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All My Sons (Theatre)

 All My Sons (Theatre)
type
TVTItem
 All My Sons (Theatre)
label
All My Sons (Theatre)
 All My Sons (Theatre)
page
AllMySons
 All My Sons (Theatre)
comment
All My Sons is a play in three acts by Arthur Miller, first performed in 1947.The action takes place over the course of a single day at the home of Joe Keller, the owner of a factory that manufactures machine parts. He and his wife Kate had two sons, Larry and Chris, who both served in World War II; Chris has returned home, but Larry, a pilot, is missing and presumed dead, although Kate refuses to give up hope that he is still alive.The family is being visited by Ann Deever, who grew up in the house next door. She and Chris are planning to marry, but have not yet told Kate, because Ann was Larry's girlfriend before the war and their intentions will place them in open opposition to Kate's insistence that Larry will come home one day and everything will be the same as before.The audience also learns over the course of the first act that Ann's father, Steve, was Joe's partner in the factory, and that he is now in prison after knowingly shipping out a batch of faulty engine components during the war that were used in military aircraft and resulted in several fatal crashes. Joe was cleared of responsibility, but still exists under a cloud of suspicion.By the end of the day, several long-buried secrets have been unearthed, with dramatic consequences.
 All My Sons (Theatre)
fetched
2023-07-22T16:30:15Z
 All My Sons (Theatre)
parsed
2023-07-22T16:30:15Z
 All My Sons (Theatre)
isPartOf
DBTropes
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_12a59731
type
Goodbye, Cruel World!
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_12a59731
comment
Goodbye, Cruel World!: Near the end of the play, Ann admits that she's known all along Larry was dead, because his final letter to her was a suicide note, saying that he couldn't live with the shame of his father's actions and the deaths they had caused.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_12a59731
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_12a59731
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_12a59731
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_18d15922
type
Title Drop
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_18d15922
comment
Title Drop: The title is intially somewhat enigmatic; Joe's two sons would usually be a "both" rather than an "all". It's eventually explained in the final scene, when Joe finally admits that he has a responsibility to more than just his family; speaking of the pilots who died because he considered their safety less important than his image of his sons' future, he says that in a sense "they were all my sons".
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_18d15922
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_18d15922
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_18d15922
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_19d06ef7
type
A Father to His Men
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_19d06ef7
comment
A Father to His Men: Chris Keller's Army nickname was "Mother McKeller." While little is said about his commanding abilities, he respected and was respected by his men, and was prouder to see them fighting selflessly and dying honorably (almost all were lost) than of going back to work with his father, where civilians hadn't changed their old money-grubbing ways.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_19d06ef7
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_19d06ef7
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_19d06ef7
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_22cf536c
type
Chekhov's Gun
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_22cf536c
comment
Chekhov's Gun: With a literal gun; Joe's hunting rifle is mentioned early in the first act and then never alluded to again until the final page, when Joe turns it on himself in remorse.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_22cf536c
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_22cf536c
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_22cf536c
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_2cf282ea
type
She Is All Grown Up
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_2cf282ea
comment
She Is All Grown Up: When Ann comes to visit, several characters remark that she's grown into a woman in the years since they last saw her.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_2cf282ea
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_2cf282ea
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_2cf282ea
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_4583a262
type
Shirtless Scene
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_4583a262
comment
Shirtless Scene: The second act opens with Chris doing yardwork shirtless.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_4583a262
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_4583a262
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_4583a262
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_46d3f869
type
Family Business
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_46d3f869
comment
Family Business: Joe Keller put forty years of his life into building up a business which he badly wants his son Chris to inherit.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_46d3f869
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_46d3f869
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_46d3f869
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: It's ultimately revealed that Larry's disappearance was a suicide motivated by shame at his father's actions and the deaths they'd caused. Shortly after learning this, Joe also commits suicide.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_6d332aea
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_6d332aea
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_6d332aea
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_868409c
type
Broken Pedestal
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_868409c
comment
Broken Pedestal: Chris is devastated to discover that his belief in his father's integrity has been misplaced.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_868409c
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_868409c
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_868409c
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_973d220f
type
Never My Fault
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_973d220f
comment
Never My Fault: When reminded that Steve Deever blames him for the incident with the faulty engine components, Joe says dismissively that Steve is the kind of person who can never accept responsibility for his mistakes. It becomes apparent that the description applies just as much to Joe, who has been denying for years that he had anything to do with the incident, and when forced to admit that he had a hand in it still tries to minimize the blame by claiming that it was an honest mistake and that he was only doing what he had to to keep his family secure.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_973d220f
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_973d220f
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_973d220f
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_a1b141f4
type
My God, What Have I Done?
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_a1b141f4
comment
My God, What Have I Done?: Joe has spent years telling himself that his actions in respect to the faulty airplane engines were justified because he was acting according to his duty to provide for his family. Over the course of the play, he begins to recognize how much damage he's done to his own family, and then to accept his wider responsibility. When it finally sinks in, he's devastated.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_a1b141f4
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_a1b141f4
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_a1b141f4
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_b17f6a27
type
I Did What I Had to Do
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_b17f6a27
comment
I Did What I Had to Do: Joe Keller insists that the reason why he kept quiet about shipping 120 cracked engine heads until it was too late and denied all responsibility for it was that it was necessary to keep his Family Business in business.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_b17f6a27
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1.0
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_b17f6a27
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_b17f6a27
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_c8d6d621
type
I Will Wait for You
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_c8d6d621
comment
I Will Wait for You: Kate assumes this is why Ann has never started a new relationship after Larry disappeared, and uses it to bolster her own belief that Larry will come back one day. In fact, what Ann has been waiting for is for Chris to get up the courage to declare his feelings for her. She admits near the end of the play that Larry wrote to her just before he disappeared telling her not to wait for him, because he wasn't planning on coming back alive.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_c8d6d621
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_c8d6d621
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 All My Sons (Theatre)
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_c8d6d621
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_e52a0409
type
Calling the Old Man Out
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_e52a0409
comment
Calling the Old Man Out: Chris confronts his father and demands to know, once and for all, how much he knew about the faulty engine components. He's horrified when Joe admits he knew all about them and put off telling anyone until it was too late; when Joe attempts to justify himself by saying he was only trying to keep the Family Business going for Chris, Chris explodes, laying out a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before storming from the house. Larry also calls his father out, posthumously. In the final scene, Ann admits that on the day he was last seen alive, he wrote her a letter saying that he'd heard the news about their fathers being arrested, and that if he went missing she should know that he'd been unable to live with what his father had done. This is the final straw that forces Joe to confront his actions.
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_e52a0409
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 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_e52a0409
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_e52a0409
 All My Sons (Theatre) / int_name
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All My Sons (Theatre) / int_name
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All My Sons (Theatre)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
A Father to His Men / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Breakthrough Hit / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Broken Pedestal / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Calling the Old Man Out / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Family Business / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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Goodbye, Cruel World! / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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Grumpy Old Man / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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I Did What I Had to Do / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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I Will Wait for You / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
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Name McAdjective / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
She Is All Grown Up / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Shirtless Scene / int_8bc98505
 All My Sons (Theatre)
hasFeature
Shoot the Dog / int_8bc98505