Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Themes
Lies and Deceit
General points
● This is a play about repression - the compromises of individuals negotiating
between their private needs and public obligations
...
His public denials are matched by his private ones
...

even
He practices private deceit by refusing responsibility for the faulty plane parts,
thus he seems to have internalized his own denials
...
​ fact is he is
The
far from all right, though at this stage in the play we are in no position to know
this, though already there are sufficient hints to undermine the assurance he
displays
...
Rather than confronting her with the truth,
Chris and Joe prevaricate in the face of her questioning
...
That kind of thing always pays off’ ​is a
it
statement that foreshadows other forms of dishonesty and other prices that
must be paid
...

‘I
● ‘You know Larry’s not coming back and I know it
...

○ Possibly because telling mother, the head of the family, will change the
family dynamic so much that Chris may have to come to terms with the
fact that he always suspected Joe’s role in the faulty plane parts
...
​ above all have got
‘You
to believe, you…’ ‘[rises] why me above all?’ ​ is suddenly defensive
Joe
● Joe insists on his innocence, ​ story was, I pulled a fast one getting myself
‘the
exonerated
...
Except I wasn’t and there was a court paper in my
pocket to prove I wasn’t
...
Is this
Yet
blatant deception and calculated lying or has denial sunk so deep into his being
that reality has been reinvented? The speech ends with the boast that fourteen
months he had ​ of the best shops in the state again, a respected man again;
‘one

bigger than ever’
...

○ In Keller’s two speeches advocating his innocence his language becomes
manipulative and defensive ​
‘i was guilty as hell’ ‘ i was a beast’
● The integrity of a name is of crucial importance to those who have conspired in
subverting that integrity
...
Ann will change her
name to Ann Keller, requiring accommodations on her part as her new identity
implicates her in the moral values of her new family
...

They are all characters who insist on the integrity of their identity while in the
process of denying it
...
​
‘You
know your father…’ ‘i know him well
...
​ corruption is slowly coming
Joe’s
through to the forefront of the audience’s perception of him
...
He’d been
twenty-seven this month
...
’ ​
Larry is very much a strong
presence in the family, unforgotten
...
Trying to divert attention off him so his moral
failings aren’t exposed?
● Keller remarks on society’s changing values, saying ​ my day when you had sons
‘In
it was an honor
...

● Mother says ​
‘Everything that happened seems to be coming back’
...
This is to strengthen her unwavering belief that Larry is coming
back, but also makes it very hard for Chris and Joe to be truthful with her that
they think Larry is dead
...
This quote
exemplifies the circumstance and dialectic of the play as the present
interrogates the past and the past infiltrates the present
...

● Mother desperately tries to latch onto the past by constantly bringing him up
and trying to make links between him and Ann
...


Family
General points
● Joe feels his actions are justified because if he had not, he would not have had
anything to give to Chris, a fate worse than death
...
But at the same time, he feels there was no other options for him
...

● Is Joe a criminal? Technically yes - his culpability is exposed gradually
...

● The characters are drawn together by love, but that love becomes the source of
their corruption
...

● To Joe, everything is about the family at whatever the cost
...
The responsibilities of being a husband and a
father supersedes his responsibilities to the plant, to Steve Deever, to the world
at large
...
Joe has no concept that his actions affect others

and because of that he makes some wildly inappropriate statements
...

● Miller presents a paradox of family obligation
...
Uses them as his justification for all his actions
● Joe says ​want you to use what I made for you’ ​ Chris
...
For both of you,
that’s all I ever lived for’​ obsession with money is so that he can support

...

○ However this results in a tragic lack of vision as he lacks compassion,
though could be argued unintentionally, for the needs of wider society
...
What happened to my family?’ ​
Shocked that his
family don’t support and value him like he supports and values them
...
Understands importance of money
● ‘​ i think to him they were all my sons’ ​ title of the play becomes clear in
But
The
Keller's final line
...

○ This line has emotional and intellectual center
■ Emotional "All My Sons" has the Keller family at its core, being
primarily concerned with the impact of shameful secrets on family
relationships, in particular how their past can come back to haunt
the present
...


○ Intellectual "All My Sons" - consequences of Keller’s crime on the world
...

○ The admission that the pilots were "all my sons" is, for Keller, an
admission that he might as well have killed his own child
...

