All my sons by Arthur Miller
Summary and characters
The play ‘All my sons’ has been written by prominent American playwright Arthur Miller. It is set in a small town several years after World War Two, and begins with Jim Bayliss, a doctor, and Joe Keller, head of the Keller family, sitting in Keller’s backyard, reading the paper. Joe Keller lives peacefully with his wife Kate and both his sons, Chris, and Larry. Keller with Steve Deever owned a manufacturing plant. Steve’s daughter, Ann, was Larry’s lover, and George, Steve’s son, was Larry’s and Chris’s friend. When the war approached, Larry, Chris and George were enlisted. During the war, Keller’s manufacturing plant had a very cost-effective contract to supply airplane parts to the U.S. Army. One morning, a shipment of faulty parts came in. Steve asked Keller what he should do. Keller told Steve that was unwell and suggested that he should weld the cracks in the airplane parts and ship them and Steve did accordingly and shipped out the faulty parts. Because of these faulty parts, twenty-one planes crashed, and their pilots died. Steve and Keller were arrested and convicted, but Keller managed to win an appeal and get his conviction overturned. He convicted that Steve did not tell him anything about the faulty parts and that he was completely unaware of the shipment. Keller was freed, but Steve was convicted.
When Larry came to know about Keller’s and Steve’s guilt, he was disturbed with shame and grief. He wrote a letter to Ann telling her not wait to for him. Larry then set out to fly a mission, during which he deliberately crashed his plane and killed himself. Larry was reported missing. Larry was reported missing.
Three years later Chris has invited Ann to his parents’ house because he intends to propose marriage to her. Keller has no real problem with the idea in itself, but fears that Kate will not approve it, since Ann is “Larry’s girl”, and to give Ann to Chris would mean that Larry is really dead. They must be careful, however, since Mother [Kate] insists that Larry is still alive somewhere. Her belief is reinforced by the fact that Larry’s memorial tree blew down in a storm that morning, which she sees as a positive sign. Mother had also asked the neighbor to make a horoscope for Larry in order to determine whether the day he disappeared was an astrologically favorable day. Everyone else has accepted that Larry is no more, and Chris and Keller argue that Mother should learn to forget her other son.
Besides, Keller and mother worry that Ann has come to stir up trouble in the Keller family regarding Keller’s guilt in the manufacturing affair, and this, too, complicates the possibility of Chris and Ann’s wedding. In the meantime, George, Ann’s brother, calls from Columbus, where Steve is imprisoned, saying that he is going to visit the Keller home that evening. Ann worries that George is coming with revelations about the Joe-Steve manufacturing affair, and Mother tells Joe to prepare himself for George’s questioning. George arrives and accuses Keller of proving his father to be guilty. Keller wins the affection of George by being friendly and confident. George is reassured until Mother accidentally says that Keller has not been sick in fifteen years. Keller tries to cover her slip of the tongue by adding the exception of his flu during the war, but it is now too late. George is again convinced of Keller’s guilt. Joe denies the accusations to George, who leaves the house, but as Ann runs after him, Joe announces to Chris, and in front of Mother, that in fact George’s story is true.
Chris is surprised, however, and in skirmish with his parents, he is told by his Mother that he must believe that Larry is alive. If Larry is dead, Mother claims, then it means that Keller killed him by shipping out those faulty parts. Chris shouts angrily at his father, accusing him of being inhuman and a murderer, and leaves home for a drive that evening, which Keller and Mother weep on the house’s back porch.
At two in the morning the following day, Chris returns from his drive to find Ann, Keller, and Mother outside. Mother tells Keller that he ought to volunteer to go to jail if Chris wants him to. She also talks to Ann and continues insisting that Larry is alive. Ann is forced to show the letter that Larry wrote to her before he died, which was essentially a suicide note. Mother begs Ann not to show the letter to her husband and son, but Ann does not comply.
