View from a Bridge - Arthur Miller Essay Example for Free

View from a Bridge Arthur Miller Essay Choose a play in which there is a scene involving intense emotion. Show how the dramatist makes you aware of the intensity of the emotion in the scene and discuss the importance of the scene to the drama as a whole. In his play A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller successfully conveys to the audience the tensions, jealousy, hostility and raw emotions between the characters in one particular scene at the end of Act 1 in his play. A View from the Bridge centres round the Carbone family who stay in Brooklyn New York, Eddie the head of the family is an ordinary man part of the local Italian community who is master in his own house. Eddie believes that it is a mans place to look after and protect his family and as head of the household he is used to laying down the rules. Eddie and his wife Beatrice take on the responsibility of looking after Eddies late sisters daughter Catherine who Eddie brings up as if she was his own but it soon becomes clear that Eddies feelings are deeper than those of a protective uncle, he is in love with his niece. The arrival of two of his wifes relatives from Italy, Marco and Rodolpho is at first welcomed by Eddie, he is happy to hide the illegal immigrants. However when Rodolpho starts to show an interest in Catherine, Eddie becomes increasingly jealous and hostile towards both men, in particular Rodolpho, but he bottles up his feelings. At the end of the first Act things come to a head and his jealousy, hostility and obsession with Catherine is made obvious when he finally realises that his efforts to stop Catherine and Rodolpho marrying are going nowhere. Eddie resorts to violence under the pretence of teaching Rodolpho to box merely as an excuse to hit him. Forced to watch Catherine and Rodolpho getting close as they dance together Eddies sarcastic comments about Rodolphos manliness clearly show his hostility to Rodolpho He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses I cant cook, I cant sing, I cant make dresses, so Im on the water front. But if I could cook, if I could sing, if I could make dresses, I wouldnt be on the water front. The stage direction tells us that Eddie has been unconsciously twisting the newspaper he is tense, like a spring waiting to uncoil and this finally happens and things are brought to a head when he offers to teach Rodolpho to box and what starts out as a seemingly harmless sparring session leads to Eddie hitting his opponent with needless force a fact which is noticed by everybody in the room. Marco rises from his seat and Catherine quickly rushes to Rodolphos side Eddie aware that he has taken things a step to far and tries to cover his tracks by saying that he punched too hard by accident I didnt hurt him. Did I hurt you, kid? However Eddie has overstepped the mark and in an attempt to humiliate Rodolpho he angers Marco who is careful not to verbally threaten his host, actions speak louder than words. Marco challenges Eddie to lift a chair when it is in a certain position but Eddie fails the challenge. Marco then successfully lifts the chair above his head powering over a frightened Eddie. The stage directions describe Marco as He kneels, grasps and with strain slowly raises the chair higher and higher, getting to his feet they go on to describe how Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over Eddies head-and he transforms what might appear to be a glare of warning into a smile of triumph Marco is obviously giving a warning to Eddie to not continue to mess around, and make fun of his brother by showing him the danger he invites. The audience can tell at once that this is a very dramatic point in the play; Catherine and Rodolpho who have resumed dancing immediately stop. The stage direction Rodolpho and Catherine have stopped dancing in the middle of this hostile situation shows that they are aware that Marco has also taken things a little too far. Miller also describes Eddie when Marco is glaring at him His grin vanishes as he absorbs his look this action by Eddie clearly shown both Marco and the audience that Marco has achieved what he set out to do, give Eddie a warning and this is highlighted by the fact that as soon as Eddies expression turns to one of fear Marco looks at him and his own expression changes into a victorious smile. The feelings revealed in this act of the play an important part in the relationships between the characters in the remainder of the play. The hostility and anger felt by Eddie magnifies. Eddies obsession with his niece finally leads him to hit Rodolpho when he becomes aware that the two have slept together. In the end Catherine finally decides to marry Rodolpho and Eddie decides that he has no choice but to inform the Immigration Bureau that he has been hiding two illegal immigrants. Eddie takes this action despite earlier comments that Its an honour to give the men refuge. In breaking his code of honour Eddie loses everything the respect of his neighbours, his friends and his family and in the final scenes of the play he comes head to head with and angry and betrayed Marco, cowardly brandishing a knife Eddie attacks Marco but in self defence Marco turns the knife on Eddie fatally stabbing him. Arthur Miller cleverly sets the tone of the play during the hostile scene in Act 1. The domestic harmony that exists at the start disappears and the audience learns quickly about Eddies obsession and his obvious frustration and anger towards his nieces admirer. Miller uses stage direction to show the audience the true extent of the raw emotions felt by the characters and to show the drama and crisis which finally climaxes in the death of the main character. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.