Joe Keller is a tragic hero, who has many qualities and one flaw.In the play 'All My Sons', Arthur Miller creates the character Joe Keller

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Joe Keller is a tragic hero. Discuss.

Drama originates from the plays of the Greek, in which a tragedy occurs. In these plays the tragic hero (protagonist) commits an offence. He must then find out what he has done wrong, suffer the consequences of his actions and perhaps in the end, die. The Greeks saw the death of the tragic hero as being a way to show that the gods are being fair and the moral order of the universe is restored. A tragic hero according to the Aristotelian Unities is a person who has many outstanding qualities but one tragic flaw. Joe Keller is a tragic hero, who has many qualities and one flaw.

In the play ‘All My Sons’, Arthur Miller creates the character Joe Keller. Joe seems to be an ordinary person, though in the play he represents a man of ‘class’. Joe is a very ordinary man, decent, hard-working, self-made and charitable, a man that no normal person could dislike. But, like the tragic heroes in the ancient Greek dramas, he has a flaw or weakness. This flaw causes him to act wrongly in a situation. He is then forced to accept responsibility for the mistake he made with the cylinder heads. His suicide is necessary to restore the moral order of the universe, and allow his son, Chris, to live free from guilt.

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Joe Keller, the chief character, is a man who loves his family above all else, and has sacrificed everything, such as his honour, in his struggle to make his family prosperous. He appears to be a very selfless man who has no evil inside of him. He is now sixty-one years of age. He has lost one son in the war and has one remaining son. The loss of his son causes us to feel sympathy towards him. Joe Keller is not a bad man. This effectively makes us see him as a superior man. He loves his family but ...

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This essay begins strongly but then becomes repetitive and too superficial and neither the play nor the character are ever really analysed in any depth. When making points make sure to explain them and relate them back to the title and topic of the essay. 3 Stars