All My Sons

All My Sons is a 1947 play by Arthur Miller. It is his second play came after his first play The Man Who Had All the Luck. All My Sons based upon a true story which was capture by Miller here very beautifully.

The reflection of the great Grecian tragedies:

All My Sons- the play based on the Grecian tragedies of the likes of Aeschulus, Sophocles and Euripides. In these play main character or the protagonist committed crime and due to that offence they must learn his fault and suffer as a result, and perhaps even die. In All My Sons the elements of Grecian tragedies are presented. Joe Keller first committed a crime and later on he suffering from a previous offence, and punishment for that offence. Likewise it explores the father-son relationship, also a common theme in Grecian tragedies. Ann Deever could also be seen to parallel a messenger as her letter is proof of Larry’s death.

Moreover this play is also considered as the influenced from the play of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, where Miler took the idea of two partners in a business where one is forced to take moral and legal responsibility for other. This is mirrored in All My Sons. He also borrowed the idea of a character’s idealism being the source of a problem. In a way we cannot blame the protagonist because whatever he done it is out of circumstances. He did whatever due to the responsibilities of his family. He wants to make him family well-settle. But in between his wrong work effect on other family and because of that they suffer a lot.

This play also takes into consideration as a failed idealism of American Dream. Arthur Miller later uses the everyman in a criticism of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman, which is in many ways similar to All My Sons.