All My Sons by Arthur Miller | Summary

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

Characters

Joe Keller – Head of the Keller family. A businessman who sent out bad airplane parts during World War II, causing 21 pilots to die. He pretended to be sick and let his partner, Steve Deever, take the blame. He believes he did it for his family, but his guilt destroys them.

Kate Keller (Mother) – Joe’s wife and mother of Larry and Chris. She refuses to believe Larry is dead. Her denial hides Joe’s guilt—if Larry lives, Joe can’t be guilty.

Chris Keller – Joe’s surviving son. An honest and idealistic war veteran. He loves Ann Deever and wants to marry her. His trust in his father is broken when he learns the truth.

Ann Deever – Larry’s former fiancée and Steve Deever’s daughter. She knows Joe is guilty and has accepted Larry’s death. Her visit brings out the family’s hidden secret.

George Deever – Ann’s brother and a lawyer. After visiting his father in prison, he comes to confront Joe and take Ann home. He represents truth and justice.

Dr. Jim Bayliss – The Kellers’ neighbour and a doctor. He suspects Joe’s guilt but keeps quiet for peace and comfort.

Sue Bayliss – Jim’s wife. She dislikes Chris’s idealism because it makes her husband feel bad for giving up his research dreams for money.

Frank Lubey – A neighbour who checks Larry’s horoscope to please Kate. He supports her false hope.

Lydia Lubey – Frank’s wife and George’s old love. Her happy nature reminds George of the past and softens his anger.

Bert – A young boy who plays “jail” in Joe’s basement, unknowingly hinting at Joe’s secret crime.

Summary

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons (1947) is a powerful family tragedy. It reveals the devastating consequences of moral compromise, deception, and the illusion of the American Dream. The play takes place after World War II and follows the Keller family. Their quiet life begins to fall apart when hidden truths about war crimes and betrayal come out. Through the characters and rising tension, Miller shows the struggle between duty to others and love for family. He proves that both are deeply connected and cannot be separated.

Joe Keller reads a newspaper in his backyard. A storm has broken an apple tree planted in memory of his son Larry. Frank Lubey, a neighbour, visits and says Kate wants Larry’s horoscope checked. She hopes November 25, the day Larry went missing, was lucky. Dr. Jim Bayliss joins Joe for a talk.

Ann Deever, Larry’s old girlfriend, is staying in the house and sleeps in Larry’s room. Sue Bayliss and Lydia Lubey join their husbands and chat. A boy named Bert plays policeman and jokes about a jail in Joe’s basement.

Chris Keller, Joe’s other son, arrives. He saw Kate when the tree fell, and she ran inside crying. Kate still believes Larry is alive. Chris tells Joe he loves Ann and wants to marry her. Kate appears and talks about a dream of Larry flying over the house. She refuses to accept Larry’s death. Joe and Chris decide to tell her about the engagement that night.

Ann comes out, and Jim asks about her father. Her father, Steve Deever, was Joe’s wartime partner. Their factory once shipped bad airplane parts, killing 21 pilots. Joe ordered the shipment and pretended to be sick; Steve took the blame and was jailed, while Joe was exonerated. Ann agrees to marry Chris and listens to his war stories. She gets a call from her brother George, who is coming after visiting their father.

Chris cuts the broken tree. Sue and Ann talk about marriage. Sue mocks Chris’s idealism and says the town thinks Joe is guilty too. Jim later brings George from the train station. George is angry and ready to accuse Joe. He and Chris talk politely, but tension grows. George tells Ann their father said Joe ordered the defective shipment and faked his illness. Ann calms him down. Lydia appears, reminding George of their old love.

Joe joins them and pretends to be friendly. He even offers Steve a job. George refuses and says Steve hates him. Kate slips, saying Joe never gets sick. George realizes Joe lied about being ill. Joe panics. Frank runs in with good news—Larry’s horoscope was lucky. Kate clings to hope. George tries to take Ann home. Under pressure, Kate finally admits she has always suspected Joe was guilty. Chris explodes with anger.

Later, Chris disappears. Kate sits sadly on the porch. Jim comforts her and says he has long suspected the truth. Kate begs Joe to see Chris’s point of view, but Joe says family comes first. Ann shows Larry’s letter and says Kate must tell Chris the truth. Kate refuses, so Ann threatens to read it. Chris returns, broken and hopeless. He plans to leave Joe’s business and move to Cleveland.

Joe comes back, arguing again. Chris says he can’t forgive him. Ann reads Larry’s suicide letter—it says Larry killed himself after learning of Joe’s crime. Joe finally understands that his actions caused his son’s death and betrayed all the pilots who died. He goes inside. A gunshot is heard. Kate holds Chris and tells him to live on.

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

All My Sons is a three-act play written by American dramatist Arthur Miller. This play deals with the tragic conflict between family loyalties and social responsibility.

Joe and Kate Keller were parents to Chris and Larry. Joe owned a manufacturing plant with Steve Deever. Steve's daughter Ann was engaged to Larry, and George was their friend. During World War II, both Keller boys and George were sent to the war.

During the war, Deever and Keller had an Army contract to make airplane parts. Some parts were cracked. The Army wanted more, so Deever called Keller. Keller told him to weld the cracked parts and ship them anyway. Deever was worried but did it. They both knew the parts were unsafe.

The faulty parts caused 21 planes to crash and the pilots to die. Steve and Keller were both arrested, but only Steve stayed in jail. Keller convinced the judge he was sick at home that day and didn’t know about the shipment, so he went home free. Larry, overseas, learned of his father's guilt and felt ashamed. He wrote Ann a letter saying not to wait for him, then deliberately crashed his plane and was declared missing.

Three years later, Chris asks Ann to marry him. They've been in touch despite her living in New York. Chris's mom still believes Larry is alive, especially since a tree planted for him fell in a storm. Superstitious, she gets a neighbour to check Larry's horoscope from the day he disappeared. Others accept Larry isn't coming back, but Chris's mom blames Keller for his death if he isn't alive.

Ann's brother, George, comes to stop the wedding. He visited their dad, Steve, in jail and now believes he's innocent. George accuses Keller, who acts friendly. But when Chris's mom accidentally reveals Keller wasn't sick that day, George is suspicious again. Keller claims he had the flu during the war, but George still believes Keller's guilty. Chris, initially trusting his father, is now uncertain after talking to his parents. His mom insists Larry is alive. If not, Keller killed him with the faulty parts. Chris confronts his father, shaken by the possibility of his guilt.

Chris is upset and goes to be alone, angry at his father. His mother says Keller should go to jail if Chris wants. She tells Ann Larry is alive, but Ann shows her Larry's letter. The letter says he couldn’t live knowing his father caused the pilots’ deaths, so he took his own life. Mom blames Keller for Larry's death—not the crash itself, but because Larry felt so guilty he chose to die.

Mother tells Ann not to show the letter, but she does. Chris returns, refusing to turn his dad in and planning to leave alone. He fears Ann will ask him to report his father. Keller comes in, Chris reads Larry's letter aloud. Keller realizes the dead pilots were “all my sons” too. Overwhelmed by guilt, he goes inside and shoots himself.