A View From The Bridge - Select a scene from act two and show why it is dramatically effective.

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GCSE ENGLISH COURSEWORK, 2

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

By Joe Swainson

Select a scene from act two and show why it is dramatically effective.

Arthur Miller was born on October 17th, 1915.  He is the playwright of A View From The Bridge.  He grew up in the city of New York and his parents’ are immigrants to the United States.  These have inspired the play, which is set in New York City.  A View From The Bridge has its roots in the late 1940’s when Arthur Miller became interested in the lives of communities of dockworkers and longshoremen of New York’s Brooklyn harbour and where he had previously worked.  In the opening stage directions Miller sets the play in Red Hook which is a slum area of New York that faces on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge.  The play is mainly set in the Carbones living and dining rooms where most of the action arises.

                              I have decided to write about the final scene from the play.  There are a number of the main and key characters in this scene mainly because it is the concluding scene.  Alfieri a lawyer, he is a middle class man with a strong American English accent.  This character appears at the beginning of a scene where he sets it and end of a scene where he usually summarises it, including a moral.  The Carbones consist of Eddie, Beatrice who is Eddy’s wife and Catherine who is their niece. Eddie Carbone is an Italian longshoreman who originally was an immigrant from Italy.  He works on the New York docks and fundamentally is a simple, straightforward man who supported his family in good faith.  He is also seen as a humorous and kind man.   Catherine suffers with her growing maturity of Eddy’s over protectiveness over her.  Eddy was also portrayed as generous and brave kind of person when illegally allowing the arrival of Beatrice’s cousins to their household.  Beatrice’s two cousins’ Rodolfo and Marco were immigrants from America looking for a better life in the land of opportunity.  Eddies over protectiveness of Catherine takes a bad turn when it catches the eye of Rodolfo.  After the physical and sexual part of the Carbones marriage breaks down, Beatrice begins to suspect Eddy’s attraction towards Catherine.  Rodolfo is the younger of the two brothers and has no such responsibilities.  He has a more frivolous, light-hearted attitude to life.  Marco is the older, stronger who came to America to earn money to support his starving wife and children in Italy.  Marco tends to be the maturer personality of the two.

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Here is the stage set.  As you can see the main acting area is in the living/dining room.  This area is the largest of the rooms on show.  The bedroom and kitchen are situated at the back of the set and are not visible as interiors to the audience. In the play they provide the backstage when characters have to exit.  At the right front stage there is Mr. Alfieri’s office ...

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