All My Sons

‘All my Sons’ By Arthur Miller

‘All my sons’ by Arthur Miller is a play that is about an average American family who has made a lot of money from a business that made parts for plane engines during the war. The play is set in the back garden of the family home, the father Joe Keller has a guilty secret which only his wife Kate knows. Joe has 2 sons, Chris has fought in the war and his personality has changed from a greedy and self-centred person to someone who takes care and looks out for other people. The other son of Joe is called Larry, who has also been at war but has been reported missing for 3 years. Ann Deever lived next to the family when she was growing up but moved to New York when her father was sentenced to jail. She and Chris are in love and thinking about getting married but Joe and Kate are against this because Ann used to be Larry’s girl before he went missing and his mother Kate believes that he will come home. During the essay I will be discussing the different conflicts between the father Joe and his son Chris which are caused by their different views of responsibility. I will be looking at the characterisation of Joe and Chris and also the events of act 2 that lead to the dramatic ending of act 3.

Joe doesn't have many bad qualities in him, the only time the audience do see such qualities is when he speaks poorly of Steve to others like when he says, "I owe him a good kick in the teeth"(Act 2, p47). However, the audience no he does not mean this but he says it to cover up the fatal mistake he made. The original argument was between Chris and George but Joe got involved when he overheard the argument and wanted to back up his son. When George is forced away then Chris and George start arguing because Chris knows his father is hiding something.

Joe Keller has confessed his guilt to his son Chris; his guilt was he told Steve to ship out the cracked cylinder head knowing they wouldn’t hold. Joe is trying to defend himself by saying he only...