Eddie is the protagonist of the play and Miller creates a sense of claustrophobia e.g. with all the characters being in the apartment at the same time, this is made worse by Eddie’s behaviour in order to create tension, Eddie’s journey through the play is a human one where all the audience follow him along to the end. The protagonist has a fatal flaw which for Eddie’s case is jealousy, it’s like Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ where the ‘green eyed monster’, green being the colour of envy takes over. No matter how hard he tries Eddie can’t keep control of his feelings for Catherine and the audience sees this through his actions and dialogue. This demonstrates Millers humanist and realist approach to life the play.
Arthur Miller uses character & stage directions to create atmosphere and tension, many of Miller’s other techniques used to create dramatic tension are: Pause, dialogue, dramatic climax, dramatic irony and stage directions, these all help to create intensity and to engage the audience. Stage directions are especially important in helping us and the actors to imagine exactly what is going on: they can help us picture each character's actions and reactions. These techniques cause the audience to be drawn in. At the end of Act one, much tension is created through the use of such techniques .e.g. Pause with Eddie boxing with Rodolfo he is using this to vent his anger and hatred towards Rodolfo, but when Marco rises to them it shows things are more serious, Marco shows his protectiveness towards Rodolfo and is warning Eddie, which is ironic as he kills him at the end, therefore Miller has created dramatic irony.
There are numerous changes in tone. Again, this is often dependent on Eddie. If he is in a good mood, such as immediately the cousins arrive and the tell us he is "laughing", the tone is light-hearted; if he is in a bad mood, such as later on that night when "his face puffed with trouble", there is tension. This inconsistency shows his effort to hide his feeling.
As Eddie is un-educated he has difficulty expressing his feelings, as he is in love with Catherine his niece, we see him giving hints as to how much he likes her “I bless you and you don’t talk to me”, this shows his contradictory nature and how he wants to be close to Catherine but he cant be. Catherine doesn’t realise Eddie’s feelings for her though “enveloping her with his eyes” this causes Eddie to become angry at Rodolfo for being able to do as he likes with Catherine and Eddie is very sad by that as he cannot have Catherine for himself especially as he is married to her aunt.
Miller’s language/ text is varied e.g. Alfieri’s character is formal and intelligent so obviously talks formally whereas Eddie cant express himself and seems to have limited language e.g.
Arthur Miller also creates dramatic irony for example when Rodolfo says “If I were not afraid to be arrested I would start to be something wonderful here” this is ironic as is when Eddie reports Rodolfo and Marco to immigration and has them arrested, the timing is awkward. Miller is famous for his use of pause and stage directions. The pauses in the play create tension and gets the audience drawn in whilst the stage directions are very detailed. Marco picking up the chair in scene one uses both the pause, symbolism and detailed stage direction techniques, that shows Marco’s strengths as he proves to Eddie if he puts Rodolfo down Marco will only do it back to him. In a way he’s threatening Eddie The effect of using techniques like that is the audience are waiting for more as the tension builds up they know something bad is going to happen, the genre of this play is tragedy as it ends in death but it also explores the human flaw of Eddie i.e. his emotions and jealousy, but what’s so tragic is that Eddie cant escape his emotions. Dramatic irony is also shown in Alfieri’s speech as he foreshadows tragedy although the speech, but also the fact that the audience knows things that the characters don’t is dramatic irony
Eddie is the centre round which all the conflict in the play revolves. Verbal conflict with all the other characters at some point or another. He often deliberately starts arguments - for instance, he questions the virtue of the wives of Italian immigrants: "I betcha there's plenty of surprises sometimes when those guys get back there, heh? Even his jokes are barbed and bitter. Conflict within himself as he grapples with his love of Catherine. Physical conflict with Rodolpho and, ultimately, Marco.
The end of act one mirrors the end of the play and leaves the audience in suspense as tension is built up, it leaves the audience wondering if Marco has sussed Eddie out. Throughout act1 Alfieri keeps on reminding us the ending is inevitable Act 1: "I could see every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door."
In conclusion to ‘A view from the bridge’ the themes explored in this play are tragedy, love and hate, as the whole play turns out to be a tragedy because Eddies character is tragic in itself and he cannot do anything to change how he is, love is explored as he loves Catherine but also loves his wife B and he hates Rodolfo who loves Catherine.
We learn that Eddie’s character is his fate and his death is inevitable but caused by human flaw- jealousy (he is jealous because of love between Catherine and Rodolfo, as he loves her but she doesn’t love him)
We also learn that this could happen to anyone and the timing and circumstances could not be controlled. Self knowledge is gained just before the death.
For the audience the play is mainly tragic as we have followed the main character all the way through and have become emotionally involved with him and Eddie is a normal man with a normal life we realise just how this could easily happen to anyone.