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Justice in American Theater

A great drama, like any form of storytelling, relies on a good conflict to propel itself

through the course of the story. Conflict implies a glaring injustice that begs to be resolved - a

cry for the scales to be tipped to a state of equity and justice. The American identity, specifically,

is steeped in a longing for justice, with the country’s origins firmly rooted in a response to

corrupt authority. All My Sons, The Children’s Hour, and ________ each force justice to the

forefront of their conflict, echoing that desire for balance that fueled the birth of the nation, and

reimagining how American citizens can define and maintain justice in their respective lives.

American playwright Arthur Miller’s 1947 play All My Sons was inspired by a real-life

newspaper clipping discussing an American family whose daughter turned in her father for

“selling faulty machinery to the Army during World War II.”1 The family was subsequently

destroyed as the facade of the American Dream dissolved, leaving nothing but the harsh truth.

From this initial news story, Miller crafted a masterful family drama examining painful denial,

mourning, and, ultimately, questioning what justice is when it comes to the life of one’s son.

The play opens in the backyard of the seemingly typical American Keller family. Joe

Keller, the patriarch, aptly referred to as simply “Keller” in the script, is introduced as “a man

among men,”2 a simple and strong American. Appearances can be deceiving, however, and the

pristine opening facade is quickly chipped away, revealing bits and pieces of a family broken by

war. The absent Larry Keller was “reported missing on November twenty-fifth” serving in World

War II three years prior to the play.3 His brother Chris reveals that he intends to marry Ann

Deever, Larry’s old fiancee. Ann’s arrival forces Kate, simply referred to as “Mother” in the

script, to face the possibility of her son’s death, as she had lived the past three years in

1
Hooti & Habibi 2
2
Arthur Miller, All My Sons, 2
3
Miller 6
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headstrong denial. At the climax of her character’s arc, Kate reveals that this denial is due to the

knowledge that “if he’s dead,[his] father killed him” by deliberately greenlighting broken

engines that Larry ended up flying with.4

Justice is often discussed in terms of individuals getting what they deserve, and the

injustice in this plot is blatant: Keller has “killed twenty-one men” for the sake of “dollars and

cents, nickels and dimes” and let his partner - Ann Deever’s father - take the “forty years”

punishment.5 To balance the scales, he must acknowledge that “[he] know[s] [he] did a terrible

thing,” and that “thing” is responsible for killing his innocent son.6 Keller remains stubborn,

however, and his rash act seeks justification through his view of the world. As Barry Gross states

in his “All My Sons and the Larger Context,” Keller’s priorities are “bounded by the picket fence

that encloses the suburban backyard,” and extend no further.7 His role as patriarch confines his

responsibilities to his family, and his definition of justice is born from such a role. In an attempt

to achieve the American Dream that the “nicely painted…tight and comfortable” set suggests,

Keller had to make sacrifices. When “a man is in business” everything is seemingly justifiable,

or else “you’re out of business” and have failed as a father.8 Keller’s family-based motivations

may offer reasonings for his actions, but they far from excuse them.

The lingering injustice manifests itself in tension and unrest within the family. Chris,

being the brother who returned from the war alive, serves as a quasi-mouthpiece for Larry,

acknowledging that “having been spared when others were not demands from him a social

responsibility and imbues him with a moral imperative.”9 His condemnations of his father’s

actions are later mirrored in Larry’s final letter to Ann, lamenting that “every day three or four
4
Miller 58
5
Miller 59, 68
6
Miller 63
7
Gross 16
8
Miller 59
9
Wertheim 230
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men never come back and he sits there doing ‘business.’”10 The letter reveals that the physically

damaged engines did not directly cause Larry’s death, but rather by the knowledge that his father

was “a man who acted like a dog,” showing minimal respect for human life.11

As the entire truth is unraveled at the end of the play, the family turns on Keller. Chris

leaves the home, asking Keller, “Don’t you have a country? Don’t you live in the world?”12 Kate,

finally coming to her senses regarding Larry’s death, asks Keller to apologize to Chris, yet he

refuses. It appears the answer to Chris’s question is no, he remains trapped inside his picket

fence, having no world but the one he has made by and for himself. Keller maintains that “a man

can’t be Jesus in this world,” offering up excuses and running from his guilt where humility

could offer a reconciliation.13

Keller’s last act in the play is an act of suicide. He feels isolated and stubbornly refuses to

stray from his belief that his actions were justified. He is so focused on the well-being of his

family and sons that he cannot comprehend that “to him [Chris] they were all my sons.”14 Keller

is stuck in a worldview that is rejected by those around him to the point where he declares he

will “feel better if I [he] go[es],” immediately shooting himself, leaving the world that isolated

him.15 It is a suicide brought on “not because of the sense of guilt but the sense of not

belonging.”16 The conflict has ended in disappointment, and the broken family only shatters

more completely.

Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour chronicles the lie of a young girl and the dramatic

consequences it has on those in her life. Mary Tilford, a fourteen-year-old student at the Wright

10
Miller 69
11
Miller 67
12
Miller 60
13
Miller 69
14
Miller 69
15
Miller 69
16
Hooti & Habibi 4
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Dobie School for Girls, is an established nuisance to Karen and Martha, the women running the

school, supposedly “a strange girl” who “hates everybody and everything.”17 Mary’s first few

actions within the play consist of coming into class late, repeatedly lying to authority, and

threatening them after the lies don’t work. Her malicious acts only heighten as she bullies and

physically abuses her classmates, and even accuses her grandmother of not caring “whether they

[Karen and Martha] kill me or not,” all leading to her magnum opus in the midst of act two: a lie

to her mother that Karen and Martha are in a lesbian relationship.18 Hellman follows the trail that

this lie blazes throughout the characters’ community, examining how the seemingly tamest

injustices can spiral into extreme acts of malice and evil.

