The opening of the play consists of a very detailed description of the Kellers’ house. This symbolises the constant and varied goings on throughout the play and the chaos of varied themes and occurrences.
The majority of the information that the audience uses to create an impression of Joe does not come from Joe at all, but from other characters. There are several speeches throughout the play that show this. For example, ‘the trouble is you don’t believe in anything’ – Frank. This shows that he is not a superstitious man and is shallow-minded.
‘I resent living next door to the holy family.’ – Sue. The sarcasm in what she says shows that joe is not really as ‘perfect’ as he appears.
Finally, the speech by Chris at the end of act two, ‘What must I do to you? I ought to tear the tongue out of your mouth, what must I do?’. This shows the hatred he feels towards his father, resulting in Joe’s realisation of the extremity of what he has done.
There are also a few minor characters that exist purely to show the audience things about other characters. For example, Lydia, Sue and Frank. The significance of these characters is that we learn of the natures of the major characters, and the actions that happened before the opening of the play.
One of the most significant characters in the entire play, although his importance may not even be realised by most members of the audience, is Jim Bayliss. He is a very wise man, and his philosophical views portray the actions and occurences of the play directly to Kate, and the audience, in an unbiased way, and his speech at the end of the play has great importance.
‘Oh no he’ll come back. We all come back, Kate. These private little revolutions always die. The compromise is always made. In a peculiar way, Frank is right – every man does have a star, The star of one’s honesty. And you spend your life groping for it, but once its out it never lights again. I don’t think he went very far. He probably just wants to be alone to watch his star go out.’
This speech links up the themes and actions of the play, and brings it to a distinct close.
Joe Keller can be described as a tragic hero because he is a good man. He loved, cared for and wanted to provide for his family. It would even be fair comment to say the fact that he loved his family so much is the reason he committed the sin he did, as the money from the sale of the faulty engine parts went to his family. Therefore, although he committed a serious offence, his intentions were good. Also, it is obvious throughout the play that he is a loving father and husband, and an emotional man. For example,
‘I’m surprised that you remembered his birthday Frank. That’s nice.’ shows that he appreciates the fact that Frank remembered Larry’s birthday.
He is also playful and friendly towards Bert, ‘Now you’re talkin’, Bert. Now you’re on the ball.’
Also, he believes himself to be superior to others. This is projected through
his political and social views.
‘In my day, either you were a layer, or a doctor, or you worked in a shop.’
‘in my day, there was no such thing.’
He also refuses to gain modern knowledge and remains stuck in his old ways.
‘everybody’s gettin’ so goddam educated in this country there’ll be nobody to take away the garbage.’ He believes his ways of doing things are the correct ways and that modern ideas and technology are wrong. This superiority may even have been the cause of his downfall, the reason he told Steve to transport the broken aeroplane parts, as he believed himself and his own decisions to be correct.
As well as this, he has an obvious tragic flaw. He sells aeroplane parts that he knows are faulty, and could well result in the planes that use them to crash. He does this because if he doesn’t sell them he will lose his contract with the aeroplane company and, consequently, a lot of money. To avoid imprisonment when the planes crash, and twenty-one men die, he decides to blame his employee for this and therefore escapes punishment. His son, Larry, disappears around the time these aeroplane parts are released. Therefore, he assumes Larry was flying one of these planes and has crashed. His wife, Kate, firmly holds onto the belief that Larry is still alive because, she believes, that if Larry is dead, her husband killed him.
Finally, he realises that he has done wrong. Chris shows him the error of his ways, and the immensity of the offence he has committed. Upon realising this, he takes his own life. Therefore, the moral balance has been restored.
