All My Sons: York Notes Advanced

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When Arthur Miller burst upon the theatre world with this 1947 play, he established his position as the leading playwright of his generation. Simultaneously, he made a brilliant case for his contention that the American theatre could encompass tragedy equal in stature to that of the ancient Greeks. The heroes, he maintained, were not the kings and gods of antiquity, but the everyday working people of this country. Miller had begun writing plays as a student at the University of Michigan and had won several awards (one of which he shared with his contemporary, Tennessee Williams), but his first Broadway play lasted for only five performances in 1944. He authored several radio scripts before ALL MY SONS opened and became his first Broadway hit. Two years later, DEATH OF A SALESMAN won him the Pulitzer Prize. He remains a vital force in today’s theatre. “The stage,” he writes, “is the place for ideas, for philosophies, for the most intense discussions of man’s fate.”