Depiction of American Socio- Economic Reality in the Major Plays of Arthur Miller- A Critical Study

Abstract

Arthur Miller has been concerned in most of his plays socio-economic aura of the Depression Age of American civilization. The disintegration of American dream was close to Miller’s sensibility. Arthur Miller has depicted the dark side of American Dreams. In general all plays of Miller deals with the themes of materialism, wartime profiteering, and man’s relationship and compulsion to society above and beyond the concerns of his own family circle. Arthur Miller played a crucial role in this making of the new American Drama, because his works took root on native ground. Handling issues rather than ideas he dramatized in play after play the social implications of our own individual actions. The changing value of American middle class family in the personal and political arena had every reason to put a question mark on existence of civilization. Hence, the struggle and frustration of modern man are the stock-in-trade of modern tragedy. This dissertation aims at studying the depiction of American socio- economic reality in the plays of Arthur Miller.