the neighbours laugh atthem, they also laugh with the neighbours. In the Deever family, the twochildren- George and Ann and their mother don’t have strong bonds of love foreach other. It is somewhat a broken family. When Steev Deever was arrested andimprisoned neither his children nor his wife stood with him. They did not evenvisit him in the jail. This is another aspect of American family life. Butafter some time George visits his father in jail and comes to know that JoeKeller made his father a scapegoat. He than comes to Keller’s family toquestion the honesty of Keller. But somehow Keller and his wife failed him. Buttruth cannot be hidden for a long time. It must come out. While talking, Katemakes a slip about the illness of Joe Keller on the day the cracked cylinderswere shipped. Thus George learns the truth that how Joe Keller cheated hisfather.

7. All MySons may be rightly considered as an Aristotlean tragedy in the modernworld. The effect of tragedy, accordingto Aristotle, is to arouse pity and fear in the audience in such a way as toeffect that special purging and relief called “catharsis”. Aristotle gave an important place tosuffering. An incident of a destructive or painful sort, such as violent deathor physical agony. All My Sons is agreat tragedy. The protagonist of the play Joe Keller is a tragic hero. He committedsuicide. His son Larry committed suicide. Twenty one young pilots were killed.It is all due to the crime committed by Joe Keller.But the tragic flaw comes tohim from American society where everything is measured on the value of money.Similarly all the tragic characters in the play are common men. They are poor victims of circ*mstances. Inthis play, Arthur Miller presents the individual and the society as reacting oneach other. Both individual and society are to be blamed, because man is a productof society and at the same time he is the creator of society. Joe Keller triesto justify his crime of killing twenty one pilots. He says that everyone in theAmerican society made money out of war. Thus he blames the society. But thetruth is that American society is made up of such Joe Kellers. The fatal flawthat triggers the tragedy is Joe Keller’s failure to respect his public role.He forgot that he is a part of society and he thought that his family is moreimportant to him than his society.

8. Miller’splay produces the feelings of awe and pity because the hero Joe Keller isprimarily responsible for his own actions. Twenty-one pilots, Larry and JoeKeller himself die, but the curtain does not fall on the play. Finally Kateadvises Chris to bury the past and live. This is an important message becauseerror is human but to forgive is divine and life must go on. The final atmosphere is one of “idealisticcalm” which contributes to the power and effect of the play. The curtain fallson it.

Essay: Prepareyour own essay on the following after studying the above notes:

The love story of Chris and Ann is a sub theme ofthe play All My Sons. It gives a romantic touch to the great tragedy All MySons. The deep love of the young man and woman not only sweetens the play butalso deepens the tragedy. Ann is the beautiful daughter of Steev Deever.Deever’s family and Joe Keller’s family are not only neighbours but partners inthe tragic events that fall their families.George and Ann are the children of Steev Deever and they are also theplaymates of Keller’s boys Larry and Chris. Love blossoms between Ann andLarry, but war throws a spanner on their romance. Larry joins the air force and he was reportedmissing. The cracked cylinder heads sent by Joe and Steve cause the death oftwenty-one pilots and both Joe and Steve are arrested. But Joe manages toescape from punishment while Steve is imprisoned. Being insulted and humiliated,Steve’s family went to New York.

We see Ann in the Keller home when the curtainrises. She is enchantingly beautiful andis being attracted by all the neighbours. Chris believes that Larry is no moreand he plans to marry Ann. That is why Ann has come to Keller’s home. Christells his father that he wants to marry Ann. Keller has no objection to themarriage of Chris with Ann. But Kate has an illusion that Larry is not dead andhe will come back. On the other hand Ann has concrete proof about the death ofLarry. Just before his death, Larry has written letter to Ann explaining how heis ashamed of his father’s crime and he is going to undertake a suicial missionas a penance for the death of the twenty-one young pilots. Ann has that trumpetcard (letter) in her pocket in case others in the family oppose to her marriagewith Chris. She loves Chris because he is sincere and simple. Ann knows wellthat Joe Keller is guilty and he alone is responsible for send the crackedcylinder heads to the air force and her father is not given justice by Keller.Yet she is kind to Joe Keller and Kate. It shows that Ann is a woman of noblemanners. She is not only intelligent but also kind hearted. In fact both Chrisand Ann are made for each other. When George comes to Keller’s home, Ann very skilfully tackles the angry youngbrother and saves the situation. She rises to the occasion and deal effectivelywith the situation. Similarly Ann destroys the illusion of Kate. Ann shows Katethe letter written by Larry and it is enough to wipe out the illusory vision ofLarry from the mind of Kate and she comes down to the tragic reality. that evena father can kill his own son if he produces cracked cylinder heads and sendthem to the army.