Philip M. Armato in his “‘Good and Evil’ in Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour”

quickly clarifies that the conflict of the play is not “between two ‘good’ teachers and an ‘evil’

child,” but rather “what, within the world of the play, is good and what evil.”19 The former can be

tempting given the belligerent acts of evil performed by Mary, but Armato suggests taking a step

back and examining the power dynamic between Karen and Mary as a rationale for Mary’s later

actions. After Mary tries to excuse her tardiness to class by getting flowers for Mrs. Mortar,

Martha’s aunt, Karen publicly reveals that “there was a bunch exactly like [them] in the garbage

can this morning,” inciting “giggles” in Mary’s classmates, no doubt humiliating Mary.20 After

the other girls leave, Karen reprimands Mary privately, revealing that she thought “the girls here

were happy…until [Mary] came along.”21 Finally, she is punished and forced to take her

“recreation periods alone for the next two weeks.”22 Instead of being “as compassionate as a

teacher of young children should be,” Karen has responded to her student’s offense by publicly
17
Hellman 48
18
Hellman 35
19
Armato 443
20
Hellman 13
21
Hellman 13-14
22
Hellman 14
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humiliating her along with verbally and physically isolating her from her peers, abusing a power

dynamic to tear down Mary’s self-esteem rather than build her up.

This context builds a firmer foundation for Mary’s lies about Karen and Martha. What

may have appeared to be an evil act of hatred can be understood as a cry from a girl who felt

stifled by the woman who held her future in her hands, and thought this the best way to go about

it. Just as with Joe Keller’s fundamental misunderstanding of the world he lived in, Mary

Tilford’s prior injuries provide a foundation for her actions, but not a justification. Her lie builds

upon the hurt she already feels and elevates it for the teachers as “Amelia Tilford, an influential

figure in the community of Lancet, misuses her authority over Karen and Martha,”23 ironically

parallelling the power dynamic responsible for Mary’s actions in the first place. The accusation

of homosexuality at the time was enough to turn Karen and Martha’s school into “a madhouse”

of parents taking their children away, and the two women have accepted that they will never get

their school back.24 This is a fate undeniably worse than Mary’s two weekends of confinement,

and it becomes clear that despite any injustice against Mary, she has struck back with a greater

one, ultimately offering no resolution, and “the victim-victimizer syndrome is as pervasive in this

act as it was in the previous one.”25

The situation becomes more dire in the third act as Martha and Karen are revealed to

have been sitting in the school “for eight days asking each other the time.”26 It’s a

near-apocalyptic image of two women who have accepted that their lives have been made

meaningless by a fourteen-year-old. It is in this act that Martha begins to believe she was

attracted to Karen all along, revealing that she “never loved a man” and “never knew why

23
Armato 445
24
Hellman 48
25
Armanto 446
26
Hellman 55
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before.”27 Martha’s revelation combined with the intense condemnation of homosexuality that

became apparent in the community leads her to a place of utter hopelessness where she doesn’t

even “want tomorrow” to come.28 Just like All My Sons, The Children’s Hour ends in a suicide,

this one by Martha.

It seems absurd that the fate of a woman’s life could have been altered so drastically by

something as trivial as Mary being late to school one day, yet this dichotomy is used by Hellman

to emphasize the lasting impact of injustice. The same tactic is used in a smaller way in the play

with Helen Burton’s bracelet. When convincing her grandmother of her lie, Mary blackmailed

her classmate Rosalie into giving Mrs. Tilford a second account. Rosalie had stolen another

classmate, Helen’s, bracelet, and under threat of having “the thief put in jail right away,” is

willing to do anything to avoid the truth coming out.29 It is such a childish and petty robbery that

it almost seems humorous, but Hellman creates a world in which “merciless cruelty” has the

potential to inflate any small evil into something monstrous.30

Armato concludes his paper by describing how “the vicious cycle that has characterized

human relations” in the play is finally ended by Karen. After relentless evil after evil driving the

plot forward and increasing tensions, Mrs. Tilford and Karen are brought face to face following

Martha’s suicide. Mrs. Tilford has come with an apology and an acknowledgment of her

wrongdoing - something that Miller’s Joe Keller could never offer. Her solution is “a public

apology…an explanation,” and a “damage suit” to be paid in full.31 At this point in the play,

these few condolences are in no way comparable to the life of Martha, and Mrs. Tilford owes a

justice that can never fully be repaid. Karen is faced with the option of either holding the grudge

27
Hellman 66
28
Hellman 67
29
Hellman 53
30
Armato 444
31
Hellman 69
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eternally, or “extend[ing] compassion - the ultimate good in the world of the play.”32 Karen

chooses the latter, accepting Mrs. Tilford’s help despite the knowledge that she can never pay her

back completely, and spelling out a world in which true justice may not always be possible, but

mercy can make up for what it lacks.

32
Armato 447