The Critical Response to Arthur Miller

Edited by Steven R. Centola and Michelle Cirulli

Critical Responses in Arts and Letters, Number 45 Cameron Northouse. Series Adviser

Westport, Connecticut London Contents

Acknowledgments xix

Chronology xxi

Introduction 1 Steven R. Centola Early Response to 1959

Arthur Miller's All My Sons Brings Genuine New Talent into the Coronet Theatre with an Excellent Cast of Actors 25 Brooks Atkinson

Death of a Salesman: Arthur Miller's Tragedy of an Ordinary Man 27 Brooks Atkinson

Arthur Miller Bowdlerizes Ibsen 30 Joseph Wood Krutch

The Innocence of Arthur Miller 33 Eric Bentley

The Realism of Arthur Miller 36 Raymond Williams

Criticism 1960-1969

Arthur Miller Out West 45 Henry Popkin xiv Contents

Arthur Miller and the Tradition of Tragedy 51 John Prudhoe

Death of a Salesman: Tragic Myth in the Modern Theatre 61 Esther Merle Jackson

Arthur Miller's Mea Culpa 72 Robert Brustein

Muddy Track at Lincoln Center 76 Robert Brustein

A Look at A View from the Bridge 79 Arthur Epstein

The Empty Bench: Morality, Tragedy, and Arthur Miller 91 William R. Brashear

The Fall and After—Arthur Miller's Confession 102 Christopher Bigsby

Death of a Salesman and Arthur Miller's Search for Style 114 Arthur Oberg

Linda's Role in Death of a Salesman 122 Guerin Bliquez

An Enemy of the People: A Key to Arthur Miller's Art and Ethics 125 David Bronson

Sociology and Social Literature: Work Alienation in the Plays of Arthur Miller 142 Paul Blumberg

Criticism 1970-1979

All About Talk: Arthur Miller's The Price 159 Gerald Weales

Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy: A Sartrean Interpretation 170 Lawrence Lowenthal Contents xv

Come Home to Maya 182 Gerald Weales

The Tragedy of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman 185 Alfred Ferguson

Eden and the Idiot Child: Arthur Miller's After the Fall 200 Clinton Burhans

Criticism 1980-1989

New Miller Drama: A Mosaic of the Depression 215 John Beaufort

Arthur Miller's The Misfits: The Western Gunned Down 217 David Press

Miller and Things 223 Marianne Boruch

Society vs. The Individual in Arthur Miller's The Crucible 232 Jean-Marie Bonnet

Gripping Revival of Miller's View from the Bridge 237 John Beaufort

Death of a Salesman Is Reborn on Broadway 239 John Beaufort

Rebirth of an American Dream 241 Richard Schickel

History and Other Spectres in Arthur Miller's The Crucible 244 E. Miller Budick

What Price Freedom? The Fall Revisited: Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business 262 Steven R. Centola

Power Play: Arthur Miller's The Archbishop's Ceiling 271 June Schlueter

Memories Infuse Two Miller One-Acters 276 John Beaufort xvi Contents

Miller Drama All My Sons Still Speaks to Today 278 John Beaufort

Arthur Miller: Public Issues, Private Tensions 280 Robert A. Martin

Contemporary Criticism

Actor's Theatre Opens Crucible 289 John Beaufort

Miller's Memory Bank of a Play 291 John Beaufort

Arthur Miller: "Why Can't I Say T?" 293 David Sovran

Arthur Miller, Alive and Home Again 318 Melanie Kirkpatrick

Arthur Miller's Circles of Responsibility: A View from the Bridge and Beyond 320 Donald P. Costello

Dead Souls 330 John Lahr

"How to Contain the Impulse of Betrayal": A Sartrean Reading of The Ride Down Mount Morgan 334 Steven R. Centola

The Man Who Had All the Luck: Miller's Answer to The Master Builder 343 Brenda Murphy

Strong Gods and Sexuality: Guilt and Responsibility in the Later Plays of Arthur Miller 351 Thomas E. Porter

Arthur Miller and His Influence on Contemporary American Drama 366 Matthew C. Roudane

The Early Plays 374 Christopher Bigsby Contents xvn

All My Sons 400 Steven R. Centola

The Crucible 412 Marie Morgan

Reconnecting and Reasserting the Self: The Art of Compromise in Arthur Miller's The Last Yankee 416 Susan C, W. Abbotson

Willy Loman: Icon of Business Culture 431 Brenda Murphy

From Loman to Lyman: The Salesman Forty Years On 441 Susan C. W. Abbotson

Arthur Miller: Time Traveler 449 Christopher Bigsby

Celebrating Salesman 462 Matthew C. Roudane

Poetry and Politics in The Crucible • 468 Stephen A. Marino

Resurrection Blues 487 Christopher Bigsby

Finishing the Picture 503 Christopher Bigsby

Arthur Miller and the Art of the Possible 510 Steven R. Centola

Bibliography 527

Selected Additional Readings 531

Index 541