Act I
Describing the Characters: Working with Adjectives
Joe Keller and Kate Keller (Mother):
husband and wife
Chris Keller and Larry Keller:
Joe and Kate's sons
Ann Deever and George Deever:
brother and sister
Dr. Jim Bayliss and Sue Bayliss:
husband and wife (neighbors)
Frank Lubey and Lydia Lubey:
husband and wife (neighbors)
Bert:
8-year-old kid from the neighborhood
1.
Read below Miller's descriptions of the characters as they appear on the stage for the first time.
Using the list of adjectives given here, write the ones that you believe would best characterize the
person in the boxes provided after each of Miller's descriptions.
authoritarian
(im)moral
strong
cheerful
(im)practical
strong-willed
compassionate
instinctive
taciturn
diet-conscious
kind
talkative
faithful
loving
tough
fraternal
materialistic
truthful
friendly
powerful
(un)confident
full-bodied
romantic
(un)expressive
garrulous
sarcastic
(un)happy
gregarious
self-conscious
(un)informed
heavy
self-demeaning
(un)refined
honest
sensitive
(un)restrained
idealistic
simple-minded
(un)sophisticated
ill-tempered
sociable
weak
2.
a. (Joe) Keller "is nearing sixty. A heavy man of stolid mind and build, a businessman these many
years, but with the imprint of the machine-shop worker and boss still upon him. When he reads,
when he speaks, when he listens, it is with the terrible concentration of the uneducated man for
whom there is still wonder in many commonly known things, a man whose judgments must be
dredged out of experience and a peasant-like common sense. A man among men" (pp. 5-6).
Adjectives:
b. Doctor (Jim) Bayliss: "A wry self-controlled man, an easy talker, but with a wisp of sadness that
clings even to his self-effacing humor" (p. 6).
Adjectives:
c. Frank (Lubey) "is thirty-two but balding. A pleasant, opinionated man, uncertain of himself, with a
tendency toward peevishness when crossed, but always wanting it pleasant and neighborly" (p. 6).
Adjectives:
d. Sue (Bayliss): "She is rounding forty, an overweight woman who fears it" (p. 9).
Adjectives:
e. Lydia (Lubey): "She is a robust, laughing girl of twenty-seven" (p. 10).
Adjectives:
f. Chris (Keller): "He is thirty-two; like his father, solidly built, a listener. A man capable of immense
affection and loyalty" (p. 11).
Adjectives:
g. Mother (Kate Keller): "She is in her early fifties, a woman of uncontrolled inspirations, and an
overwhelming capacity for love" (p. 18).
Adjectives:
h. Ann (Deever) "is twenty-six, gentle but despite herself capable of holding fast to what she knows"
(p. 23).
Adjectives:
i. George (Deever) "is Chris's age, but a paler man, now on the edge of his self-restraint. He speaks
quietly, as though afraid to find himself screaming"(p.51).
Adjectives: