Illusion/Reality Dichotomy in Arthur Miller's All My Sons

<p>The institution of family is the basic, fundamental unit in the social structure. All<br>other institutions, be they economic, religious, or educational, come out from the<br>family, and they have developed out of the family. Arthur Miller, one of the greatest<br>modern American playwrights, focuses on the American social values, family life,<br>traditions and rituals, and prejudices of the individual who is a member of family and<br>society. The society comprises human beings, and the existence of man and society<br>becomes mutually dependent upon each other. The working of human relationships<br>– personal, familial, and social- remains the recurrent feature in Miller's body of<br>works; he is of the opinion that family and society play a vital role in determining the<br>fate of the individual with regard to his position in society. Arthur Miller’s one major<br>play, All My Sons (1947), engages the readers with questions regarding the self of<br>man, his relationship with his outer, extended world-family and society and tries to<br>locate not only the position of man but also discusses the questions which affect his<br>relations with his milieu. The present paper locates man in a dichotomous position<br>oscillating between illusion and reality in Miller's All My Sons.</p>