Work and the Family: Themes in the Plays of Arthur Miller

The study is divided into four parts, the first three having to do with the family and the last with work. The first section outlines the relationships of family members, including their attitudes toward themselves, toward each other, and toward society. The next two have to do with “Responsibility” as viewed by the family, and the need for “Stability” within the home and outside it. The final section examines the jobs held by Miller’s characters, their attitudes toward those jobs, and the extent to which an occupation helps to influence the characters and their familial relationships. A close discussion of the family contains, of necessity, a great deal about the jobs held by the family group, so the “work” chapter is to a large extent a correlation and summary of evidence already given. It is hoped that an examination of this sort will lead to a better understanding of the philosophical position from which Arthur Miller wrote his family plays