Back to: All My Sons by Arthur Miller
Now, the dusk arrives but Chris is still not back. Kate awaits his return anxiously when Joe enters the scene. She remonstrates with him and asks him to go to jail if Chris so desires.
He refuses claiming that he only did what was right for the family and a prison sentence would not solve anything. They are joined by Ann who hands Kate the final she received from Larry. It was dated the same as the day his plane disappeared.
The letter tells about the guilt Larry felt after reading his father’s crime and the fact that he was going to take his own life to end the pain of such guilt. He also asked Kate to move on in life and find someone else to love.
Now, Chris enters the house. He declares that he had decided to leave his family as he could not face his own father. He expresses no intention of jailing his own father though and therefore cannot marry Ann.
He believes that Ann will forever resent him for not turning his father to the authorities even after learning of his crime. Ann asserts that she did not want that to happen and hands him Larry’s suicide note.
Chris reads it before his father who now knows that his greed and misdeed led to his son’s suicide dive. He blames himself for the death of the pilots who died and confesses his desire to come clean to the police.
He goes to his room to change. Kate asks Chris to stop his father from turning himself
Suddenly, they hear a loud gunshot. Joe commits suicide to atone for his and other young pilot’s death. Chris is distraught as he never thought his father would end his life but Kate offers him sage advice even in the chaos.
She asks him to not let this stop his life and to drop any morsel of blame that he might bear for his father’s death (much like his father carried for Larry’s death).
