Modern Realism

1. Modern Realism Arthur Miller’s All My Sons

2. Origins of Modern Drama: Ibsen • Henrik Ibsen, Norway, 1828-1906 • GB Shaw said “The door slam at the end of [Ibsen’s] A Doll’s House ushered in the age of Modernism” • Christmas, 1879; about gender roles and legal restrictions; ends in Nora walking out on her family. • Social problems depicted “realistically” - no easy solutions or deus ex macchina • Well-made play, intensive structure • Middle classes, everyday diction • Focus on individuals, but in their social environment • Rights of individual over group, religion, morality

3. Other theatrical factors • Pictorial realism of setting • Box set and real objects on stage, used by actors. • Rise of designers, recently costumers, by early 20th c. lighting designers • Rise of the director -- to provide unity of vision based in the text • Ensemble acting and fourth wall • Stanislavsky’s work to train actors, early 20th c. • Ibsen’s plays are banned by censors across Europe

4. André Antoine, Théâtre Libre, 1887

6. American Realism -- Miller • From 1930’s; Group Theatre adopts Stanislavsky and Method; writer Clifford Odetts • Arthur Miller, 1915-2005 • NYC, Jewish, U Michigan Journalism to English, grad ‘38, chooses playwriting over Hollywood, works Federal Theatre Project NYC • All My Sons, 1947, his first major work, wins Drama Critics’ Circle Award • Death of A Salesman, 1949, wins Pulitzer, Tony, Drama Critics, Theatre Club… • The Crucible, View from the Bridge, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, Price • Subpoenaed by HUAC, refused to name names

7. All My Sons • Based on true story from WWII, parts for tanks were shipped in spite of known defects, the man was convicted. • Set Aug 1947, the cracked cylinder heads and Larry’s death were in 1944. • Parallel plots: Chris and Ann’s hoped for marriage; Joe’s innocence or guilt, dishonesty • Tight, intensive structure; 1 setting 1 day; Ann incites action; rising action as we figure out Joe’s guilt, Kate’s complicity, Chris’s idealism is smashed, Ann reveals the letter. Climax.

8. Topics • Responsibility: to family vs. society. Title. • Honor: war vs. business or Chris vs. Joe • Idealism: must all stars go out? • Materialism masks real value • Each character represents a different take on these themes.

9. Characterization • Each given three dimensions, depth • Joe is similar to the tragic hero: essentially good (dedicated to family, runs business, cares for neighborhood, sees own limits), but “hamartia” (tragic flaw) is blindness to value of the larger “human family” -- that title again: “all my sons.” • Background stories that justify ethical positions • Kellers and Deevers’ stories interwoven • Use of realistic detail: the grape juice, clothing, tree • Supernatural: Frank and Kate, proven wrong. A form of “ability to lie to oneself.”

10. “Tragedy and the Common Man” • Miller’s article for NY Times, 1949 • “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its higher sense as kings were.” • “Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” • “The [tragic] flaw… is really nothing… but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity.” • “The revolutionary questioning of a stable environment [social, external forces] is what terrifies.” • It’s ultimately optimistic because it implies a belief in the “perfectibility of man.”