● ‘I never saw you as a man
...


Guilt, Blame, Responsibility
General points
● This play is an example of how some of mankind's best intentions can cover
some of our worst motives and give rise to our most atrocious actions
...
In
a play which characters are morally bound to their familial affiliations, it is the
fractures in their relationships, the limitations of the responsibility, that drive
the main issues in the plot
...

○ Keller’s main flaw isn’t that he can’t differentiate between right and
wrong, rather he cannot admit him and his actions have any connection
to the wider world and society
...
In the war he led his men to their
death, now he has survivor’s guilt
...

● No one in this play is without misconduct
...
Joe’s suicide is in part, self justification and a
counterblow to his wife and son - with a desire to accuse or leave behind a
residue of guilt
...

Act One

● Joe is reading the want ads, explaining to Frank ​don’t read the news part any
‘I
more
...
​
After all, a few years ago he would have found his
own name in the papers
...
Indeed, the son and the crime are braided
together in their minds
...
​
These very phrases imply an acknowledgement of the
culpability he otherwise denies
...
This suggests an ambiguity to
‘a
to
Chris’ moral certitude, implying underneath his self conscious presentation of a
man of integrity, he could have been, directly or indirectly complicit in Joe’s
crimes
...
He sees beyond familial loyalty, but
rather a loyalty to society as a whole
...

● Joe asks Chris to ​ see it human, see it human’ ​ appeals to Chris’ sense of
‘try
He
humanity to cover his own conscience and wrongdoings
...
​ it human’ ​what makes this play so successful - to
‘See
is
embody confused values, flawed ambitions, betrayals, denials and profound
disillusionment
...

● Joe is nervous if Steve or George ever come back as he wants to preserve the
idyllic suburban lifestyle that he has invested so much into
...
It’ll take his bitterness away’
Act Two
● George’s arrival marks rising tension as he is the catalyst for revelation
...
​ father destroyed your family
...

● George says ​
‘everything they have is covered with blood’
...
A tainted
and corrupt product of the war - which is far from over
...
’ ​ statement is full of irony, as that is exactly what he’s doing
...
’ ​
Hugely
ironic as we find out that Keller did indirectly kill Larry, as he committed
suicide after learning what Keller did
...

○ Also Miller’s statement of a moral truth - ​ were all my sons’ ​ are a
‘they
we
collective humanity, killing one person is a crime against us all
...
you did it?’ ‘Dad, you killed twenty one men!’ ​
Chris’ sense of responsibility
reaches a much broader scope than Keller’s
...

Heightens pressure on Keller as the narrative is focused on him
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Is that as far as your mind can see, the business?
...
Chris’ questions, each with rising
inflection like a sharp blow
...
Turns to god ​
‘Jesus God, what
must I do?’
○ Raw portrayal of Chris’ emotions as he realises his dad is fallible
...
​ hints at a flawed human
‘A
He
nature, which cannot be resolved by a bullet in his brain
...
This advice
is wholly at odds with what the play preaches - in which there is a necessity to
take it on to avoid disastrous consequences
...
Why else does joe keller kill himself if it is not to take it on
himself? Seems like Kate has not learnt anything
● Keller’s death does not conclude the play
...
Joe’s pain ends,
however Chris’ is just beginning, as he feels remorse that he killed his father,
‘Mother, I didn’t mean to…
...


Denial and Self Deception
General points
● Although never explicitly mentioned, both Kate and Chris know of Joe’s role in
the scandal
...
He refuses to consider
his betrayal of his comrades
...

● No characters have an accurate self image: Chris didn't see that he was a
hypocrite by suggesting that others live lives without compromising their
dreams and ethics, while he had compromised his by not following up on his
suspicions of his father while working in his father's business
...
Yet, she failed to nurture Chris by opposing
his marriage to Ann
...

Act One
● ‘I don’t know, I don’t read the news part any more’ ​ is survival only a matter of
Nor
maintaining a way of life and a way of being
...

● The living are haunted by the dead, who are exorcised by a simple denial of
reality
...
It is a
connection Kate can continue to deny only so long as she can convince herself
and others that Larry has survived
...
Why? Because a connection

will be made between that death and the culpability she shares with her
husband
...

