Arthur Miller: Death of A

Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 © Stephen Marino 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6– 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identifi ed as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW. 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Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 CONTENTS Introduction 1 A cultural, political and literary biography of Miller focusing on him as a literary, cultural and political fi gure and the many plays he produced over his long career, with emphasis on the signifi cance of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible in his canon; discussion of drama as text and drama as performance; summary of the organization of this text. CHAPTER ONE 11 1949– 69: Reviews and Early Criticism This chapter shows the different collaborative processes in the original Broadway productions of the plays, presents the initial reviews and examines critical perspectives in the two decades after the plays’ premieres. Includes commentary by Barry Gross, Gerald Weales, David Levin, Robert Warshow, Philip Hill, Penelope Curtis, Arthur Oberg, Stephen Fender, Dennis Welland, Sheila Huftel and Leonard Moss. CHAPTER TWO 35 1949– 79: Society and Tragedy This chapter explores how the early criticism of Salesman and Crucible viewed the plays through the lens of social realism, argued over whether the dramas were tragedies, and considered how they illustrated the American Dream. Includes criticism by Tom Driver, Leonard Moss, Brooks Atkinson, Emile McAnany, Esther Merle Jackson, Dan Vogel, Clinton Trowbridge, Richard J. Foster, John Prudhoe, Harold Clurman, Thomas Porter, Bernard Dukore and Alfred Ferguson. Also presents Miller’s own commentary. vii Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER THREE 54 The 1980s: Salesman – Salesmanship, Psychology, Ethnicity This chapter presents how scholars focused on the topics of salesmanship, psychology and ethnicity. Major critics offered comprehensive approaches to Miller and his entire oeuvre, with extensive analysis of Salesman. Ethnic criticism considered how Miller’s upbringing as a Jew infl uenced the play. Includes perspectives by Gordon Couchman, Thomas Porter, Michael Spindler, Robert Wilson, George K. Kernoodle, John V. Hagopian, Richard Evans, D. L. Hoeveler, Jeremy Hawthorn, Irving Jacobson, Christopher Bigsby, Guerin Bliquez, Sister Bettina, Morris Freedman and Enoch Brater. CHAPTER FOUR 75 The 1980s: Crucible – History, Law, Politics This chapter shows how noted scholars examining Crucible concen- trated on its historical accuracy, the role of theocratic law, the play’s political relevance to McCarthyism, and the character of John Proctor. Includes discussion by Henry Popkin, Robert Martin, William J. McGill, Edmund Morgan, Thomas Porter, June Schlueter, James K. Flanagan, E. Miller Budick, Christopher Bigsby, Edward Murray, William T. Liston and Walter Meserve. CHAPTER FIVE 95 The 1990s: New Readings This chapter considers the explosion in Miller scholarship in the last decade of the twentieth century. It examines how the ‘high theory’ that dominated literary criticism in the 1980s and 1990s altered the readings of Miller’s plays. Scholars also discussed themes and topics about Salesman and Crucible that critics explored in previous decades. Highlights criticism by Stephen Barker, Robert Martin, William Demastes, Barbara Lounsberry, Paula Langteau, Brenda Murphy, George Castellitto, Gary Hendrickson, James Martine, Michelle Pearson, Fred Ribkoff and Matthew Roudané. Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER SIX 115 The 1990s: Feminism and Gender This chapter explores how feminist and gender perspectives have created new readings of Miller’s plays. Many critics explored the signifi cance of the secondary role the women seem to have in the plays; some examined the powerful and infl uential role of the female characters; others probed the intersection of masculine and feminine roles and identities. Includes essays by Kay Stanton, Janet Balakian, Charlotte Canning, Heather Cook Callow, Wendy Schissel, Isak Alter and David Savran. CHAPTER SEVEN 126 Beyond 2000: Critical Trends This chapter shows how critical evaluation of Arthur Miller’s plays continued at a rapid pace from a range of perspectives. Reassess- ments of the characterization of Willy Loman and John Proctor chal- lenged more than 60 years of criticism. Miller’s death instigated comparative analyses with other playwrights and writers. Christo- pher Bigsby published an exhaustive Critical Study and a two- volume critical biography of Miller. Includes criticism by Terry Otten, Stephen Marino, Jeffrey Mason, Joshua Polster, Steven R. Centola, Brenda Murphy, Jane Dominik, Bert Cardullo, David Palmer and Susan Abbotson. CHAPTER EIGHT 141 1950– 2000: Film and TV Versions This chapter details the complication of moving Death of a Salesman and The Crucible from stage to screen. Adaptations of Salesman faced the challenge of transferring the expressionistic staging to fi lm. Ver- sions of Crucible confront political ramifi cations. Includes commentary by Brenda Murphy, Kevin Kerrane, R. Barton Palmer, Christopher Bigsby and Arthur Miller. Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 x CONTENTS CONCLUSION 148 A reconsideration of Miller’s status as a playwright and the signifi - cance of Salesman and Crucible in the world canon. Discusses critical areas ripe for future examination. NOTES 152 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 169 INDEX 183 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Introduction rthur Miller was one of the major American dramatists of the A twentieth century. He clearly ranks with the other truly great United States playwrights – Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee – and takes his place in the pantheon of great world dramatists. Miller earned this reputation during a career of over 70 years in which he achieved critical success in the 1940s and 1950s with the dramas All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge, refused to name names at his appearance before the House Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC), had a celebrated marriage to the film actress Marilyn Monroe, served as president of the literary organization International P.E.N., produced a critically acclaimed auto- biography, Timebends, in 1987, and premiered new plays on Broadway and in London in the 1990s and in the new millennium. Arthur Miller was not only a literary giant, but also one of the more significant political, cultural and social figures of his time. He was a man of conviction and rock- solid integrity who frequently took stands, pop- ular and unpopular, on the ethical issues that engage societies throughout the world. At his death, the front page headline of the New York Times called him the ‘moral voice of [the] American stage’.1 Arthur Miller was a native New Yorker, born in Manhattan on 17 October 1915, the second son of Isadore and Augusta Barnett Miller. An older brother, Kermit, was a businessman, and a younger sister is the actress Joan Copeland. The Millers – his father a Jewish immigrant from Poland, his mother born on the lower East side of Manhattan to Polish Jewish émigrés – were wealthy from their family- owned coat and suit factory. The Millers lived in upper middle- class splendour on East 110th Street, Central Park North, in a large apartment. However, hard times came when Isadore’s business collapsed, even before the stock market crash of 1929. Miller’s father relocated his family to Brooklyn in 1928, when Arthur was 13. The move was clearly a step down, and the family settled in the Gravesend section of the borough in a little six- room house on East Third Street where Arthur shared a bedroom with his maternal grandfather. 1 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 Copyrighted material – 978– 1– 137– 42978– 0 2 ARTHUR MILLER The onset of the Depression and the move to Brooklyn were clearly the defining events of Miller’s youth. Miller attended James Madison and Abraham Lincoln High Schools in Brooklyn where he was, at best, an average student (in one of his last interviews, he described himself as the ‘invisible man’ in high school2) and played on the second squad of the Lincoln football team. In 1932, he graduated during the depths of the Depression. His poor grades and his family’s finances kept him out of college.

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