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Modern Realism
Arthur Miller’s
All My Sons
Origins of Modern Drama: Ibsen
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Henrik Ibsen, Norway, 1828-1906
GB Shaw said “The door slam at the end of [Ibsen’s] A
Doll’s House ushered in the age of Modernism”
Christmas, 1879; about gender roles and legal
restrictions; ends in Nora walking out on her family.
Social problems depicted “realistically” - no easy
solutions or deus ex macchina
Well-made play, intensive structure
Middle classes, everyday diction
Focus on individuals, but in their social environment
Rights of individual over group, religion, morality
Other theatrical factors
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Pictorial realism of setting
Box set and real objects on stage, used by actors.
Rise of designers, recently costumers, by early 20th
c. lighting designers
Rise of the director -- to provide unity of vision
based in the text
Ensemble acting and fourth wall
Stanislavsky’s work to train actors, early 20th c.
Ibsen’s plays are banned by censors across Europe
André Antoine, Théâtre Libre, 1887
American Realism -- Miller
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From 1930’s; Group Theatre adopts Stanislavsky and
Method; writer Clifford Odetts
Arthur Miller, 1915-2005
NYC, Jewish, U Michigan Journalism to English, grad
‘38, chooses playwriting over Hollywood, works
Federal Theatre Project NYC
All My Sons, 1947, his first major work, wins Drama
Critics’ Circle Award
Death of A Salesman, 1949, wins Pulitzer, Tony,
Drama Critics, Theatre Club…
The Crucible, View from the Bridge, After the Fall,
Incident at Vichy, Price
Subpoenaed by HUAC, refused to name names
All My Sons
Based on true story from WWII, parts for tanks
were shipped in spite of known defects, the man
was convicted.
 Set Aug 1947, the cracked cylinder heads and
Larry’s death were in 1944.
 Parallel plots: Chris and Ann’s hoped for
marriage; Joe’s innocence or guilt, dishonesty
 Tight, intensive structure; 1 setting 1 day; Ann
incites action; rising action as we figure out
Joe’s guilt, Kate’s complicity, Chris’s idealism is
smashed, Ann reveals the letter. Climax.
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Themes
Responsibility: to family vs. society. Title.
 Honor: war vs. business or Chris vs. Joe
 Idealism: must all stars go out?
 Materialism masks real value
 Each character represents a different take on
these themes.
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Characterization
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Each given three dimensions, depth
Joe is similar to the tragic hero: essentially good
(dedicated to family, runs business, cares for
neighborhood, sees own limits), but “hamartia” (tragic
flaw) is blindness to value of the larger “human
family” -- that title again: “all my sons.”
Background stories that justify ethical positions
Kellers and Deevers’ stories interwoven
Use of realistic detail: the grape juice, clothing, tree
Supernatural: Frank and Kate, proven wrong. A form
of “ability to lie to oneself.”
“Tragedy and the Common Man”
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Miller’s article for NY Times, 1949
“I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for
tragedy in its higher sense as kings were.”
“Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total
compulsion to evaluate himself justly.”
“The [tragic] flaw… is really nothing… but his
inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of
what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity.”
“The revolutionary questioning of a stable
environment [social, external forces] is what terrifies.”
It’s ultimately optimistic because it implies a belief in
the “perfectibility of man.”