Write a Short Note on Miller & Play All My Sons

Questionpur
January 28, 2022

Miller's play 'All My Sons' 

All My Sons: The title 'All My Sons' is indeed appropriate for Miller's play of that name. The title refers to the twenty-one air pilots who were killed during the war on account of the defective cylinder heads fitted into the P-40s which those men had been flying in the course of their raids over the enemy territory. The aeroplanes had crashed because of engine failure resulting from the defective cylinder heads which had been supplied by Joe Keller's factory and which had been fitted into those aeroplanes.

Joe Keller had supplied the defective cylinder heads, not with any evil intention but because he had seen no way out of the situation. Cracks had somehow appeared in the cylinder heads produced by his factory and, in order not to incur a heavy financial loss, Joe Keller had ordered the despatch of those cylinder heads to the Air Force which at that time urgently needed them... Thus Joc Keller had been guilty of supplying defective equipment to the Air Force, and this defective equipment had then led to the deaths of those twenty-one air pilots.

Abhigyan Shakuntalam by Kalidasa Summary

Joe Keller had then been guilty of another offence also. He had passed on the whole blame for the supply of those cylinder heads to his partner, Steve Deever. In the court which had tried both the partners on charges of fraud, Joe Keller had put up the defence that he had not even visited the factory on the day on which those defective cylinder heads had been dispatched. He had told the court that he was down with flu on that day, He had further stated that it was his partner, Steve Deever, who had, on his own responsibility, despatched the defective cylinder heads to the Air Force.

The actual fact, however, was that Joe Keller had instructed Steve Deever to cover up the cracks in the cylinder heads somehow, and then to despatch the cylinder heads to the Air Force. On the telephone, Joe Keller had also assured Steve Deever that he would take full responsibility for the supply of these cylinder heads if anything went wrong. The result of Joe Keller's lies in the court was that he was acquitted while his partner had been sentenced to long imprisonment. 

Kate in the Know of the Facts; Chris and Annie Ignorant:

When the play opens, Joe Keller has already re-established himself as a manufacturer though, the war being over, he is not manufacturing military equipment but such domestic appliances as pressure-cookers and washing machines. Kate is fully aware of the fact that Joe Keller had been responsible for the despatch of the defective cylinder heads to the Air Force because she knows that Joe had never fallen ill during the war and that Joe Keller's statement in the court, that he was suffering from the flue, was entirely false.

George's failure to convince Chris and Annie: But now George appears on the scene. George had paid a visit to his father that very morning and had learned from him that the actual responsibility for the despatch of the defective cylinder heads had been that of Joe Keller. George now knows that Joe Keller had told lies in court to defend himself. She is feeling indignant with Joe Keller for the manner in which Joe Keller had got himself acquitted by means of a lie and had implicated Steve Deever.

In the course of a conversation, George now exposes Keller's lie that he was suffering from flu on the day on which the defective cylinder heads had been despatched from the factory to the Air Force. George also exposes Kate's lie in supporting her husband's lie. George now tries to make it clear to Annie and to Chris that Steve had surely despatched the cylinder heads to the Air force but that Steve had done so under telephonic instructions from Joe Keller and that Joe Keller had on the telephone, promised to accept the whole responsibility if any situation arising from the supply of those cylinder heads. However, both Chris and Annie remain unconvinced by George's accusations against Joe Keller. 

All My Sons, Joe Keller's Confession: 

It is Kate who gives away her husband without realizing what she is doing. Chris has been pressing her to give up her foolish belief “that Larry is still alive; and, feeling desperate, she tells Chris that, if Larry is really dead, then Larry's own father had killed him. What Kate implies is that, if Larry is dead, he must have been killed because of the failure of the engine of his aeroplane on account of a defective cylinder head having been fitted into it.

Joe Keller points out that Larry had not been flying a P-40, but now Chris perceives the truth. Chris now turns upon his father and says that Larry might not have been killed as a result of a defective cylinder head being fitted into his aircraft, but that he and other pilots had surely been killed on account of the engine failure resulting from the defective cylinder heads. 

Joe Keller has now no alternative but to admit his responsibility for the supply of the defective cylinder heads, though now he tries to defend himself by saying that, whatever he had done, had been done for Chris's sake and for the sake of the Joe Keller's family. Chris now becomes furious with his father and walks out of the house in order to think over the situation. 

Keller's Realization of His Crime; and His Suicide at the End: 

When Chris returns, he tells his mother that he would leave home altogether and take up a job somewhere else because he is feeling disgusted with what his father had done. Joe Keller once again tries to defend himself, this time putting forward the plea that everybody had made money during the war time by all sorts of fair and foul means.

He says that, if he must go to jail for his fraudulent supply of cylinder heads to the Air Force, then half of the population of this country must also go to jail for the dishonest methods which they had been using not only during the time of war but also afterwards during the time of peace. This argument is not acceptable to Chris.

Joe Keller then says that no man can be a Jesus Christ in this world. Chris thereupon reads out the letter which Larry had written to Annie about the deaths of the air pilots whose aeroplanes had crashed because of equipment supplied to the Air Force by his father. Now Joe Keller can offer no further defence of what he had done. He now says that he is ready to go to the police and confess his crime in having supplied defective cylinder heads to the Air Force.

Chris gets ready to take him to the police. Kate now intervenes and tries to stop her husband from going to the police. She tells Joe that his son Larry would not have wanted him to go to Jail. Joe Keller replies that Larry's letter clearly shows that Larry would have wanted him to go to jail for the crime that he had committed. Larry was surely his son, says Joe Keller but, in Larry's opinion, all the air pilots, who had been killed, were also his sons.

Joe Keller goes on to say further that now he also thinks that the air pilots, who had been killed on account of the engine failure of their aeroplanes, had been his own sons. With this realization, Joe Keller gets even more determined to go to the "police'' and confess his crime. Kate now turns to Chris and urges him not to take his father to the police, Chris asks his mother to realize that Larry had committed suicide only because Joe Keller had supplied defective equipment to the Air Force and thus caused twenty-one air pilots to crash to their death.

Thus Chris here "clearly states that Joe Keller had been responsible for the deaths of those air pilots and also for the suicide of his own son Larry. Joe Keller now feels so convinced of his guilt and his crime that, goes into the house on the plea that he wishes to dress. Himself to go to the police, he shoots himself. 

All My Sons, The Appropriateness of the Title: 

All My Sons: The title of the play is appropriate because the catastrophe in the play occurs as a result of the realization by the chief character that the pilots, who had been killed, bore the same relationship to him as his son Larry. Joe Keller realizes at the end that there was no difference between his son Larry and the pilots flying the P-40s which had been fitted with defective equipment. He realizes that he was responsible for the deaths of those pilots

and that their deaths had subsequently caused Larry to commit suicide. He is now filled with remorse at his action in having supplied defective equipment to the Air Force. His remorse at having caused the deaths of men, who should have been like sons to him, drives him to kill himself.

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