How far can we say that the play is a Tragedy?

All my sons was wirtten in the 1940's a short period after the second world war and it is based around the events that happened during the war that involves the keller family. Straight away from the time period we know that something dramatic will happen or has happened to this family as the war has an enormous affect on everyone.
The dictionary definition of Tragedy is : a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction.
so how many of these characteristics of tragedy can we see in "All my sons"? so first thing of we see the serious and or somber theme of the after affects of the war, we may not be told the affects of it at first but it is still there in the background, looming.
Then we are told of the great flaw, of the fate filled day that Joe was "sick" this then leading to his inevitable destruction.
This character flaw effects the lives of others, including that of his son Larry, who kills himself, chris and kate who in the end lose their brother and their mother and Joe himself who comits suicide.

So considering we have two suicides, two great losses, all the effect of a fanatical flaw we can consider this to be a tragedy.

Act One : All My Sons

At the start of the play Arthur Miller gives some very good character descriptions, he allows us to completely imagine the characters the way he wants us too see them, i think he does this as he obviously later on in the play changes all descriptions completely! Doing this he gives us, the readers, a false sense of security with the charcters we feel for.
Joe Keller appears at the start to be a simple man in his 60's whose got a happy family that has been affected by the war, which we are told has taken a son from him, Larry.

Kate Keller at the start of the play is still in mourning of her sons larry who died in the war, this thought is kept alive by the neighbour Frank, who highly believes in the stars, and who predicts that Larry is still alive.

Chris Keller at the start of the play tells us in the conversation to his dad , that he believes larry is dead but that they are toying with their mothers feelings by telling her any different. By giving us this explantion we are able to see chris as a realist. We then also get the information aout Ann who chris wnats to marry, we then get anns background information about her going out with larry, chris's brother.
The first act is a all abit cosmic as we get the story about kates dream, and the stroy about larrys and this all happens on the day Ann arrives, its all a bit connected which sends kate into a flurry of cosmic beliefs. when Ann herself arrives , kate confronts her and asks if she is still waiting for larry, she is not, this interrupts kates cosmic balance.
When Ann announces that george her brother is coming to see her, everything gets a bit tense and Joe and Kate are worried that she is only interested in Chris to allow her dad to be exonerated from his prison sentence.

Symbolism is introduced in this act. The tree symbolises larrys death and the "prison" in joe basment symbolises the reality that prison is out there. Kate dislikes the fact that joe jokes around with a fake prison, so get very touchy about it, by doing this she is showing the readers that she dislikes the thought of her husbands in prison although secretly she knows thats where he should be. When the tree breaks it symbolises that something is going to happen that does involved him or somewhat his memory.


The first act of this play, allows us to see how the characters are in their home life, they are all quite friendly towards each other although clearly they all have a secret that isn't being told to the other. This creates alot of unknown conflict within the family, when Ann arrives the conflicts come out into the open and creates alot of tension within the family.