Arthur Miller is America’s leading playwright. He was deeply influenced by the Greek drama, Ibsen and Odets. His works reflect the same quest for order in human relations as depicted in the Greek drama. His success as a playwright begins with one of his most widely known plays All My Sons (1947). Arthur Miller’s plays depict the human tendency of betrayal and guilt which leads to the decay, and degeneration of human values. The intensity of these two elements of betrayal and guilt may vary in his plays, but it runs through all his plays as a motif. Joe, a selfish businessman, in order to save his business from ruin, supplies defective cylinder heads to the American Air Force which results in the death of 21 fighter plane pilots. The theme of betrayal and guilt pervades the action of the play from its very beginning. The person who has committed the crime tries to justify his betrayal and guilt on the grounds which are not acceptable to the just social system. The jail motif runs throughout the play. It testifies to the fact that jail is a place where wrongdoers have to go ultimately. Joe Keller betrays his business partner, Steve Deever, too. It is true that Miller exposes man’s cruel nature in All My Sons, but it is also true that he condemns traits of treachery, betrayal and selfishness in man’s nature. Miller seems to suggest that one must remain faithful and responsible to the interests of society, failing which one must bear the consequences as we notice in All My Sons. Towards the end of the play Joe Keller atones for his crime and sin by committing suicide.

Arthur Miller is one of the accomplished playwrights America has produced so far. In an interview he declares, “I could not imagine a theater worth my time that did not want to change the world, any more than a creative scientist could wish to prove validity of everything that is already known” (Williams, 2004, p. 50). His plays have been translated into various languages of the world. To his credit, he is not only a playwright but also a novelist, essayist and poet. He endeavored in his plays to portray the trauma and disgust resulting from the Wall Street Crash of 1929. His success as a playwright begins with one of his most widely known plays All My Sons (1947).

Betrayal and guilt are the themes which continue to dominate Miller’s plays one after the other. The chain started with All My Sons (1947) and continued in plays like Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955), A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977), The American Clock (1980) and other later plays. Marilyn Berger is right when she comments:

... his [Miller’s] reputation rests on a handful of his best-known plays, the dramas of guilt and betrayal and redemption that continue to be revived frequently at theaters all over the world. These dramas of social conscience were drawn from life and informed by the Great Depression, the event that he believed had a more profound impact on the nation than any other in American history, except, possibly, the Civil War (Berger, 2005).

The intensity of these two elements of betrayal and guilt may vary in his plays, but it runs through all his plays as a motif of his entire career as a playwright of 20th century America. It is also important to note that his plays got more recognition in Europe and other continents than in America. As regards All My Sons it has been observed:

Central to the play is the theme of betrayal. Keller has glossed over his betrayal of society with the old argument that everybody has to take risks in business, but his failing becomes unmistakable when it has repercussions on the personal level (Gascoigne, 1967, p. 175).

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