Keller, who for a long time had comforted himself with the idea that he was not responsible for his own son’s death, realizes, when Chris reads the letter aloud, that he has not only killed 21 pilots-he has also killed, indirectly, his own son. Joe remarks that “all the soldiers …are his sons”, and goes upstairs, pretending that he will turn himself in to the small town’s jail. But a gunshot is heard; Joe has killed himself in the house, and though Chris tells his mother, outside, that he didn’t intend for this to happen, Mother tells Chris and Ann, calmly, to go far away and start a new family elsewhere, since the guilt that has ruined the Keller family can bring them nothing but harm. The play ends.
Characters
Joe Keller
Joe Keller, who has two sons Larry and Chris, is the protagonist of the play. He is the man of about sixty and not well educated but determinant, self-made business leader, highly respected and popular person in the society. He is personified as the post-war American dream. Unfortunately, Joe is not as honest and respectable as he appears. He kept immoral and unpleasant secret of his past that he was involved in a crime of allowing his own factory to send out faulty airplane engines. He pretended to be unwell for making his partner, Steve ship the faulty parts. Because of the shipment of faulty parts of the engines, twenty-one planes crashed, and their pilots died in the war. firstly, Joe and Steve were arrested and convicted. Later, Joe managed to be freed by saying that he was completely unaware of the shipment of those faulty parts.
Finally, he accepts his fault. His downfall represents the downfall of post-war American culture. Regretting, Joe states that he commits this crime to provide his family. He tries to justify his deed by saying that he did everything for the safety of his family. He becomes a complete failure in his life. He ends his life by committing suicide in his own house. He proves himself coward as he chooses death over honesty and values.
Kate Keller
Kate Keller is Joe Keller’s wife who is a loving, affectionate, simple, and good mother. She believes that her lost son Larry is alive and waits for his arrival until several years of his suicidal death in a plane crash. Therefore, she rejects Chris’s marriage to Ann. She thinks that marriage between Chris and Ann would mean Larry is dead. Finally, she has to accept her son’s death and blames her husband as the responsible person for that. She says that her husband is morally guilty for their son’s suicide. She always wants peace and prosperity in her family. She wants to save even her husband from his guilt and bad public self-image that he has earned by allowing his manufacturing plant to ship the faulty parts of the airplanes. After the suicide of her husband, she comforts her living son, Chris.
Chris Keller
Chris is Joe Keller’s younger son. He is one of the moral characters of the play. The author introduces him as ‘capable of immense affection and loyalty’. Chris cares about dignity and truth, so he never runs after material gain. Even in the war, he feels responsible to his fellow soldiers. He shares his war stories with Ann, whom he wants to after his brother’s death. He was ashamed of his father’s illegally earned money, but he never expresses his hatred in public for the sake of his family’s reputation. He seems to be a tragic victim as he feels defeated and deflated towards the end of the play.
Larry Keller
Larry Keller is the elder son of Joe Keller, a warrior, and the lover of Ann Deever. As soon as he knows the reality about his father, he kills himself by making his plane crashed. He can’t live with his father’s crime of producing and shipping faulty parts of airplanes. He was in love with Ann. He promised to marry her after he returned from the war, but his father’s guilt made him write and send her a suicide note. He asked her not to wait for him.
Steve Deever
Steve Deever is the business partner of Joe Keller. He has a son named George and a daughter named Ann. He was doomed by his own partner, Joe Keller as he was asked to ship faulty parts of airplanes which resulted into the crash of twenty-one planes and the death of their pilots. Cunningly, Joe Keller convicted that Steve did not tell him anything about the faulty parts and that he was completely unaware of the shipment. Keller was freed, but Steve was convicted.
Ann Deever
Ann is Steve’s daughter who falls in love with Larry, latter with Chirs. She is young, attractive, and intelligent woman. She receives Larry’s suicide note but she keeps it secret until the end of the play for the wellbeing and comfort of the Keller family. She has the power to hide her grief within her for others’ comforts. She bears several biter truths such as Larry’s death, Joe’s guilt, her relationship with her imprisoned father. She is sensible enough to keep balance between hardship and life. She moves to New York and finds a job after her family experiences the tragedy. She never gives up hope. Her unswerving determination proves that she is strong, promising and a living character.
