Analysis of Theme of Arthur Miller's 'All My Sons' and 'Death of A Salesman'.

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ABSTRACT

Di dalam tesis ini, penulis membahas tema dari dua drama terkenal karya

Arthur Miller yang berjudul All My Sons dan Death of a Salesman. Penulis

menganalisis penokohan untuk mengungkapkan tema dari kedua drama tersebut.

Tokoh utama dari masing-masing drama memiliki sebuah impian, yaitu

impian untuk sukses. Menurut pandangan mereka, sukses identik dengan

banyaknya kekayaan materi yang dapat diperoleh. Bagi mereka, kesuksesan akan

sangat berarti jika mereka dapat memberikan kekayaan materi bagi keluarga

mereka.

Tema dari All My Sons adalah: orang tidak boleh mengutamakan

kepentingan keluarga dengan merugikan orang lain. Penulis memutuskan untuk

menganalisis penokohan dari tokoh utama dan keluarga yang dicintainya karena

unsur tersebut sangat dominan dalam drama ini.

Untuk meraih kesuksesan, Joe Keller, tokoh utama All My Sons, berbuat

tidak jujur. Keller mengirimkan mesin-mesin pesawat yang tidak layak sehingga

menyebabkan kecelakaan-kecelakaan pesawat terbang yang mengakibatkan

kematian 21 orang pilot muda yang sedang menjalankan misi negara. Konflik

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tindakan Keller yang dianggap jahat. Keller berdalih bahwa tindakannya semata-mata untuk memberikan kebahagiaan kepada keluarganya, tetapi keluarganya tidak menginginkan kekayaan yang diperoleh melalui kejahatan.

Tema dari Death of a Salesman adalah: orang tidak boleh menyamakan kesuksesan sebagai manusia dengan kesuksesan di dalam dunia bisnis saja. Untuk mengetahui tema tersebut, penulis juga menganalisis penokohan dari tokoh utamanya dan anak laki-lakinya yang bernama Biff karena unsur tersebut sangat dominan dan berkaitan sekali dengan temanya.

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APPENDICES

1.1. Synopsis of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons

Joe Keller, the protagonist of All My Sons, is a factory owner who lives with his wife and son named Chris. Keller has two sons but the younger one is reported missing. Kate, Keller’s wife, believes that his son, Larry, is still alive. She never gives up convincing herself and her family that Larry will come back one day. Later, Ann Deever, Larry’s girlfriend, comes from New York to visit the Kellers. Chris is very anxious about Ann’s coming to their house because he loves Ann and wants to propose her.

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At that time, Keller pretends that he is sick and he asks Steve, his partner, to ship the faulty plane parts. At first, Steve refuses because he knows the consequences, but he cannot do anything because he is only Keller’s subordinate. His action leads to the deaths of 21 young pilots. Keller manages to defend himself and blame Steve for the crime. He succeeds in concealing his sin for three years. Chris, who finally knows the truth, cannot believe that his father is a murderer. He even blames his father for Larry’s missing in the mission. He thinks that his father is responsible for the death of Larry. Kate is also angry with Keller because he has caused the death of his own son.

After he finds out that his father is an unscrupulous man, Chris decides to leave home. He feels ashamed because he knows that Ann will not forgive his family, especially his father, who sends her father into prison. Keller insists that what he has done is for the sake of his family, especially for Chris. When Chris refuses to forgive his action, Keller commits suicide because he feels guilty for the deaths of Larry and other pilots whom he also regards as his sons.

1.2. Synopsis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

The protagonist of Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, is an old travelling salesman. Willy can no longer earn enough money for paying debts. He feels distressed because he thinks that his two sons, especially his eldest son, Biff, is not successful although he is already thirty-four years old. Realizing that he cannot travel any more, Willy tries to instill his concept of success to Biff.

According to Willy, appearance and personality determine a person’ s

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success in life. He believes that Biff, who is attractive, can be a great person. He wants Biff to work in the business field, especially as a salesman. It is a pity that Biff does not want to be a businessman; he prefers to work on the farm, which he regards as a place where he can find real happiness. When Willy fails to encourage Biff to be a salesman, he feels very desperate. Linda, Willy’s wife, tells Biff that Willy loves him and he wants Biff to be a great man. Linda also tells Biff that Willy has tried to kill himself several times but failed.

Biff pities his father and decides to obey him. He sees Bill Oliver, whom he used to work with before. Unfortunately, Oliver does not want to see Biff because of Biff’s past mistake.

Biff honestly admits that Oliver does not want to hire him but Willy does not believe him. When Biff says that he used to be a shipping clerk, Willy insists that Biff used to be a salesman instead of a shipping clerk.

