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.and socially responsible.Other award-winning plays would follow, includ-ing the Pulitzer Prize-winning Picnic (1953), Bus FURTHER READINGStop (1955), and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs Barat, Urbashi.“Past and Present Reading Death of a (1957).He also won an Oscar for his 1961 filmSalesman in the Light of The Wild Duck.” In Arthur adaptation of Splendor in the Grass.Miller: Twentieth Century Legend, edited by Syed Mash-Often referred to as the playwright of the Mid-koor Ali, 99–109.(Jaipur, India: Surabhi, 2006).west, Inge is best known for his perceptive psy-Dworkin, Martin S.“Miller and Ibsen.” Humanist 3chological portraits and for his starkly realistic(May/June 1951): 111–115.rendition of motivations and behaviors.The wide-Haugen, Einar.“Ibsen as Fellow Traveler: Arthur Mill-spread recognition that Picnic received caused Inge er’s Adaptation of Enemy of the People.” Scandina-to be favorably compared to TENNESSEE WILLIAMSvian Studies 51 (1979): 343–353.and Miller, the first with whom he was friendlyMiller, Arthur.“Ibsen’s Warning.” Index on Censorship and received early support.His later works had18.6–7 (July–August 1989): 74–76.troubled productions and met with less success.Murphy, Brenda.“The Man Who Had All the Luck:Disconsolate and feeling a failure, Inge committedMiller’s Answer to The Master Builder.” American suicide in 1973.Drama 6.1 (Fall 1996): 29–41.Inge had donated his manuscripts to his alma———.“The Tradition of Social Drama: Miller andmater, Independence Community College, in 1969.His Forbears.” In Cambridge Companion to ArthurAfter his death, the school named its theater forMiller, edited by Christopher Bigsby 10–20.(Cam-him and in 1982 launched an annual play festivalbridge, London: Cambridge University Press, 1997).in his memory, at which one playwright is givenan award for Distinguished Achievement in theInge, William (1913–1973) William Motter IngeAmerican Theater.The first recipient was Inge,grew up in Independence, Kansas, a small town inbut Miller received this honor in 1995.355-480_Miller-p3.indd 4155/3/07 4:20:15 PMJJudaism Miller’s status as a Jewish playwrightized this essential message of Yom Kippur in thehas been overlooked by some, but it colors manymoral judgements he lays on his characters.A basicaspects of his philosophy and work, not the least,trait of Judaism is its recognition that all is not per-his underlying morality.As Terry Otten suggests,fect.This is why observant Jews feel commandedMiller “alludes to his Jewishness and to biblicalto work for the improvement of this world and thethemes perhaps more than any other contemporaryenrichment of the lives of all its inhabitants.SuchJewish playwright, including Pinter and Mamet,”a motive seems to loom large in the work of Miller,and Louis Harap sees Miller’s optimism and insis-even while he did not consider himself a practicingtence that life has meaning and should be lived toJew.the full as being firmly rooted in Judaism.EnochMiller’s interest in the past and its influence onBrater has pointed to Miller’s Judaic influences,the present also has strong Judaic roots.Since Juda-suggesting that they are most evidenced in Millerism has no single institutional structure, scholarhaving his characters show us that: “Guilt is pas-Nancy Haggard–Gilson suggests that Jews “mustsive, responsibility active.” Jewish theology doesrely upon the recognition of a shared past and tra-not espouse guilt, and it contains no real con-dition which retain continuity and cohesiveness.”cept of sin.To do right is natural and sensible,The Jewish storyteller hopes to impart a lesson lessfor not to do right reduces the humanity of thethrough allegory “than through a historical narra-individual.To passively accept guilt tends to leadtive that makes the past part of the present.” Millerto complacency.is one such storyteller as his relationship to the pastThe main message behind Miller’s essay “Ourin nearly all of his work echoes such a dynamic.Guilt for the World’s Evil” is to insist that weAnother of the major 20th-century influences onshould transform guilt actively into responsibilityJudaism is the way in which Jews have dealt withand that this will allow us to transcend it.It isthe HOLOCAUST, assigning it both a particular andonly by accepting our responsibility for evil, Milleruniversal importance in the world.CHRISTOPHERbelieves, that we can break its hold over us andBIGSBY, who sees Miller’s Jewish identity as beingrestore a moral order to society.In a connected“crucial” to understanding much of his work, alsofashion, each year at Yom Kippur, every practic-suggests that Miller’s sense of impending catastro-ing Jew accepts responsibility for all evil done thephe, a feeling that lies in the background of muchprevious year by themselves or others, atones for itof his work, derives from his Jewishness.Bigsbyto God, and promises to try to do better the nextgoes on to suggest: “Whether practising Jew or notyear.Although Miller did not attend High Holiday.[Miller] is of the Book, aware of the mythicservices past his youth, he seems to have internal-potency of archetypes,” and Bigsby points to Old416355-480_Miller-p3.indd 4165/3/07 4:20:15 PMJudaism 417Testament resonances that sound through muchJewish identity and Jewish issues to a degree thatof Miller’s work, from the Joblike David Beeves tomakes any claim that he neglected his Jewish back-the countless (and in one case literal) evocations ofground seem ludicrous.These plays include BoroCain and Abel in his warring brothers.Hall Nocturne, The Half-Bridge, Incident at Vichy,Judaism and its beliefs heavily influenced Mill-After the Fall, Playing for Time, The Ride down Mt.er’s upbringing and provided him with a strongMorgan, and Broken Glass and the novel Focus, the moral and ethical center evident in his works andnovella Homely Girl, A Life, and the short stories life, even while he saw himself as an atheist
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