Mother’s faith in astrology is designed to bolster her desperate belief in her
son’s survival
...
Christ cannot marry Annie, her
husband must remain a charming incompetent (​ ​
‘bull’) unable to function in the
simplest of matters - since to assume otherwise would be to accept a view of the
world that could only destroy her
...
However if one is dead the other may abandon them, then their
justification is stripped of meaning
...
​ she tries to prevent Chris marrying Ann and keeps Larry’s
Thus
memory alive by things such as polishing his shoes
...
He states that ​ play cards with a man you know he can’t
‘You
be a murderer’ ​ is a less a confident piece of advice than a desperate cry on
This
part of a man seeking confirmation that appearance finally matters more than
reality
...
​ sticks up for
‘You
Joe
Kate as he needs her support to hide his guilt
...

● Kate says ​want you to act like he’s coming back
...
’ ​anipulates reality
‘I
M
to fit her needs
...
She knows that the truth will
break her family irreparably, she has weighed up the advantages and
disadvantages and so actively chooses to deny the truth
...
’ ​
Kate’s denials
shows itself to be very deeply ingrained within her
...
His
comments ​
‘outside there doesn’t seem to be much of a law’ ​ to Chris ​
and
‘afraid
you’ll forget him?’ ​
Show how each character’s constructed fictions destroy each
other, hence their slow erosion brings the repressed back into reality
...
Keller’s justification is that you do what you have to do to survive, a
defense which is always understandable yet always unacceptable
...
They don’t stand entirely apart from it because
they know they’re entirely vulnerable, like Keller
...
It is clouded by our fears and anxieties,
and is constantly reshaped to serve our psychic and social needs
...
The compromise is always made
...
The star of one’s honesty
...
​ aware of joe’s guilt, but passes no judgement
...

○ Jim embodies the disappointment and cynicism, but also the pragmatic
resignation, that result from turning one’s back on one’s ideals, ​ now
‘And
I live in the usual darkness; I can’t find myself’ ​ up medical research
Gave
for his wife and became a doctor
...
Hypocritical as he initially doesn’t want his name put on Joe’s business,
saying ​ business doesn’t inspire me’
...

Characters invoke money as a reason for relinquishing ideals or hopes
...
Joe
stresses money, saying Chris ​
‘don’t understand money’
...
It’s good money, there’s nothing
wrong with that money’
...
He wants Chris to have it as it gives all his actions meaning and

significance
...

Act Two
● ‘He’d like to take every man who made money in the war and put him up against a
wall’
...
Steve resents the materialism and
corruption found within businesses during the war
...

Act Three
● He defends his immoral actions as no more than a reflection of a general
morality, done for the sake of money - ​ they ship a gun or a truck outa Detroit
‘Did
before they got their price? Is that clean? It’s dollars and cents, nickels and dimes,
war and peace, it’s nickels and dimes
...

● Chris talks about his experience in the war ​
‘They weren’t just men
...
One new thing was made
...
responsibility’
...

Insists people should be more compassionate and feel a moral duty to the wider
society
...
what you said
...
I felt wrong to be alive’
...
In Act Three Joe says
‘​ one, everything bothers him
...
' ​ Act Two Ann says ​
In
‘Whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth,
I’ve always thought of Chris’
...


○ It could be said Chris’ idealism is ​
‘phony’ ​ like Sue says
...
He wants to
avoid conflict so never confronts Joe about the faulty plane parts even
though he always had a feeling he was involved
...
This is far
from the truth
...
​ though Chris or anyone isn’t
‘As
compromising’
...
Also suggests Chris knows
more about his father than he admits
Act Three
● He says his parents have made him practical because he can't send his father to
jail:​ could jail him! I could jail him, if I were human any more
...
I'm practical now
...
' ​ hasn't he been
But
more or less practical all along? By denying the truth and not confronting joe in
fear of not being able to handle the truth and his idealistic visions of his father
being shattered
...
Here he was always afraid of mice
...
Hypocrisy

Old and New Generation
Act One
● ‘In my day, either you were a lawyer, or a doctor, or you worked in a shop
...
Wants to
move on from the past and believes in a shared responsibility for humanity
...
Older generation is Joe and Kate
...
Kate: ​ should never have planted that
‘We
tree
...
’ ​
Chris:
‘​
[alarmed] Too soon!’

