First, explore the PBS American Masters website found at the link below. On the right-hand side you see the box "Inside This Episode." Read the articles "None Without Sin," "Career Timeline," and "McCarthyism."
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/none-without-sin/56/
Then, watch this clip from an interview with Arthur Miller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BirqjuayQTA&feature=PlayList&p=B437B62796A55B57&index=0&playnext=1
At the beginning of the video, Miller states that all the great playwrights mentioned by the interviewer share "a moral sensibility which is unquenchable and that they are all burning with some anger at the way the world is." Based on what you learned about him, what anger might Miller be burning with? That is to say, what might have happened in his life to make him angry? Please cite and fully explain at least one thing that would have made him angry (you will discover several) and explain how he might have felt during that experience. How would you feel if you experienced that same thing? Have you ever felt something similar? Minimum 250 words.
Arthur Miller, is a magnificent playwright. He struggled from a various situation, the most important, such as the Holocaust and his father’s business failure. In his life he had always the necessity to work, in order to save money for his university, this made him a more experienced playwright; that then led to his moral sensibility. His plays, the famous ones, are mostly about his father, for example “All my sons”, that talks about this father that sold some arms to the army for the war (WWII) to save his business. Trying to identify the factors that made him so angry is not that impossible. In fact the most obvious are his father’s business failure and the holocaust. Saying just this though is not that exhaustive. In an interview that Miller released he was asked what is the thing that connects great playwright (ex. Shakespeare) and he said: "a moral sensibility which is unquenchable and that they are all burning with some anger at the way the world is." From the way he is declaring this statement is shown how resentful he is and how it doesn’t only include “Shakespeare” etc.. but he is also included in the phrase. Something that really upset A. Miller was the destruction of the so famous “American Dream”. As everyone is concerned on how this can be achieved (hard work, maybe perfect family, maybe lot of money) he had already, in his mind, this idea vanished. The business failure, the holocaust and his, almost, desperate need of money for the university, his struggle conducted Miller to refuse and forget about this so famous, but at the same time unknown, American Dream. These in my opinion may have been the causes of his anger; although never felt such an anger I can only interpret the words of Arthur Miller.
ReplyDeleteArthur Miller was an American play writer born in Manhattan in 1915 to Jewish immigrant parents. Arthur Miller is known for transforming the American theatre during the period immediately following the end of World War II. Arthur Miller had a great anger to be burning with. In first place his father's manufacturing business failure caused by the great depression that struck the US after the war brought his father to desperation, this had a tremendous effect on Miller. Miller then managed to pay his studies and graduated at the University of Michigan. All of his plays seem to have the same theme which recurred in some way to Miller's personal story. For instance “All My Sons,” a tragedy about a manufacturer who sells faulty parts to the military in order to save his business. Miller's most famous plays deal with desperation and paternal responsibility. “Death of a Salesman” probably Miller's most famous play; focused on a failed businessman as he tries to remember and reconstruct his life. Eventually he kills himself to leave his son insurance money. In conclusion we can say that Miller's father desperation and career struck in great way Miller for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeletePersonally speaking i have never experienced such an anger to be burning with for the rest of my life like Miller, but obviously like every human being I will have one in future.