Discuss Millers' presentation of Eddie Carbone as a tragic hero.

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Discuss Millers’ presentation of Eddie Carbone as a tragic hero.

The play ‘A View From The Bridge’ was written in the 1950s by a playwright named Authur Miller. It was based around the events of the Carbone family who lived in an Italian community in Red Hook, New York, a poor, but communal, area inhabited mostly by longshoremen. The characters in the play are simple, straightforward people who work hard to make a living and to feed their families. Most have received no formal education, and this is apparent from their speech and colloquialisms, as they talk not in a poetic or precise fashion, but direct and expressive. The lack of education, employment and wealth, however, does not detract from the kindness, warmth and generosity of the Red Hook community.

Arthur Miller wrote the play with the formula of a Greek tragedy in mind. In Greek tragedies there is usually a centralised character that is good, but has a vital flaw, a flaw that will lead to the demise and, ultimately, the destruction of that character. This person could be called a ‘tragic hero’ – a protagonist who is pure in his beliefs but blind to the fault he retains that is destined to lead to a fate that cannot be escaped.

In Greek tragedies there is a person, or group of people, called the chorus. They act as narrators and explain the story between scenes and acts and sometimes are part of the story themselves. In A View From The Bridge the chorus is a character called Alfieri who is also a lawyer in the story, and who is visited by the lead characters at points in the play.

Miller uses Alfieri to explain the play from the perspective that the events have already happened. Before even Eddie is introduced Alfieri says about the events of the play: ‘and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course,’ which shows the audience that, like in all tragedies, it is destined to end with death, which heightens their sympathies for the characters. Miller even has Alfieri try to prevent the inevitably tragic ending even though he has no power to stop it.  

Miller establishes early on that Eddie Carbone is a straightforward, hard working longshoreman who is respected in the Italian community of Red Hook. Miller also presents Eddie as a family man, married to wife Beatrice, and acting-father to his niece, Catherine. Miller shows in the very first part of the play that Eddie cares for Catherine as he admires the skirt she is wearing and the way she has done her hair. However, it soon becomes apparent that Eddie is very over-protective of Catherine and he disapproves of her wearing short skirts, waving to men and “walkin’ wavy.”

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Miller uses these remarks as the foundations of Eddie’s major flaw; his over-protectiveness of Catherine, his incestuous yearning and his jealously concerning her. Although these are only hints, Miller uses them to scratch the surface of his tragic hero theme.

In Act One, Eddie informs Beatrice that her cousins, Marco and Rodolfo, are arriving in Red Hook that night. Eddie says he is happy to let them stay in their house as long as they’re grateful and he does not “end up on the floor.” As Beatrice’s cousins are illegal immigrants, Miller has Eddie and Beatrice explain the story of ...

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