Larry’s suffering also prompts him to commit suicide. His suffering is guilt at what his father has done, which torments him to the point where he “can’t bear to live any more”. Larry’s guilt and suffering, however, lasts a relatively short amount of time. He hears about what his father has done the day before he kills himself (he refers to the date when the newspapers were flown in as “yesterday” in his suicide letter to Ann). Joe has had to put up with the guilt of committing such an act for years after the event, and so seems to suffer more than Larry.
Chris Keller suffers in numerous ways, and we learn about many of these during the course of the play. When Chris recounts his experiences in the war to Ann, he delivers one of the most striking and engaging speeches ‘All My Sons’ offers. Since he has come back from the war he feels that it felt wrong to live his comfortable life because there is “blood” on everything he owned, and thus, he “didn’t want to take any of it”. He suffered because he felt guilty using things that had been paid for with his father’s money – money that had been made out of the war that had killed his friends and colleagues.
Chris also suffers because his parents idolise Larry, Keller claiming “if Larry was alive he wouldn’t act like this”. Kate and Joe’s idolisation of Larry and the preservation of this idealised image of him mean that Chris has difficulty in being with Ann, the girl he loves, as she is deemed by Kate to be “Larry’s girl”. In the end, Chris’ suffering causes him to explode at Kate “I’m [Larry’s] brother and he’s dead, and I’m marrying his girl.” Before, he restrained himself because he knew it would upset Kate, as “every time [he reaches] out for something [he wants, he has] to pull back because other people will suffer”. Eventually, he decides that the time has come to put an end to his suffering and take what he wants.
The most trying hardship Chris has to endure, however, is the shattering of the image of his father. Chris looked up to his father as a role model, affectionately nicknaming him “Joe McGuts” because of his bravery. His descent into emotional turmoil comes about because Chris “thought [Joe was] better” than most men. When he realises that this is not the case makes him so disgusted that his stage directions read “Almost breaking”.
Kate Keller suffers because she is forced to come to terms with the death of Larry, and at the same time has to come to terms with her husband’s guilt. She pleads “from her whole soul” when Chris reads the letter to Keller because her motives for believing Larry to be alive and Joe to be guiltless stem from a maternal desire to protect her family.
George Deever has obviously suffered during the war, as the stresses of such a pressurised situation have taken their toll on him physically. He is described as “a paler man” than Chris, suggesting that his suffering during wartime was greater. We learn that he was injured, as he was “studying in hospital”, and his injuries are such that it takes him a minute to sit down. The psychological suffering that he has to endure means that he becomes nervous “towards the end of the day”. The war also caused him to give up Lydia, the girl he loved, and still obviously has feelings for.
The audience feel sympathy for George because it is apparent that he has suffered since the war as well. He decides to wear his father’s hat because he thinks he should “look like a lawyer” even when he is unhappy in his job. Tensions are high when he arrives at the Kellers’ house, and his nervousness, indicated by the way in which he frequently interrupts other characters, reveals his internal suffering. George tells Ann that she cannot marry Chris because he could not bear a union between the two families to be formed, after all the Kellers have made him suffer.
In conclusion, it is my personal opinion that Chris suffers the most out of all of the characters. Not only has he suffered emotionally since the war, but also feels that he must suffer in order to make other people happy. When he finally thinks he can have what he wants, he has to deal with his father’s suicide on his conscience.
