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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"We invent ourselves to wipe out what we know.", July 27, 2006
Victor Franz, who is negotiating the price of the contents of his family home with an appraiser, had no interest in claiming any of these objects when his father died sixteen years before, and his wife Esther has no interest in them now. Victor, however, has contacted his estranged brother Walter in a final effort to settle the estate. Though the appraiser drives a hard bargain, the reader realizes that the real price playwright Arthur Miller is discussing is not the value of the furnishings but the price each person must pay for not knowing or willfully ignoring the facts about issues affecting his life.
Victor and his brother Walter have been estranged for about twenty years, ever since Victor was forced to drop out of college, where he was a brilliant student studying science. It was the Depression, but Victor could have stayed in school if his brother Walter, already a doctor, had loaned him a mere five hundred dollars. Walter refused. Victor's college career ended, and he became a policeman, staying at home to care for his unemployed, ailing father for the rest of his life. Victor has never forgiven Walter for his betrayal of trust.
When Walter arrives to see Victor, the contrast between the brothers is obvious their in dress and attitude. Soon, however, the audience realizes that Victor does not have all the facts about Walter's refusal of the loan. Likewise, Walter does not realize the extremes to which Victor had to go--rummaging through the garbage to find food for the family--while Walter contributed only five dollars a month toward his father's support. The manipulations by the father also become obvious, and as Victor and Walter express their rage, the full picture of this pitifully dysfunctional and uncommunicative family is revealed.
The tensions and history between the brothers drive the action, with some comic relief coming from Gregory Solomon, the appraiser, who himself has had family issues resulting from lack of communication. Where this play is weak is in the crucial characterization of the two brothers. Walter, the successful doctor, is a stereotype who inspires no sympathy, and though the audience discovers mitigating information about Walter, it is not enough to make the audience change their minds about his essential character. Likewise, Victor, the policeman, is seen in new ways as a result of Walter's information, but that new information does not change the audience's opinion of Victor or lead us to see him in a different light. A fascinating study in family dynamics, with some surprises, this play lacks the dramatic personal changes and realizations by the main characters which we see in Miller's best plays. n Mary Whipple
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The price we pay for the life we choose , June 15, 2005
I saw this play on June 14,2005 in a performance given by the Jerusalem English Speaking Theatre . The play was directed by Leah Stoller, and featured David Glickman, Gail Kirschner, Marvin Meital,and Arthur J. Fischer. The performance was excellent and Fischer was especially convincing as the policeman brother Victor Franz who sacrificed the education and career he might have had to care for his father and his own family.
The play tells the story of the selling off of the family furniture sixteen years after the pater familias has died. The policeman brother and his wife open the play speaking about their own life, its disappointments, their lack of money and status. Soon after they are joined by the appraiser Solomon a ninety year old Yiddish accented fighter for life who throughout the play laments the loss of his daughter. They speak about the 'price' which the appraiser will give for the old furniture. Later when they are joined by the second brother, the successful surgeon who ran away from family responsibility to make a career and who has a broken and difficult family of his own, they begin to speak about the real ' price' .And this is the price which is paid for making the decisions we make in life, choosing the path we choose, making or not making the sacrifices we make. One brother has chosen the path of family loyalty and sacrificed career and prestige. The second chose the opposite. The first resents this and in the second part of the play voices this resentment, as his brother tries to rationalize and justify his failure to truly help the family when they needed it.
Their dialogue is made in a simple colloquial language but as with the other work of Miller, this simple speech often contains profound reflections on life and its meaning.
And as a whole the work is sustained by this sense that it , as the life it depicts , is really about ' something'. It is not about nonsense and post- post- post disintegrations into fictional absurdities.
The play has a particularly strong closing , ironic and moving at once which I will not give away. My sense is that this closing must be ' seen and heard' and not just read if it is to be most effective.
Miller is a writer of our everyday life and dreams, of the most American kinds of struggles, disappointments and confusions.
He is also in the end a writer about life which truly ' means' something to those who live it.
This may not be his greatest work, but it is certainly a fine and memorable one.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Priorities, February 13, 2005
On the surface, the title of the play seems to be deducted from the value accessment of the main characters' late father's home. In reality, the theme is much deeper. Much like many of his other great works, Arthur Miller makes the reader take a disturbing look into the human mind.
While Walter was at medical school, Victor was caring for their sick father. Despite being the smarter of the two, Victor was never able to pursue a career in science in order that he would be able to care for his father. Victor and Water have not communicated in many years. Only through the Walter's unexpected appearace at the assessment of his father's house do the brother's speak. The initial conflict is centered on the low price Victor receives for the initial assessment and whether Walter should receive any of the money from the sale. The story evolves to reveal Victor's bitterness toward his brother. Similarly, Walter feels guilt for not contributing to his brother's education and not letting Victor know their father was not nearly as poor or sick as Victor believed.
The ultimate theme of the play is personal priorities. Walter placed the highest priority on his career. As a result, he had a nervous breakdown, was a poor parent, and had a failed marriage. Victor placed the highest priority on his family. First, he cared for his father which meant accepting a less challenging job as a police officer. However, Victor has a successful marriage and wonderful family.
Miller's work gives readers a unique perspective on life in America. This is certainly a great work which maintains his high writing standard.
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