Arthur Miller proves to all readers just how much potential he has. In ‘A View From’ the Bridge, he creates great dramatic tension in numerous ways. Dramatic tension is essential in plays because it keeps the viewer hooked and makes them tense too. Miller uses the over-protective character of Eddie and his actions, the anxieties of Catherine and Beatrice and the boxing “fight” between Eddie and Rodolpho to make the audience tense. This tension is heightened by sudden movements and gestures. Tension is also drastically increased by the characters words and the serious conflict between all three male characters.
In this scene, Miller uses the character of Eddie to create tension. At the start of this scene there is hardly any tension. The audience watches a domestic scene, with the table being cleared after supper. As the conversation of Italy arises, the tension grows. This quote shows Eddie’s arrogance towards Marco and Rodolpho and also shows his sarcasm, “I heard they paint the oranges to make them look orange”. Marco and Rodolpho then correct Eddie by saying “No, in Italy the oranges are orange… Lemons are green” the audience now get the impression that there is going to be an argument arising. Eddie tries to then defend himself by saying, “I know lemons are green for Christ sake… I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothin’ about lemons.” This shows that Eddie’s character is very short tempered and is already showing dislike towards Rodolpho. The tension of the unnecessary argument was then broken by Beatrice when she asks Marco about his wife back in Italy.
The criticism of Eddie revealed by the two women, Beatrice and Catherine, is also something that builds up tension in this scene. Eddie is the instigator of all arguments and Beatrice is always the one to try and settle the differences between everyone and calm Eddie down. An example of Beatrice trying to prevent an argument is when she changed the subject from the oranges and lemons to Marcos’s wife: “Your wife is getting the money alright Marco?” This quote shows that Beatrice is trying to divert their attention away from the topic which started the argument, to another topic, though this ironically gives Eddie something else to argue about. There are many other cases of this same situation happening. When Rodolpho in informs Eddie that he has respect for him, Eddie replies “Look, kid, I aint her father, I'm only her uncle -” Beatrice then straight away interrupts him saying, “…be an uncle then” This shows Beatrice criticising Eddie for the way his behaving and also shows the frustration boiling up inside of her. This frustration hints to the audience that this could lead to tense situations later on the play. Catherine also reveals criticism towards Eddie. When she says, “You wanna dance, Rodolpho?” it shows us that her character is finally becoming more independent. She is no longer doing as Eddie pleases but doing as she pleases. She was not afraid of what Eddie might think. Beatrice then changes the subject, “Must be nice to go all over in one of them fishin’ boats…” she does this to divert eddies attention away from the dancing as she can notices his frustration. After the boxing ‘fight’ between Rodolpho and Eddie, Beatrice, yet again, acts as the one to keep everything in control. She pulls Eddie down into the rocking chair as she doesn’t want anything to get too serious. This tells us that Eddie needs Beatrice to control him when he’s in an angry state. Beatrice is Eddie’s backbone, and without her, Eddie would be involved in many arguments, fights and disagreements. There are also many cases of Beatrice defending her Sicilian cousins, especially Rodolpho as Eddie dislikes him so there are always disagreements between them. When Eddie implies that Rodolpho doesn’t have his permission to go out with Catherine and that he just dragged her off, Beatrice straight away cuts in and argues, “Well he didn’t exactly drag her off though, Eddie.” This shows that although Eddie has a problem with Rodolpho going out with Catherine, Beatrice accepts the situation and can’t see anything wrong with Rodolpho.