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1.3. Biography

Arthur Miller was born in October 1915 in New York City. His father was ladies-wear manufacturer who went bankrupt during the economic crisis in 1930s. As a young man who underwent the Great Depression, ‘Miller was shaped by the poverty that surrounded him’ <http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_arthur_miller. html>. After graduating from high school, he worked in a warehouse in order to earn enough money to attend the University of Michigan, where he began to write plays.

Miller gained his first success when he wrote Focus (1945), a novel about anti-Semitism, but it was All My Sons (1947) that made him well-known as a distinguished playwright. All My Sons is a play about a manufacturer of faulty plane parts. Death of a Salesman, which he wrote in 1949, secured his reputation as an American foremost playwright. The protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, is portrayed as a victim of his own dream of success. Miller won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman.

In 1956, Miller married actress Marilyn Monroe and they divorced in 1961 before Monroe’s death in the same year. The Misfits is a film based on an original screenplay written by Miller. After divorcing Monroe, Miller married Ingeborg Morath and they got a son and a daughter.

Miller also wrote A Memory of Two Mondays and A View from the Bridge; both were staged in 1955. His other works include After the Fall (1964), a play based on his marriage to Monroe and The Price (1967). In 1977, Miller wrote

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The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977) and three years later, The American Clock. His other works include the plays The Ride Down Mt Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1933) and Broken Glass (1993), which won the Olivier Award for the Best Play.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

There are three literary genres, namely prose, poetry and drama. According to The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, drama is ‘an art form that tells a story through the speech and actions of the characters in the story’ (1996: 284). I prefer to analyse drama for four reasons. Compared to novel, drama is more challenging because the readers have to be able to read between the lines. It means that they have to be able to interpret the hidden meaning spoken by the characters through their dialogues. In drama, dialogues present something deeper than what is spoken by the characters. As is stated in Dictionary of World Literature (Shipley, 1960: 97), ‘Dialogue does more than present persons as actually speaking’.

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Another reason for me to choose drama is that unlike novel, drama usually has fewer characters; I think that the readers will not be confused by too many names of characters.

Compared to poetry, which is usually very short, drama gives the readers more detailed information and description which are not commonly found in poetry.

I have decided to choose Arthur Miller (1915-2005) because he is one of the leading playwrights after World War II (1939-1945). Despite being acknowledged as a great author for his various kinds of works such as

autobiographies, essays and screenplays, Miller is more well-known as a prominent American playwright. Miller has written more than 50 plays, some of

which are of great literary value, such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge.

I have chosen Miller’s plays, namely Death of a Salesman and All My Sons because they are regarded to have great literary value. Besides, both

plays have similarities as well as differences which are worth comparing.

Both protagonists, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and Joe Keller in All My Sons, have the so-called American dream. American dream is a dream

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wealth, spirit of competition, and hard work.

The American dream is fully concerned with success and the way Americans accomplish it. All Americans are believed to have the same right and opportunity to have the American dream but in reality, not everyone succeeds in making their dreams come true; this is mostly related to the individual’s qualities. The American dream emphasizes ‘the importance of winning and has little or no time for losers’ (Strinati, 2000: 27-28).

The American dream puts emphasis on someone’s dream in life and how he or she makes it come true. Both protagonists have to deal with the circumstances around World War II.

Both protagonists possess the American dream, namely to gain success. For both protagonists, success is the most important thing in life. However, each of them has a different concept in achieving his goal.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a travelling salesman who works in order to be successful and to be able to fulfill his family’s material wealth. Instead of hard work, he believes that appearance is the most essential feature in gaining success. Willy thinks that to be successful in the business world, one has to be physically attractive. It is tragic; however, he fails in his career because he pays too much attention to physical attraction.

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consequences to his present life. Through the revelation of his past mistake and the reaction of his family’s disappointment and hatred towards his mistake, the playwright shows Joe’s failure as a man, husband, and father.

The American dream obviously has its dark side. Both plays reveal the total failure and the painful experience of the protagonists who are opposed by the people they love.

Based on the unifying elements found in both plays, I would like to analyse the themes of the plays because theme is the most important aspect in drama. Theme is in fact ‘the underlying action or movement; or the general topic, of which the particular story is an illustration’ (Shipley, 1960: 417).

In this thesis, I would like to analyse the theme mainly through the characterization of the protagonists. Characterization is how the author ‘conveys to the reader what sort of people they are, how he makes the reader get to know and understand them’ (Murphy, 1972: 161). It is important to analyse characterization first because it is closely related to the revelation of the theme, as is atated in How to Analyze Drama: ‘By isolating outstanding characteristics of the major characters one is able to develop certain theories of meaning which are implicit in the play’ (Russell Reaske, 1966: 49).

