All My Sons

“Comment on the way Miller presents Keller’s entrance into the play at this point (page 60-63)”
Upon Keller’s arrival on page sixty, tension is instantly created. The stage direction “George rises abruptly” shows viewers that George is heated about what he has to reveal, which creates tension as it shows viewers that because George has risen quickly, he is currently being directed by his emotions, which have been proven to be strong in the past pages. This means that there could be a confrontation as George’s emotions are running high. From an audience point of view, this run on of emotion means that the audience are wondering what will be revealed and what the reactions of the other characters will be.   Tension builds as the Keller’s stage direction ‘the laughter stops. With strained joviality [Keller says his line]’ shows that there is tension between the characters as the other characters have sensed it and stopped laughing and joking, instead being silent. The strained joviality in Keller’s line also creates tension as it shows that Keller is very much aware of the tense atmosphere. The strained joviality also gives the attempted normalcy that Keller is attempting to show, which creates tension as the confrontation is dragged out, meaning there is more of a lead-up.
On page sixty-one, tension is built-up when Keller continually interrupts George when he’s trying to argue with him. The stage direction ‘distressed’ shows that George is becoming increasingly frustrated and upset that he cannot get his point across. To audiences, this builds the tense atmosphere as they would expect George to suddenly burst out with what he wants to say, as he hasn’t been given the opportunity to share his findings. The fact that Keller refers to him as ‘Georgie’ when he enters and calls him ‘kid’ when he’s speaking to him also shows that Keller is placing himself above George and is de-aging him so he doesn’t appear to be as much of a threat. Keller also takes control of the...