In All My Sons, Arthur Miller offers a different perspective on the conventional Aristotle tragic hero with Joe Keller

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In “All My Sons”, Arthur Miller offers a different perspective on the conventional Aristotle tragic hero with Joe Keller. Discuss how Joe Keller compares to the classical model of a tragic hero.

“All My Sons” is a modern tragedy by Arthur Miller that presents the themes and ideas of denial, blame and the American dream.

Joe Keller is the ‘ordinary’ man, hence his name suggesting ‘ordinary Joe’. He is at the heart of the tragedy, along with his family, as we hear of their missing son lost during the war serving his country. During this time Joe used his business of making engine cylinders, to get involved in war profiteering; this is someone or a business that improperly profits from warfare by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war.  Joe’s engines cylinders were used in fighter planes, which his son flew. Due to faulty cylinders, which Joe knew about yet still sent off to the army, men died. This brought his close colleague and friend imprisonment and brought shame to his wife, Kate and his son, Chris.

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Throughout the tragedy, Joe Keller fits with the conventional Aristotle idea of tragic hero, but Arthur Miller also offers a different perspective. Here Joe Keller will be compared to the classical model of a tragic hero, on how he relates and differs, looking closely at how Arthur Miller specifically conveys him differently.

Many say that Joe fits with the conventional and typical Aristotle tragic hero. Like many others just after the war, Joe lives a simple life. But ironically to this we soon see that his life is not as simple as we first believed and as first he believed. ...

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