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The problems are as follows:

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1.3. Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

1. To reveal the themes of Miller’s Death of a Salesman and All My Sons. 2. To find out how the themes are revealed.

1.4. Method of Research

In writing this thesis, I use library research. I read both plays and then I look for the references in the library and the Internet to find data to support my analysis. Finally, I draw the conclusion from what I have analysed.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

Having discussed the themes of All My Sons and Death of a Salesman through characterization, I would like to draw some conclusions.

In both plays, Miller has created the protagonists with their different characteristics. In All My Sons, the playwright creates Joe Keller as an unscrupulous protagonist who places family above anything else whereas in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the protagonist, is portrayed as a persistent character who equates success as a human being with success in the business world.

Besides their different traits, both of the protagonists possess different concepts of success and happiness within their family.

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revealing the theme of the play.

To prove that Keller is very different from Chris, the playwright presents their different concepts of happiness. Providing his family with material wealth no matter what the means may be is Keller’s main happiness. The playwright then describes that Chris wants to achieve success and gain happiness only through an honest way. Dishonesty is a trait which is closely related to the theme of the play. Miller makes a strong contrast between Keller, who is unscrupulous and Chris, who blames his father for his dishonesty uncompromisingly. The playwright also presents Kate, who is against her husband’s dishonesty.

In writing Death of a Salesman, Miller creates Willy Loman, a persistent character, who is quite different from his elder son, Biff. They have also different concepts of success. Willy believes that an attractive person can gain success in the business field. On the other hand, Biff does not relate physical attraction to success. The theme is revealed through Willy’s insistence that Biff should work as a businessman, especially as a salesman. The playwright then shows that Biff likes working on the farm better than pursuing a business career. In order to reveal the theme, it is important for the playwright to show that Biff can gain happiness outside the business world, which is on the farm.

Both of the protagonists are very concerned with material wealth and happiness for the family. They face a condition in which material wealth is the most important thing to possess in life. The protagonists’ way to reach their goal has created conflicts within the family. While Joe Keller disregards business ethics and takes a fatal and dishonest action, Willy Loman keeps insisting too

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much on his unfounded concept of success and happiness. Unfortunately, at the end of the plays, they face their tragic ending.

Keller’s excessive ambition to achieve his goal only brings him to his own tragic ending. His obsession that material wealth is the most important thing to gain in life and his obsession to make his family happy have unfortunately led him to his failure as a man, husband, and father because of his unscrupulous action. It is obvious that Keller places family above anything, including the lives of young pilots who defend their own country and nation.

Through the characteristics of Keller and his family, the playwright manages to reveal the theme that a person should not place his responsibility to his own family at the expense of other people.

Willy’s concept of success and happiness proves to be unfounded. His failure to make his son pursue a career in business and even his meaningless tragic suicide to make Biff start a new life are evidently intended to reveal the theme that a person should not equate success as a human being with success in the business world.

All My Sons is more difficult to analyse because the playwright presents contrasts between the protagonist and his whole family: his wife and two sons. In Death of a Salesman, Miller creates contrasts only between the protagonist and his son, Biff.

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As far as the theme of Death of a Salesman is concerned, I fully agree with the playwright that a person’s success should not be restricted to success in the business world. It is a pity, however, that even today, there are still many parents who force their children to pursue a career that the parents like but the children themselves dislike or hate.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Datesman, Maryanne Kearney., JoAnn Crandall, and Edward N. Kearney. The American ways : An Introduction to American Culture – 2nd ed. New York: Prentice Hall Regents, 1997.

Murphy, M. J. Understanding Unseens: An Inroduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1972.

Russell Reaske, Christopher. How to Analyze Drama. New York: Monarch Press, 1966.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972.

Shipley, Joseph. Dictionary of World Literature – New Students Outline Series. Paterson, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Company, 1960.

Strinati, Dominic. An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 2000.

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The World Book Encyclopedia: Vol. 18. USA: World Book International, 1992.

Internet Websites

2. March. 2006

<http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/aboutarthur_miller. html>

10. March. 2006

<http://classiclit.about.com/od/millerarthur/fr/aafpr_amillerli.htm>. The Practical Message of All My Sons. 8. May. 2006

<http://www.123helpme.com/assets/11708.html>

13. May. 2006 <http://www.freshlimesoda.com/reviews/freedy2.htm> 27. May. 2006

<http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/salesman/fullsumm.html>

Primary Texts

Gassner, John, ed. Best American Plays : Third Series – 1945-1951. New York: CROWN PUBLISHERS, INC.