"Miller's plays show is that happiness can only be achieved by making moral compromises" To what extent does this claim apply to All My Sons?

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Michelle Bailey

A critic has written that “Miller’s plays show is that happiness can only be achieved by making moral compromises”

To what extent does this claim apply to All My Sons?

The critique about Miller’s plays applies directly to the central theme, and protagonist of All My Sons. It could be argued, that Joe Keller’s moral compromise, in that he allowed a batch of faulty cylinder heads to be shipped out and used in planes, resulted in the death of 21 pilots, was done to achieve happiness. For example, Joe claims he had to ship out the cylinder heads in order to keep the business running for Chris’ future. “You’re a boy, what could I do! ...a hundred and twenty cracked…you’re out of business”. This therefore shows that Joe felt happiness could only be achieved by earning money, although the money would come from making a moral compromise. In the same way, Joe uses the excuse of money which supposedly creates happiness, to justify what he did – “you wanted money so I made money…what must I be forgiven?” This quote is very telling of the fact that Joe Keller – the main character of Miller’s All My Sons – believes that money is the root of happiness, and that he did nothing wrong in shipping out cracked cylinder heads i.e. making a moral compromise, because it would lead to the Keller family having money.

This idea is also shown early on in the play by Jim – he says he would love to “help humanity on a Warner Brothers salary”. This links to the idea that moral compromises have to made – in that it is more important to the characters of the play to earn money than do something more moral – in order to be happy.

In the same way, a critic said that “Miller examines the morality of the man who places his narrow responsibility to his immediate family above his wider responsibility to the men who rely on the integrity of his work”. This is particularly relevant to the idea that Joe in All My Sons made moral compromises to help his family, by making moral compromises in that he sacrificed 21 pilots for the sake of making money which supposedly achieves happiness – “I was…the guy who sold cracked cylinder heads to the Army Air Force”… “A batch comes out with a crack…that happens, that’s the business”. This therefore shows that in Miller’s play, in terms of Joe and Joe’s values, happiness can only be achieved by making moral compromises.

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This idea is again shown by Miller by the fact that the Keller’s appear to be fairly wealthy. For example, they have a maid, and an extensive piece of narrative is used at the beginning of the play to describe their house – “two storeys high and has seven rooms”. The only way the Keller family could have kept such a house through the Depression and lack of revenue during the war, would be by war profiteering – which Joe committed. This therefore shows that Miller is portraying that happiness, is achieved by making money, and the money Joe makes ...

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