Arthur miller wrote A View From The Bridge Essays

Arthur miller wrote A View From The Bridge Essays Arthur miller wrote A View From The Bridge Essay Arthur miller wrote A View From The Bridge Essay Arthur miller wrote A View From The Bridge, in 1940s. The play is set in New York, red hook, Brookline. The story is about Eddie Carbone an Italian longshoreman working on the New York docks. He lives with his wife Beatrice and his wifes niece Catherine. Theres also Alfieri the narrator and the lawyer in the play he guides us through the story. He shows us how the story and the characters feelings change through out the play. When I look at the play in the beginning I can see that Eddie is a kind, loyal, loving and decent man, however as the story goes on Eddies character changes. My task is to see if I consider Eddie as a tragic hero, therefore by looking at his character I well find out whether or not he is a tragic hero. During the first act I can see Eddie as a loving loyal and a hardworking man. He works to feed his wife Beatrice and his wifes niece Catherine. He scarified all his life working so that Catherine could go to school because he promised her mum that he would look after her, (oh if your mother were alive to see you she wouldnt believe it). When his wifes cousins, Macro and Rodolfo, seek refuge as illegal immigrants from Sicily, Eddie agrees to shelter them. He tells Marco that they are welcome to his house (youre welcome Marco, we got plenty of room here). Marco needs to work, so that he can feed his family and his son whos sick in the chest. However miller shows us Eddies character being, over protective of his orphaned niece Catherine, in her increasing maturity. He has an urge to protect Catherine, to keep her from discovering her independence, that makes him increasingly sensitive to the presence of Beatrices cousins and to Rodolfo in particular, to which Catherine rapidly becomes attracted. Eddie starts to think differently about Rodolfo, he thinks that Rodolfo is gay and using Catherine so that he could get an American passport. Eddies wife Beatrice is aware of how deep Eddies protectiveness is towards Catherine. It soon becomes clear that she is unhappy about Eddies attitude to his niece. But as the story goes on the problem between Eddie and Beatrice goes deeper. Beatrice is worried about when shes going to be a wife again, (whats the matter Eddie you dont like me, heh? ). As Catherine finds her self-growing attraction to Rodolfo, which leads to their planned marriage, brings out an aggressive reaction in Eddie that starts to break the family apart. Eddies desire for Catherine, force him to consult Alfieri for advice, and Alfieri offers nothing but he tells him to allow events to follow their nature course. Its now that we know how disparate Eddie is to get rid of the brothers when he betrays them and tells the immigration bureau about them. Marco finally come face to face with Eddie in the neighbourhood to give Eddie a lesson, he spats on Eddies face in front of the whole community persuading them that he is the killer of his children. As all the characters change their feelings about Eddie, he looses his two best friends Louis and Mike. Therefore when I look at the end of the story, I can see how miller is showing us a person changing from being loved to being hated. Now that I looked at how eddies character was like I consider Eddie as a tragic hero because in my knowledge a tragic hero is a character in the play that falls to disaster through the combination of personal failing and circumstances with which he cannot deal with, similar to Shakespeare story in Macbeth. I think the word hero well not go with eddies character, Because Eddie only thought of himself and no one else especially Marcos starving children. I think Eddie deserved to die, because of what hes done, but at the same time I feel sorry for him, because he was the reason for Catherine to get educated and to get that far. I think Miller wants us to think that Eddie had gone to far and he should have settled half way, he also wants us to think that Eddies desire for Catherine lead him for his death and Marcos children. I think Eddie should have thought of what could have happened to him and to his family before falling for his desire. I think the play is more likely to show Marco as a hero for putting him self in so much trouble just to save his starving family. My view about Eddie changes, to me first he looked like a decent and loyal man who was loved by his family and then changes to a selfish, cruel man. Miller leads us through the play about Eddies jealousy, which culminates in an unforgivable crime against his family and the Sicilian community. Millers point above makes me feel stronger about Eddies betrayal and Sicilian community, how they acted towards a betray in a family. The other thing that I felt strongly about was Beatrices character, Her character made me to feel sorry about her, because she was powerless towards Eddie and had no other way but to stick to her husband.