Limelight: Death of a playwright By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Most of the world may have known him as the writer/ husband of Marilyn Monroe, love goddess of the century, but for 50 years or more he was a legend in the theatre world, and a dominant figure of 20th century literature. Arthur Miller (1915--2005) was the youngest of the powerful trio of dramatists, Eugene O'Neil (1888-1955) and Tennessee Williams (1911--1983), the three major pillars on which contemporary American theatre stands. Truthful, sober, and almost severe, yet never dull or pompous, he had a keen observance for the pageant of society's post- war morality. Arthur Miller died last week at his beloved 300-acre estate in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was a few months shy of his 90th birthday. His dazzling talent explored the lives of the mistreated, misguided, misunderstood, the Misfits, with style and sentiment. Distinguished by his extreme sensibilities and external experiences, he impressed the stamp of ordinary life on everything he wrote. He has kept the world entranced for decades with the tragedies of ordinary men and will likely do so for many more. Death of a Salesman (1949), a blow against Capitalism, generally considered his masterpiece, typifies Miller's thesis of the common man as the modern tragic hero. Society forced Willy Loman to choose popularity and materiality over dignity and morality, a choice which drove him to destruction and suicide. Translated into 29 languages with innumerable revivals around the world, Salesman critics agree it is one of only a few 20th century American plays likely to survive the 20th century. In the beginning, Miller as a young boy, showed no signs of literary inclinations. Born in New York in 1915 to an affluent manufacturer of ladies coats, Miller saw his family's fortune wiped out during the Great Depression, a tragedy which left its mark on young Arthur. The family moved to a small house in Brooklyn, which became the model for the Loman house in Salesman. In high school he showed more prowess for athletics than for letters. After reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Miller discovered his true calling. He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1934 to study journalism, returned to New York in 1938 and wrote scripts for CBS and NBC radio before he penned his first Broadway play The Man who had all the Luck (1944) which closed after four performances. The title lived on to describe him during his five-year marriage to Marilyn Monroe (1956--1961). His second play condemned the pursuit of the American dream, a favourite theme expanded upon in later works. All my Sons won the New York Drama Critics' Award and became a major success running for 328 performances. The play, about a small town garage mechanic who knowingly manufactures and sells faulty engine parts to the army causing the death of scores of combat pilots including his own son, brought together the legendary duo of Arthur Miller as writer and Elia Kazan as director. They went on to make theatre history in Death of a Salesman (1949) but had a parting of the ways when Kazan testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for subversive activities. Miller appeared before the committee in 1956, denied he was a communist but admitted to attending some meetings sponsored by the Communist Party. He was denied a passport to attend the world premiere of The Crucible in Brussels and received a two-year sentence for contempt. It was later reversed so he could join his bride Marilyn on their honeymoon in Europe. The mythical unity of brains and beauty fascinated the world. It is commonly believed that Miller profited from Marilyn's impact during those difficult times, and was saved from harsher punitive measures. The Crucible, based on the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 was a parable for the mass hysteria during the McCarthy era. He drew from fancy, but equally from experience. He felt the world with such terrible keenness and used the theatre as his platform for his views on the struggle of the individual in an adverse, dehumanising, and false society. His only original screenplay, The Misfits (1961), starring Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, was written for wife Marilyn, in an effort to save their marriage. It explores "the dying myth of the Wild West cowboy" through the lost lives of its three misplaced characters. Although a critical success, it did not score at the box office, and shortly thereafter Marilyn and Arthur were divorced. Marilyn died less than a year later in 1962. Life with Marilyn Monroe was a bruising ride of ecstasy and torture. Miller describes her with tenderness and compassion in his autobiography Timebends (1987), as "the saddest woman I have ever met". He recounts his helplessness as he watched her plagued by childhood ghosts that eventually destroyed her -- "a hapless onlooker unable to save her or endure her rages". As a post-war playwright, Miller was the greatest social dramatist of his day. Tall and strong, feisty and opinionated, rich and famous, he cut an imposing god-like figure. His life was long and full of all that life has to offer -- an abundance of sorrows and a scattering of joys. Drenched in the ambiance of left-wing Jewish thought he had great contempt for the American dream. His father's ruin, his McCarthy inquisition, his failed marriage to Monroe, and his deception by friends like Elia Kazan, all contributed to that strain of severe morality that runs throughout his works. Melancholy never left him, reminding us of Shakespeare's saddest of sad lines: "My grief lies onward, my joy behind!" Often compared to contemporaries O'Neil (fighting his Irish Catholic demons) and Williams (struggling with conflicts of sexuality and Christianity). Miller battled memories of "a standard Jewish childhood from hell" with furious passions, sometimes naked, more often disguised. Miller wrote out of a sense of responsibility to his society. Like Chekov he wrote of the tragedy of every man and ordinary men. Like Ibsen, he faced the reality of the inevitable and the cruelty of human betrayal. He wrote of the great societal flaws that mingle and haunt, that pursue and destroy. Although lasting only 197 performances on its first Broadway run, The Crucible (1953), is fast becoming his most frequently performed play in the US and around the world. Together with Salesman it is the other anchor on which stands his treasured legacy. A 1997 feature film starring Daniel Day- Lewis is proof of its lasting appeal. In the past 50 years the text of Crucible has sold over seven million copies. Miller's grief over the loss of Marilyn never left him. "His account of their marriage was as powerful as any drama he penned." After the marriage ended Miller returned to the theatre in 1964 with his play After the Fall, a biographical work of guilt and self destruction with the central character of Maggie modelled after Monroe. His plays and feature films are available in print and on video-cassettes everywhere, The Crucible is also available in French Les Sorcières de Salem (1957) translated by Jean-Paul Sartre, starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret. Winner of many significant awards including the Pulitzer Prize and several doctorate degrees from Oxford, Harvard, his work is taken seriously in Europe. Miller was honoured with Spain's prestigious Principe de Asturias Prize for literature in 2002 making him the first American recipient of that award. He was a colossus of a man whose friends hoped "he would go on and on" and he almost did. A dauntless spirit, fellow progressive Studs Terkel, described him as a man "blessed with giftedness and guts. He spoke out when it was unfashionable and unsafe." A gentle giant, Miller was finer and softer than his large frame revealed. He loved, honoured, and ennobled the ordinary man with all his flaws, and because of them. Death will only enhance the stature and memory of this big man whose pen always championed the cause of the little man. When asked if he would attend Marilyn Monroe's funeral, he replied: Why should I go! She won't be there!
