Show where the tension and conflicts are in the play, explain how they are brought about, and refer to atleast two scenes.
Show where the tension and conflicts are in the play, explain how they are brought about, and refer to atleast two scenes. The play "A View from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller tells us of the moral dilemmas that a proud Italian longshoreman faces with the arrival of his wife's cousins from Italy, who come to stay in America and earn money as illegal immigrants. Throughout the play there are scenes where a lot of tension and atmosphere are created, these scenes eventually depict the fate of the characters and in particular the fate of Eddie Carbone. In answering the set question, the relationships between the characters, moods and tones and explanations of character motives will be discussed and analysed. The characters' personalities often contribute to how scenes create suspense and tension. An example of this is in Act 1, the first scene Catherine tells Eddie about her new job, she tries to explain how the job will benefit her and Beatrice encourages her enthusiasm but Eddie's reaction demonstrates how he has power over Catherine and Beatrice. They are both nervous and extremely anxious to see what his reaction would be like. Eddie says "What job? She's going to finish school." He automatically thinks as if he was Catherine's father. Catherine fears Eddie, therefore worries about bringing shame to him or disappointing him. Catherine and Beatrice clearly plead and plead with him for permission for Catherine to take the job. That scene establishes the type of character Eddie is. Quite stubborn, proud and a man of power who needs respect. This helps the audience to predict what may happen in later scenes. One of the most important scenes in the play, is where Catherine and Rodolpho dance to paper 'Paper Doll'. This scene has a phenomenal amount of tension it, part of the reason for this is because of Eddie's feelings, the anger that has built up
inside Eddie. The events leading up to that scene foretells what the atmosphere will be like. One scene that where it is clear to see Eddie has little or no patience or tolerance with Rodolpho is where Catherine and Rodolpho return home late after watching a movie at the cinemas together. Eddie tries to subtly tell Beatrice he thinks Rodolpho is gay, assuming that she should already have picked it up. "He keeps his head turned away" here, Eddie refuses to look at Beatrice which shows he is starting to get frustrated at the thought of Rodolpho, talking about him ...
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inside Eddie. The events leading up to that scene foretells what the atmosphere will be like. One scene that where it is clear to see Eddie has little or no patience or tolerance with Rodolpho is where Catherine and Rodolpho return home late after watching a movie at the cinemas together. Eddie tries to subtly tell Beatrice he thinks Rodolpho is gay, assuming that she should already have picked it up. "He keeps his head turned away" here, Eddie refuses to look at Beatrice which shows he is starting to get frustrated at the thought of Rodolpho, talking about him seems to aggravate him. When Rodolpho and Catherine do arrive home Rodolpho knows Eddie is not happy. "I would like to go to Broadway once, Eddie..." The audience can now tell that Eddie doesn't care what his reasons are. "(his little patience waning) I want to talk to her a minute, go inside, will you?" Eddie doesn't seem to absorb what Rodolpho says, the audience can see how Eddie feels by the way he purposefully ignores what he said and how he just clearly said he needed to talk to Catherine. Rodolpho realises he is not wanted, the audience can see he knows that too. This continues when Rodolpho tries to invite Eddie along to go out with Catherine and him to see the lights. The stage directions show the audience Eddie is on the verge of bursting - "(He sees no response in Eddies face. He glances at Catherine.)" Rodolpho then takes the hint and leaves. The audience could see how much frustration was building up. Eddie purposefully chose to ignore comments by Rodolpho and was very bland with him. The feelings Eddie has for Rodolpho made Eddie more likely to react to small comments Rodolpho makes. The scene where all five of them are discussing about oranges and lemons in Italy, the audience can see how un-easy Eddie is with Rodolpho. Rodolpho says, "Lemons are Green" Eddies reaction, "(resenting his instruction) I know lemons are green, for Christ's sake..." Eddies tone of voice is quite harsh when he says this, for no real reason. The tone in that single line could be felt by the characters and the audience. Beatrice could feel the tension so therefore diverted the conversation straight after. Later in that scene you the audience can see how sensitive and defensive Eddie gets. They talk about American girls. "...you wouldn't just drag off some girl without permission, I mean (he