Guilt and Responsibility in Arthur Miller's Plays

Andreas Keilbach

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9783640216918
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, 3, University of Freiburg (Englisches Seminar), course: 20th Century American Drama: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this term paper is to examine how the characters in ArthurMiller's plays are confronted with guilt and responsibility and how they dealwith it. Furthermore, I want to demonstrate how personal, individual guiltand responsibility not only become a matter for the individual but alsohave an important impact on the community and the society. According toMiller, there is a really strong mutual relationship between the individualand society. He states: "Society is inside man and man is inside society, the water is in the fish, the fish is in the water." Miller's main protagonistsalways try to defend themselves against an accusation, to deny theirresponsibility and guilt, and to believe in their innocence. Bigsby mentionswhat all of the characters concerning innocence and guilt have incommon: "… [They] spend much of their time rebutting charges whosejustice they acknowledge even as they are rejected. They are people whotry to escape the consequences of their actions, who try to declare theirinnocence even when that involves implying the guilt of others." This trulyapplies for the plays and characters I will observe in the following. Idecided to focus on two plays published in the 1940s and 1950s: All MySons (1947) and The Crucible (1953). Their main protagonists experienceconfrontation with themselves which finally leads to death. Most emphasiswill be laid on All My Sons as there we have a number of charactersdealing with guilt and responsibility, namely Chris, Larry, Kate, and JoeKeller. In addition, I will discuss the character of Proctor in The Crucible.The dominant question in these characters becomes this one: "Howcan a human being work out the interconnections among the everwideningcircles of responsibility: self, family, society, the universe?According to Miller, "to violate the codes of any circle is to sin."