How far can we say that the play is a tragedy?

The play 'All my sons' is a tragedy in many different ways. For example, there is already a death prior to the actual play just like the tragedy 'Hamlet'. The king is dead in Hamlet, Larry is dead in All My Sons. Also it seems that the dead are what cause a sort of ripple effect or many other tragic incidents that are in motion after their demise.
Another reason why the play could be considered as a tragedy is because there is always a need to place blame. In various scenarious many different characters a blamed for certain incidents. For example, Joe is blamed for the death of many, Kate is blamed for the dwelling sorrow over Larry's death as she can't let go and Chris is blamed for bringing Anne back along with the unfortuante news she bares.
Some could say it is a tragedy for its many similarities to other famous tragic plays. As mentioned before one similarity is that the 'ghost' of Larry can be blamed for what could be called the start of the story just like the ghost of the king in Hamlet. It is also very much like other plays as it includes suicide, which in itself is very tragic. Joe inevitably takes his own life just as Ophelia of Hamlet takes hers and Romeo and Juliet take theirs.
There doesnt seem to be an obvious bad guy in the play, Joe or Larry? just like the audience are not sure who to blame in the play 'Romeo and Juliet', the Capulets or the Montigues? Romeo or Juliet?

All My Sons

Part 1:



In act one of 'All my sons', we are introduced to the main cast. My first interpretation of Joe Keller is that he is a tired old but fun humourus old man. He seems to get on well with everybody especially the kids such as Bert.


Kate Keller seems to hold quite a sympathetic aura around her. She is still in denial that her son, Larry died in the war. It is unbeknown to the reader as to why she is so against the fact that her son has died even though the rest of the cast have excepted his death.


Chris, Kate and Joe's other son, seems to be quite a down to earth guy. He thinks logically and although I expect he loved his brother very much, he knows that his brother would not want him or his previous girlfriend Anne, to go on living miserably when they could have each other in bliss. He finds it hard to get on with his parents because they are so 'practical'.



Anne seems to be quite a misunderstood character. She is stuck between the decision of grieving over her lost love or moving on with the man she loves which coincidently happens to be Larry's brother Chris.
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Neutral Tones

I think that this poem is about a couple that are together even though their love has died.

As many of Hardy's other poems tend to be, this poem is also fairly depressing. The atmosphere the poem dwells in is very gloomy and the language used only enhances this mood. For example, vocabulary such as 'bitterness', 'deadest' and 'decieves' are all very powerful negative words. They are all used to connote with a bad situation which makes the situation the poems characters are placed in seem all the more dreadfull.

'The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing, alive enough to have strength to die' is a line from stanza three that really stands out to me. The words used a very contrasting to each other, for instance a 'smile' is something that you do when you are happy or being welcoming and friendly, however this smile is described as being 'the deadest thing'. Not only does this mean that there are various other things that are 'dead' about this character but out of all of them their smile is the 'deadest' which adds a very strong impact and intensness to this smile. The two charcters described must really not like each other anymore if they can't even bare to bring a simple smile to their faces and mean it.

Hardy also describes the smile as being 'alive enough to have strength to die' which is a very ironic and morbid way to describe something. Since 'alive' and 'die' are the exact opposite to each other it pinpoints this part of the poem so it stands out and ,again, adds more bitterness to the emotion or rather lack of.