Joe Keller as the Tragic Hero in Millers All My Sons Essays -- Arthur

Joe Keller as the Tragic Hero in Millers All My Sons antiquated Greek tragedies were almost always about a protagonist with a tragical flaw. This flaw dictates the stories events and leads to theeventual downfall of the protagonist. The stratum cannot end until theprotagonist has gain his flaw and tries to remedy it. This veryoften involves the protagonist dieing in an attempt to make right whatwrongs he may have caused.Arthur Miller has borrowed this idea as a base for his play All MySons. The protagonist of this play is Joe Keller, a sixty-year-oldretired factory owner. The play follows the story of him and hisfamily his wife Kate, his son Chris and Chris fiance Annie in1940s suburban America. The play reveals that Joe committed a crimehe knowingly sent out faulty cylinder heads for use in the war and then blamed his partner, Annies dad, who went to prison instead ofJoe. Kate also knows he did this and is struggling to keep the secret.However, she feels she has to believe he did nt do it or it means thathe would have been responsible for the death of their other son Larry,who they believed died flying planes in the war.Joe is a victim of the American Dream. He wanted to do the best hecould by his family, and in his quest for money, forgot about thegreater scheme of things in the world. This is his major flaw-hecannot see beyond the forty foot line that surrounds himself and hisfamily. He ideates what he is doing will help his family but by makingthe ill-considered decision he makes, he ends up hurting them morethan helping them.At the head start of the play, the audience is not aware of any of Joesmisdeeds. He is portrayed by Miller as a friendly man, who is a pillar... ...rcharacters think of Joe, and also what he is thinking himself, withoutthe plot being too obvious and being revealed too early. The way thatMiller uses these dramatic devices to piece together the story slowlymakes for a very effective tension builder, which will keep theaudience capti vated throughout.Miller makes it easy for the audience to identify that Joe is a tragichero right from the start. As soon as the audience is aware that Joeis keeping a secret is it obvious that he has committed an offence,which he is passage to suffer for. Miller then shows the audience Joessuffering, mostly through dialogue he has with the other characters.He then uses mostly stage directions to allow the audience know how theplay has finished, which is a very effective way to show his suicide,as it is not too brash, and perhaps unsympathetic of the situation.