A Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller provides the essential guide to Miller's most studied and revived dramas. Authored by a team of leading scholars, it offers students a clear analysis and detailed commentary on five of Miller's plays: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge and Broken Glass. A consistent framework of analysis ensures that whether readers want a summary of the play, a commentary on the themes or characters, or a discussion of the work in performance, they can readily find what they need to develop their understanding and aid their appreciation of Miller's artistry. A chronology of Miller's life and work helps to situate his oeuvre in context and the introduction reinforces this by providing a clear overview of his writing, its recurrent themes and how these are intertwined with his life and times. For each play the author provides a summary of the plot, followed by commentary on the context, themes, characters, structure and language, and the play in production - both on stage and screen adaptations; there are questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases in the text. The wealth of authoritative and clear commentary on each play, together with further questions that encourage comparison across Miller's work and related plays by other leading writers, ensures that this is the clearest and fullest guide to Miller's greatest plays.

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 Arthur Miller’s plays are confronted with guilt and responsibility and how they deal with it. Furthermore, I want to demonstrate how personal, individual guilt and responsibility not only become a matter for the individual but also have an important impact on the community and the society. According to Miller, there is a really strong mutual relationship between the individual and 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 protagonists always try to defend themselves against an accusation, to deny their responsibility and guilt, and to believe in their innocence. Bigsby mentions what all of the characters concerning innocence and guilt have in common: “... [They] spend much of their time rebutting charges whose justice they acknowledge even as they are rejected. They are people who try to escape the consequences of their actions, who try to declare their innocence even when that involves implying the guilt of others.” This truly applies for the plays and characters I will observe in the following. I decided to focus on two plays published in the 1940s and 1950s: All My Sons (1947) and The Crucible (1953). Their main protagonists experience confrontation with themselves which finally leads to death. Most emphasis will be laid on All My Sons as there we have a number of characters dealing with guilt and responsibility, namely Chris, Larry, Kate, and Joe Keller. In addition, I will discuss the character of Proctor in The Crucible. The dominant question in these characters becomes this one: “How can a human being work out the interconnections among the everwidening circles of responsibility: self, family, society, the universe? According to Miller, “to violate the codes of any circle is to sin.”

Arthur Miller, best known for his works The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, is one of America's most important dramatists.

I. CONFLICT DEFINEDThe theme of a literary work may be defined as the generalization about life based on the results of the conflict in the work. The Tragedy is the most serious form of literature. So 'conflict' is one of the most essential aspects of the work of literature in general and the tragedy in particular.In Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English 'conflict' is defined as the 'opposition or difference of opinions, desires, etc.' Conflict can be internal or external. This is to say that conflict can be inside the mind of the character concerned, for example, the one between 'duty' and 'desire' in the mind of the character. Similarly there can be difference in the opinions of two different characters.

Interviews with Miller and his essays provide an insight into his dramatic works and the man behind the works.

This critical introduction to Arthur Miller provides an indispensable aid for students and general readers to understand the depth and complexity of some of America's most important dramatic works. Beginning with a discussion of his life, this work traces not only Miller's theatrical career, but his formulative experiences with the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Detailed discussions of eight important plays are organized around the social and moral themes Miller derived from such events; these themes are evident in such works as Death of A Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, and All My Sons. By placing Miller, within the context of his times, this discussion reveals how he was influenced by and reacted to the major events in his own life and in American culture. Analysis of his more recent works such as The American Clock, Broken Glass and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan illustrate the consistency of Miller's strong moral vision, and his continuing innovative contributions to American theatre. A fascinating biographical chapter takes readers from Miller's childhood, through the Depression years, through three marriages; and from his theatrical apprenticeship, to eventual fame and critical acclaim for his plays and other literary and cinematic projects. The literary heritage chapter outlines Miller's literary and dramatic precursors, and considers the major aspects of his dramatic impact. The six chapters discussing his major plays are systematically presented to allow the reader to easily grasp the intricacies of their plots, characterizations, stylistic devices, and themes. In addition, each chapter offers a view of the social and/or historical context that influenced the plays' thematic development, as well as an alternate critical reading that demonstrates the richness of Miller's work. Lastly, the bibliography provides information on Miller's published works, including his screenplays and essays, biographical information, selected general criticism, and both contemporary reviews and critical studies of the plays discussed.

Arthur Miller was one of the most important American playwrights and political and cultural figures of the 20th century. Both Death of a Salesman and The Crucible stand out as his major works: the former is always in performance somewhere in the world and the latter is Miller's most produced play. As major modern American dramas, they are the subject of a huge amount of criticism which can be daunting for students approaching the plays for the first time. This Reader's Guide introduces the major critical debates surrounding the plays and discusses their unique production histories, initial theatre reviews and later adaptations. The main trends of critical inquiry and scholars who have purported them are examined, as are the views of Miller himself, a prolific self-critic.

Presents roughly sixty years' worth of Arthur Miller scholarship, offering a range of interpretations and critical responses to the playwright's work.

This Companion provides an introduction to one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century.