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Author:
Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan in 1915 to a Jewish father and received only little education because he had to help his father. After some failed attempts he was admitted to the University of Michigan, where he became interested in literature. Soon he began to write himself and his first famous play and breakthrough was "All My Sons", performed on Broadway in 1947. In 1956 he secretly married Marilyn Monroe and in 1961 he got a divorce from her. There are two other plays that are very famous: "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible"
The play deals with the lives of two families, in the time after the Second World War. Joe Keller, married to Kate and father of two sons, Chris and Larry, possesses an enterprise, which produces cylinder heads for P-40 aeroplanes. Joe has a partner, Frank Deever, father of Ann and George, and during the Second World War the U.S army ordered a lot of cylinder heads. George discovered that some of the cylinders were not faultless and asked Joe what to do. Joe said that he should repair the cylinder heads and send them to the army. Forty aeroplanes crashed down because of the cracked cylinder heads and Frank was arrested. Joe was not arrested because he said that he had never known anything about cracked cylinder heads. Both of his sons were drafted and Larry died in the war. Ann Deever was Larry's girlfriend but after the War she falls in love with Chris, Larry's brother. George has become a lawyer and he is trying to get his father out of the prison. He visits Ann, who is living with the Kellers. Chris and Kate think that Joe was not responsible for those accidents but George tells them the whole truth. Chris asks his father and Joe admits his fault. Shortly after that, Ann shows him a letter from Larry, which he had written one day before he died. Larry, who sometimes helped his father, knew that his father sold cracked cylinders and he did not want to live with this shame and so he committed suicide. Joe cannot cope with this situation and so he shoots himself into the head.
Joe Keller: On the one hand he is a calculating and very cold businessman but on the other hand he cares about his family. He has made a mistake but never answers for it and accuses his partner. In my opinion he cannot take responsibility.
Chris Keller: He is very credulous because he believed his father without any doubts. On the other side he is not very loyal because he wants to marry his brother's former girlfriend.
George Deever: The only thing he wants is to get his father out of the prison. In his eyes Joe is a murderer and liar and he was not shocked by the suicide. In my opinion he is very cold and determined.
Interpretation:
This play is an analytical drama, that means the past of the hero is revealed in the course of the play and the final scene leads to the tragic ending. "All My Sons" deals with the consequences of a mistake that has been made before the Second World War. In my opinion Joe is too weak to take the responsibility for the forty crashed aeroplanes and because of that he commits suicide. But I think that his partner Frank is responsible for these accidents as well and I mean that all people, who have tried to earn money with the Second World War, are guilty.
Opinion:
I enjoyed reading this play and in my eyes Arthur Miller shows in this play, that beside the atrocities on the front there were, also some at home.
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