1. ABOUT THE PLAY
·Miller wrote it after his Broadway disaster "The Man Who Had All The Luck". He considered AMS his last
chance!
·Following the success of Tennessee Williams with The Glass Menagerie, Miller decided to go for a more
commercial play in a 'realistic style'.
·It is considered to be a 'problem play'
·Follows Greek theatre principle - stressing the influence of the past on the present.
·The play opened in January 1947 and was a success.
2. REMEMBER:
This is a drama first and foremost so has a purpose to
entertain an audience.
Miller tries to evoke "naturalness and realism" in the dialogue.
He wanted the setting to be "as untheatrical as possible", so relies on his props having symbolic
significance.
You will need to focus on two things as you study the play... the fact that IT IS A DRAMA PLAYSCRIPT so
will follow the usual conventions of a play and IT IS A REPRESENTATION OF SPEECH. This is NOT
natural spontaneous speech, but made to seem like it is to make the play more believable and convincing.
3. THE STRUCTURE OF A PLAY
EXPOSITION:
DEVELOPMENT:
COMPLICATION:
CLIMAX:
DENOUEMENT (OR RESOLUTION):
4. Exploring the effect of the opening - the set and props
Miller sets the scene in great detail, giving information about the props and their placement on the
stage.
Read the opening together on page 6.
Then think of what Miller is suggesting through his choices of the following:
5. ·August (as a time of year)
·"hedged...by tall, closely planted poplars...secluded atmosphere"
·"It would have cost perhaps fifteen thousand"
·"comfortable"
·"plants whose season is gone"
·the driveway - "poplars cut off view..."
·"trellised arbour shaped like a sea-shell"
·the apple tree "fruit still clinging to its branches"
·Joe - sections of the Sunday paper "lie neatly on the ground beside him" (he's reading the ads)
·"imprint of the machine-shop worker and boss still upon him"
·"the terrible concentration of the uneducated man"
·"peasant like common sense"
·Jim "sadness that clings" and taps pipe on the tree stump.
