"A View from the Bridge" How does Miller develop the dramatic tension between the characters in the closing section of Act 1?

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Fahmida Choudhury

GCSE Coursework

How does Miller develop the dramatic tension between the characters in the closing section of Act 1?

The play “A View from the Bridge” written by Arthur Miller and set in the 1950s, is a play of betrayal, jealousy and violence. Located in Brooklyn, Miller writes of tragedy for ordinary working class people, juggling with both the beliefs of the Americanised Italians and the new immigrants and resulting in an emotive and powerful play.

       “A View from the Bridge” successfully reflects the great poverty going on in Italy at the time and contributes towards our understanding to why many Italians wanted to immigrate to America during the 1950s. The United States offered countless opportunities, or so Italians thought. They were unaware that their fantasy of an American dream life was nothing but that-a fantasy. Despite the Statue of Liberty’s heart-warming welcome America more or less resembled Italy.

       Italians faced many difficulties back home. Unemployment was on a steady rise and the immigrants found it incredibly difficult to pocket enough money to feed their wives and children. Many of the Italians strongly believed that the USA was the answer to all their problems and emigrated there to satisfy their curiosity.

         The title “A View from the Bridge,” suggests that Miller was taking a typical working class family and highlighted the affairs they may or were likely to have. Brooklyn, where the play is set, was mainly occupied by ordinary working class people, which Miller decided to take to his advantage and write a piece of theatre for. Unlike other playwrights such as Shakespeare, Miller settled against writing the matter of kings and queens, but instead based his play on a poor and small family, a family of much interest, much activity and not forgetting much tension.

      By the end of Act 1, the reader is able to acknowledge the obvious tension occurring between certain characters, and understand why and how it cam about to be there.

      Eddie is the root of all tension going on, and is reluctant to talk about this openly. His sex life with Beatrice has come to an end and instead of trying to sort it out, Eddie simply refuses to take the matter further. Beatrice noticed Eddie’s attraction towards Catherine which then puts a strain on her relationship with her niece. Beatrice disapproves on the way Catherine manipulates her uncle’s love for her by flinging herself onto Eddie whenever possible. She forces Catherine to realise her adulthood is soon to hit her and she must act on it accordingly by letting Eddie go. Catherine remains naïve to the reality of Eddie’s feelings which have now evolved into desperate accusations towards Rodolfo. Eddie’s jealousy leads him to strongly believe; Rodolfo is chasing after American citizenship and seeks to marry her only to fulfil this desire. He shares this belief with Catherine which then creates tension between the two of them. In addition to this, it becomes clear to the audience that Eddie believes that Rodolfo is gay and cannot possibly love Catherine because of this homosexuality.

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       Through the dialogue and actions of the characters, the audience is able to recognise the dramatic tension being developed, but have to explore beneath the surface in order to do so. Miller uses a lot of symbolism to disguise the underlying tension as can be clearly seen in his dialogue towards Rodolfo.

      Eddie uses a lot of symbolism to demonstrate Rodolfo’s artificiality stating that “they paint the oranges to make them look orange.” This suggests that perhaps Rodolfo has veiled himself in order to cover his flaws similar to what the oranges had ...

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