preview

How Does Keller Show Guilt

Decent Essays

Guilt. The string that binds a criminal to his grief, as thread fastens a button to an overcoat. As time goes on, the string can either lengthen, separating the criminal from his grief, or it can be pulled taut. Something has to give or the string will snap, resulting in obliteration. Either the criminal, or grief. Death or insanity. In Joe Keller's case, guilt drives him to a point of insanity, and he is ultimately 'forced' to commit suicide. Keller's greatest enemy in All My Sons by Arthur Miller is not an external being, but rather an internal demon. Keller struggles with the guilt of tricking his once loyal partner, Herbert Deever, into 'fixing' defective plane parts and then sending them to be used in the war. The cracked hoods of the …show more content…

Earlier in the story, Keller teaches the neighborhood children how to be efficient police officers. In doing this, Keller successfully draws attention away from his troubled past, allowing people to forget how his fraudulent buisness induced the deaths of many innocent people. Keller advises Bert to "be v-e-r-y careful" throughout his life (Miller 13). By instructing Bert to be scrupulous, Keller subconsciously reminds himself how cautious he must be from now on. Keller has already gone years without being questioned about the defective plane parts and mysterious crashes, and he wants to make sure that know one finds out the actual truth about his relationship to the crime. His wife warns him that he "better be smart now", she claims that "this thing is not over yet" (75). Ms. Keller tries to warn her husband to be shrewd as he goes about the rest of his life. Every day Keller is constantly reminded about what he did, the guilt of his former mistakes is slowly gnawing away at him. "All these years" Keller claims, "George don't go to see his father. Suddenly he goes...and she comes here...she don't hold nothin' against me, does she?" (37). Keller is so paranoid that he will ultimately receive the punishment he deserves for his crime when Deever's son comes to visit. Paranoia is a

Get Access