What Did Playwright Arthur Miller Do to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

Radio drama was a popular form of entertainment in the late 1930s and early 1940s. While Arthur Miller was struggling to make a place for himself as a playwright, he found financial security and an outlet for his talent by writing radio plays. He adapted Helen Jerome's Broadway script of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for an hour-long radio play broadcast on 18 November 1945. The radio play captures some of the essence of the novel, but it is not Jane Austen. Neither is it representative of the best of Arthur Miller. This essay suggests that if Miller had written his radio play after writing his major plays, he could have captured the depth of Pride and Prejudice. The motifs found in Miller's plays suggest that even with the simpler story required of a radio play, there are the makings of a stronger adaptation in Miller's mature hands.