aspects of, 17–20, 65, 66
assault on, 86, 96, 135
and audiences, 136–37
and Broadway, 134–39, 159
and collapsing time, 18–19
and The Crucible, 58–59
and Death of a Salesman, 51
dominance of, in thirties, 155, 156–57
and family, 86, 87, 90, 92–94, 95
in Greek plays, 95
and Ibsen, 33–34, 84, 85–87, 118, 143
and language, 17, 135, 138, 140–41, 143, 159–171
and meaning, 58
and non-realism, 17, 18, 20
and O’Casey, 142–43
and Odets, 139–140, 141–42
and O’Neill, 87
and Our Town, 92–94
as style, 85, 135
and symbolism, 85
and Williams, 140–41
rebellion, 335–36
red scare. See McCarthyism and Red scare era
religion and religious belief, 57–58, 69, 105, 243
Resurrection Blues (Miller), xxvii
revolutions, 386–87, 390–91, 396, 399
Riders to the Sea (Synge), 165
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), 109, 129, 130, 132
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 386, 412, 431, 436, 437
Rosenberg trial, 250
Russia. See Soviet Union
Salem witch trials of 1692
absurdity of, 263
and bodies found in modern Salem, 272
and Clinton sex scandal, 439–442
and conceptualization of The Crucible, 240, 242, 252, 265–69
and evidence, 268–69, 271, 272
and House Un-American Activities Committee, 263
and human susceptibility to hysteria, 274–75
investigation of John Proctor, 53–54
and McCarthyism, 265–67, 350–51
and “moral” community of Salem, 56
and reparations, 272–73
social disruption as backdrop of, 249
written record of trial, 271
“Salesman at Fifty” (Miller), xix, 223–26
Salesman in Beijing (Miller), xix, 220–22
Sandburg, Carl, 153–54
Saroyan, William, 292
satire of Miller, xxvii, 504–18
screenwriting and language, 173–180
separation of church and state, 442
“The Shadows of the Gods” (Miller), xvi, 100–117
Shakespeare, William
censorship of, 126–28, 129, 130, 132, 133
and Chekhov, 106
and emotionalism, 147
Hamlet, 88, 109, 115
Julius Caesar, 129
King Lear, 88, 127–29
Macbeth, 129
and realism, 17
Romeo and Juliet, 109, 129, 130, 132
and subsidized arts, 153
Shaw, George Bernard
on audiences, 156
on business of theater, 134
characters of, 49
humor of, 6
and Ibsen, 118
and social drama, 77, 78
“The Sin of Power” (Miller), xxvi, 482–87
Situation Normal . . . (Miller), xviii–xix, 194–201
Sixties, revolution and radicals of, 386–87, 390, 391–94, 396, 398–99
social drama, 70, 72, 73–74, 77–80
social isolation, 242–43
socialism, 76, 258, 260, 376, 389, 391–92
soldiers, 194–201
Some Kind of Love Story (Miller), 145, 167
“Sorting Things Out” (Miller), xv, 3–6
South Africa, xxv–xxvi, 464–470
Soviet Union
anti-Semitism in, 274
art and artists of, 358, 362
and Castro, 494, 497
censorship in, 131–32
and China, 253–54
and classical Greece, 72
and Czechoslovakia, 457–462
and European culture, 367
fall of, 122
and foreign policy of America, 377
and glasnost, 299–300
intellectual production in, 368
and Israel, 500
juvenile delinquency in, 334
and McCarthyism, 243, 266
Miller’s visits to, 296–97
nuclear weapons of, 376
standoff with US, 254
and World War II, 255
and writers, 258, 273–74, 297–98, 395–96, 411, 458–462
Spanish Civil War, 185, 256, 274, 353–54, 390–91
spying on citizens, 297–99
Stalin, Joseph
anti-Semitism of, 191, 264, 348
paranoia of, 191, 249, 348
perceptions of, as moral, 423
Stanislavsky method, 427
Starr, Kenneth, 440, 441
Stevenson, Adlai, 436
Strausz-Hupe, Robert, 452–53
A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams), 73, 88, 204–5
Strindberg, August
and Ibsen, 122
and Odets, 142
and realism, 139, 159
regard for, in Sweden, 362
subsidies for the arts, 5, 76–77, 148–154
“Subsidized Theatre” (Miller), xvii, 148–154
symbolism, 85
Synge, J. M., 143, 165
Teahouse (Lao She), 153
technology and machines, 76–79
“Tennessee Williams’ Legacy: An Eloquence” (Miller), xvii, 124–25
Thatcher, Margaret, 517
theater and drama, xv–xviii, 15–67
on actors, 16–17
antecedent material in, 32–33
and approach to playwriting, 16
and audiences, 22–23, 156
commercialization of, 151, 156
costs of tickets, 156, 203
in Cuba, 491
dynamism in, 22, 23
European, 359–360, 365, 367
evil as treated in, 54–56
family in, 84–99
humanizing function of, 23
lies and fabrications of, 437–38
moment of commitment in, 19–20
new ideas in, 21–23
and realism, 17–19, 20, 33–34
and relevancy to the survival of human race, 106, 111–12, 117
and role of plays, 65
self-awareness of characters in, 47
teaching evident in, 24–25
time in, 18–19
and tragedy, 3–6, 7–10, 11–14
and tragic hero status, 43–44
underlying poem of, 20
vs. literature, 16
The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller (Centola), xiv, xv, 3–6
Thirties, radicalism of, 387, 390, 391–94, 398–99
Thoreau, Henry David, 234
Three Sisters (Chekhov), 107
time, collapsing of, 18–19
Timebends: A Life (Miller), xix, xxiv, 202–19, 225, 273–74
Toller, Ernst, 136, 156
Tolstoy, Leo, 100, 358, 362, 438
tragedies, 3–6, 7–10, 11–14
and American culture, 369
appeal of, 45
and death, 45
and Death of a Salesman, 44
definition of, xv
and moment of commitment, 19–20
pathetic vs. tragic, 74, 75
and social drama, 77
tragic victories, 45, 71, 74
“Tragedy and the Common Man” (Miller), xv, 7–10
tragic heroes/figures, 43–44, 46, 74
traitors, categorization and treatment of, 504–12
Truckline Cafe (Anderson), 431–32
Truman, Harry S., 436–37
Turgenev, Ivan, 358
Turkey, political prisoners in, 450–56
“Uneasy About the Germans: After the Wall” (Miller), xxvi, 474–481
U.S. Army, 258
U.S. Congress, xxvii
and Miller’s contempt of Congress citation, 257, 260
proposal to privatize, 516–18
U.S. Department of Justice, 517
U.S. Supreme Court, 433, 517
value of individuals, 75–76
verse, 73, 90–91
Vietnam conflict, xx
and antiwar movement, 296
apologists for, 483
and Democratic National Convention (1968), 402, 403, 404, 406
and Johnson, 416
and Kennedy, 412
and The Price, 292–93
U.S. pull-out from, 395
A View from the Bridge (Miller), xx, 60–64, 276–280
and critical reaction to A Memory of Two Mondays, 60–61
description of, 81–82
language of, 145, 167
as one-act, 81, 82, 277
preface of, xvi
reactions to, 276
and realism, 18, 169–170
staging of, 277–78
“A Visit with Castro” (Miller), xxvi, 488–498
Waiting for Godot (Beckett), 136–37, 144–45, 156, 166–67
Waiting for Lefty (Odets), 141–42, 158
Warhol, Andy, 173–74
Watergate, 413, 415–420
What Is Art? (Tolstoy), 100
“What’s Wrong with This Picture?: Speculations on a Homemade Greeting Card” (Miller), xxv, 457–462
Whitehead, Robert, 134
“Why Israel Must Choose Justice” (Miller), xxvi, 499–503
Wilder, Thornton, 92–94
Williams, Bert, 292
Williams, Tennessee
and audiences, 204
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 109, 112–15
and Chekhov, 107
The Glass Menagerie, 124, 140–41
and homosexuality, 114, 204
language of, 140–41, 162–63
legacy of, 124–25
and movies, 177
and realism, 140–41, 163–64
A Streetcar Named Desire, 73, 88, 204–5
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 183
World War II, 443–49
and belief in America, 194–201
and German businesses, 249
and Germans’ civic failure, 477–78
and guilt, 289–290
and Holocaust, xxiv, 4, 121, 393, 443–49, 477
and internment camps for Japanese, 248
legacy of, for Germany, 479
and public understanding of Nazism, 189
and Soviet Union, 255
See also Nazis
writers
European, 359–360
Jewish, 378–79, 382–83, 384–85
rights of, xxv
and Soviet Union, 258, 273–74, 297–98, 395–96, 411, 458–462
Yeats, W. B., 118, 138, 160
Yugoslavia, 471–73
Zola, Émile, 143
COPYRIGHT EXTENSION
Many of the selections in this book appeared in The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller, edited by Robert A. Martin, published by The Viking Press, 1978 (Copyright © 1978 by Arthur Miller), in a revised and expanded edition of the anthology, edited by Robert A. Martin and Steven R. Centola, published by Da Capo Press, 1996, and in Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays 1944–2000, edited by Steven R. Centola, published by Viking Penguin, 2000 (Copyright © 2000 by Arthur Miller).
Several of these essays were published originally in The Atlantic Monthly, Colorado Quarterly, Esquire, Harper’s, Index on Censorship, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and TV Guide. “Ibsen and the Drama of Today” is from The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen, edited by James McFarlane (Cambridge University Press, 1994) and appeared in The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller (Da Capo Press, 1996). “The Good Old American Apple Pie” appeared in Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints, edited by Nicholas J. Karolides, Lee Burress, and John M. Keen (Scarecrow Press, 1993).
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following copyrighted works:
“On Screenwriting and Language: Introduction to Everybody Wins” from Everybody Wins. Copyright © 1990 by Arthur Miller. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third-party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.
Introduction to The Golden Years and The Man Who Had All the Luck. Copyright © 1943, 1989 by Arthur Miller and Inge Morath as Trustee. Used by permission of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Plc.
Extract from Timebends: A Life. Copyright © 1987 by Arthur Miller. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third-party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.
Preface to Salesman in Beijing published in Death of a Salesman in Beijing (Bloomsbury Methuen, London). Copyright © 1991 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“Conditions of Freedom: Two Plays of the Seventies” from The Archbishop’s Ceiling and The American Clock (Grove Press, 1989). Copyright © 1989 by Arthur Miller and Inge Morath as Trustee. Reprinted with the permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“Bridge to a Savage World,” originally published in Esquire. Copyright © 1958 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“Concerning Jews Who Write,” originally published in Jewish Life Magazine. Copyright © 1948 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“American Playhouse: On Politics and the Art of Acting,” originally published in Harper’s. Copyright © 2001 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“A Visit with Castro,” originally published in The Nation. Copyright © 2004 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“Why Israel Must Choose Justice,” originally published in The Nation. Copyright © 2003 by Arthur Miller. Reprinted with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
* Note: This is no longer completely true. The sanctity of the delinquent’s confidences concerning crimes has been rather successfully broken down by the Police Department.
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Collected Essays Page 63