● Mother tells Ann ​
‘There are just a few things you don’t know
...
Deep,
deep in your heart you’ve always been waiting for him’
...
’ ​ she implies the older generation have some higher
Here
wisdom in which the new generation should just blindly trust
...

Act Two
● Mother ​
‘Chris, Dad and I are stupid people
...
You’ve got to
protect us’
...

The
Chris’ idealism is the salvation for Mother and Keller’s culpability
● ‘There are certain people, y’know, the sicker they get the longer they live’
Corruption of older, pre-war generation
...

● ‘It breaks my heart to see what happened to all the children
...
’ ​
Despite Kate and Joe’s best
efforts to fix and cover up their mistake, perhaps there still exists an underlying
cause for the younger generation’s moral failings
● ‘Look what happened to you because you wouldn’t listen to me! I told you to marry
that girl and stay out the war!’ ​ war has left nothing untouched - changed
The
everything
●

Dramatic Techniques
Setting and Time
Act One
● The backyard of the Keller home is described in great detail as a typical middle
upper class home on the “outskirts of an American town”
...


●
●

●

●

●

○ However this only makes the deepening threat of the remainder of the
plot more frightening, as in this scene of recognizable domesticity, Miller
gradually inserts corrosive elements
Unnamed American town - general, relatable, the events of the play could occur
anywhere
In the middle of the yard there is ​ four-foot-high stump of a slender apple tree
‘the
whose upper trunk and branches lie toppled beside it, fruit still clinging to its
branches’
...

○ The destroyed tree, planted as a memorial to Larry, Joe Keller’s dead son,
foreshadows how the secrets of his death are revealed at the climax of the
play
...

○ The tree undeniably stands as a correlative for a son apparently cut down
in the war, and it is identified as such by the characters
○ A storm on the eve of a family crisis does not seem excessively theatrical
in the beginning, as the symbolism comes from the characters
themselves, who are neurotically alert to threat and vigilant for evidence
of change
...

This is further heightened by other small details of the house which reflect an
air of uneasiness, such as ​
‘tightly comfortable’
...
In
second act it is twilight as the mood darkens
...
The blue of the moon gives a cold
and melancholy atmosphere
...
Younger
generation progression

Stage Directions
Act One
● Joe is described as ​businessman who bears the imprint of ‘the machine worker
‘a
and the boss’ ‘when he reads, when he speaks, when he listens, it is with the terrible
concentration of the uneducated man for whom there is still wonder in many
commonly known things, a man whose judgement must be dredged out of experience
and a peasant like common sense’
...
Having
lived through the Depression and the War, he knows how fragile a grasp he, or
anyone, has on the world
...

an
● Neighbours are Frank and Lydia, and Jim and Sue Bayliss
...
wisp of sadness that clings even to his self-effacing humour’
Frank is ​
‘thirty two but balding’ ​ is ​
Sue ‘rounding forty, an overweight woman who
fears it’
○ Hints that the suburban setting contains elements of regret and anxiety
that extent beyond the Kellers backyard
...
They acknowledge a
tension between the pragmatic and the ideal, recognizing the
compromises that seem an inevitable aspect of daily living
...

● Marriage seems full of compromises, a fact that will surely cast its shadow over
the proposed relationship between Chris and Ann

● Kate is referred to as Mother by Chris, Joe and the stage directions
...
​
However Keller is the only person not referred to by his first name
...
Keller lives in a temporal
void enforced by his wife
...

● Chris ​ his father, solidly built, a listener
...
’
Act Two
● George ​paler man, now on the edge of his self-restraint
...
’ ​foil to the idealistic, optimistic Chris
...
Like Chris, he saw the horrors of
the war, but did not experience the rewards
...

● Joe with ​
‘[strained joviality]’ ​
Clearly George's arrival has put him on edge as he
fears his lies will be exposed
● Joe ​
‘[force of his nature rising, but under control’] ​
heightens tension - cannot keep
up his pretences for much longer
● Joe and Chris ​
[their movements now are those of a subtle pursuit and escape]
...
After Chris’ attack upon
learning of his father’s complicity, Joe sees his life becoming devoid of meaning
‘[desperately, lost] ​
contrasts to his self assured nature seen previously
...
The scenes or conversations that are the most

revealing usually only have two participants
...




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