turns) you know what I mean Marco? It ain't that much different here." He talks about Rodolpho and Catherine indirectly, suggesting subtly that Rodolpho has taken Catherine without his permission. The audience are aware that Rodolpho knows what Eddie is trying to do, this builds tension, the audience anticipate what Rodolpho will say in order to stand up for himself at that point. Even though Eddie knows everyone is now picking up on his childish games he chooses to continue which makes the atmosphere very tense. Eddie seems to be getting annoyed within himself, he responds to Beatrice by "holding back a voice full of anger" you can see Eddie's patience and tolerance of the conversation is very little. Eddie decided to read his newspaper. The audience can see that is a slightly out of place action, the audience realise he doesn't really want to read the paper at all. At this time, Catherine decides to get up and ask Rodolpho to dance. The timing of this is awful, Eddie "freezes" straight away you can see how that affected Eddie, he's stiff with anger. Rodolpho knows how Eddie will react so he says no indispite of Eddie. The pressure builds up when Beatrice insists that they dance together. Rodolpho gets up reluctantly and Rodolpho and Eddie both know he's not reading that newspaper. The stage directions suggest that he is watching them intently making Rodolpho feel uncomfortable. You can tell Rodolpho isn't dancing properly because he knows he's being watched. "feeling his eyes on his back". This suggests Eddie always had one eye on them, but pretended he didn't really care and suggests Catherine was being quite rebellious, she was fully aware how he would react and how it would make him feel but she does it anyway. Another very powerful scene is the chair scene. At the end of Act 1. After the noticeable behavior of Eddie, Marco decides to show Eddie he was out of line. This scene is extremely tense and shows Eddies out to be the most vulnerable character in the scene. Marco, for no apparent reason places a chair in front of Eddie, the audience are then forced to wander what his motives are for doing so. Beatrice and Eddie watch him do it and they also want to know what Marco is planning to do. The way Marco asks Eddie out straight "Can you lift this chair?" could have been seen as quite threatening or a friendly challenge. When Eddie fails, it is quite predictable that Marco will take up his own challenge. The tension gets quite intense as he slowly raises the chair higher and higher. Marco raises the chair above Eddie's head, "the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie's head..." which suggests he might be trying to intimidate or scare Eddie. Nothing is said whilst Marco holds the chair in the air. Silence also creates tension. The audience can see the friction between Eddie and Marco gradually escalate. "Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff... he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph..." This quote from the stage directions describes how intense the situation is, with Marco ridged and demonstrating his strength and Eddie simply looking on in horror and shock. The atmosphere becomes extremely tense as the stage directions tell us that even Catherine and Rodolpho refrain from dancing to watch what is going on with Eddie and Marco. When the audience see this they realise the seriousness of the situation. The audience can see how Eddie reacts, "... Eddies grin vanishes as he absorbs his look" which suggests Eddie no longer takes Marcos gesture as a joke and he now realises how serious Marco is. He doesn't speak after that which clearly shows Eddie has been 'defeated' by Marco, the audience can see this as soon as Eddie stops smiling. Another quite important scene, is the scene where Eddie kisses both Catherine and Rodolpho after he catches them coming out of the bedroom together. This scene creates tension because the audience can't be sure what Eddie is going to do until he does actually does it. There is already a sense of fear in the scene, "(trembling with fright) I think I have to get out of here Eddie." This quote suggests she is already aware of Eddies mood and temperament at the time, he had just grabbed her arm and she knew he was not totally himself and was under the influence of drink. The audience should be able to realise this aswel by his slightly aggressive tone of voice and physical gestures. The tension builds up when we see Catherine has to Free herself from Eddie and step back away from him. The audience should be able to see how uncomfortable she is and that she is getting quite impatient with him. Just before he kisses her, the audience can expect something quite important is about to happen as Eddie cuts into her sentence: "...I'm not gonna be a baby any more! You- He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth." This is very unexpected, and would shock the audience, they then wait to see what happens next. Farah Muman 10L G.C.S.E English Coursework Miss Butt