Miller’s technique of a narrative voice to the audience comes in the form of Alfieri; he is resonant of the dramatic structuring of Shakespeare plays. Alfieri provides a lot of foreshadowing, commentaries and general hints of the fore coming events of the calamitous story, provided at each stage of the play, beginning with an opening monologue before any of the action begins. His primary role is to be a bridge across the gap between the Carbone family and the audience. Alfieri seems to have ‘the view from the bridge’ and invites the audience to have the same view, involved yet keeping a distance. He sits ‘powerless’ as he watches the story ‘run it’s bloody course.’ This he says in his opening monologue, it is the first foreshadowing the audience receive, but it is poignant as use of the word ‘bloody’ automatically makes the audience assume a death will come, which is entirely correct. The first person he mentions after this, and the first to come on stage is Eddie, and so the audience realise that it will be him that dies.
Alfieri’s subtle persuading words push the audience into accepting a certain identity for Eddie. The commentaries provided by Alfieri act as reminders to show Eddies fiercely held principles at the outset of the play, and the violent manner in which he falls short of his own principles at it’s end, due to his own Achilles heel.
‘A View from the Bridge’ is set in Brooklyn, amongst an immigrant community who are poor and struggling, most working as ‘longshoremen’ at the docks. Eddie is of Italian ancestry; his father emigrated from Italy to America, and has therefore been brought up with the strong, passionate Italian/Sicilian codes of honour and loyalty. Marco and Rodolfo are illegal immigrants, who desperately wanted to go to America to work, and in Marco’s case to provide for his family. They impose on Eddie’s home and family and so Eddie’s tension grows purely with them moving in, his tension heightens as he begins to realise the relationship Catherine and Rodolfo are beginning to form.
The way in which Eddie is driven into betraying his cousins and betraying his own beliefs and moral codes by his obsessive and possessive love for Catherine is a personal tragedy, but the Italian factor intensifies and adds to the tragic nature of the play, Miller uses the Italian/Sicilian community to explore the themes of honour and loyalty to the family and revenge after betrayal, because these are essential to their culture. Eddie shows that he believes you should never betray your word of honour; “You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stolen than a word you gave away.” This is said towards the beginning of the play, more for shadowing, because it is Marco dishonouring Eddie’s name that pushes Eddie to go after him to fight for his name back, restored. Throughout the play it’s Eddie’s jealousy that creates the conflict, the audience focus on the conflict between Rodolfo and Eddie, even though it’s Marco that eventually kills Eddie. All the violence in the play is between Marco and Eddie; at the end of act one “Can you lift this chair?” says Marco, although this isn’t actual violence, it is exerting and showing masculinity and male strength, then at the climax and end of the play, there is a final, fatal, fight between the two dominant males. And so, although there is an obvious running theme of jealousy, the one that seems to matter most in the end, is the theme of male dominancy. Eddie seems to get along with Marco throughout the play, until the end, because they are similar. The real fight is the fight for dominance. Dominance requires respect and honour, both of which are taken from Eddie by Marco, and so it is just a fight to regain Eddie’s dominance within his own home.
He also tells Catherine other Italian social ‘rules’; "The less you trust, the less you be sorry." More foreshadowing, although I’m sure Eddie probably meant this to refer to Rodolfo, and that Catherine should not trust him, but in the end it turns out to be Marco that this needs to be linked to. Eddie always trusts Marco, but not Rodolfo, yet it turns out that it’s Marco that Eddie should be wary of. Eddie’s terms of respect for others, and the respect he holds for others seems to be dependant on how similar they are to himself, Rodolfo being completely different of course doesn’t deserve any respect, but Marco, being very like him, a strong person, gets Eddie’s respect almost immediately. Obviously Eddie gains respect for the wrong person.
Eddie’s own consciousness of how his peers/neighbours perceive him and his family, plus pride and varying respect for people was the cause to his finale and demise.
This play has a severely Shakespearian/Greek tragedy style to it, but using a 20th century garb and Americanisation, using dramatic character and technique to full, and successful effect. Part of the modernisation process that Miller undertook was to make his play more accessible to a ‘50s crowd, he would also have wanted to make an impression, which he certainly did with this play. In all Shakespeare and Greek plays the main character is either an aristocrat or just someone of very high noble stature, but to bring ‘a view from the bridge’ down to a more accessible level, Miller chose his tragic hero to be a working class man. Most of the people that were likely to see the play at the time would have probably been middle or upper class people, and to see a descendant of an immigrant from the slums of New York and Brooklyn be the centre of attention and be considered important would create a lot of controversy!
Eddie’s ancestry plays a part in his pride and jealousy issues, the fact that he originates from what was such a wealthy ancient civilisation, that at one time or other had controlled the vast majority of Europe, then for the empire to be crushed, hurt a lot of pride. Hereditary pride passed down (perhaps also by Cicilian ancestors) has created a lot of conflict in the past, especially linking to the mafia.
So to conclude, Miller shows Eddie to be a tragic hero by using the dramatic techniques of Greek tragedies and Shakespearian tragedies to set up a character of a good and respected social status, only for him to be ruined by his own pride, jealousy and stubborn nature. Miller uses Eddie’s relationship with Catherine to show up his vulnerabilities, which works well. Miller uses Alfieri to provide a lot of foreshadowing and to act as a go between the audience and characters, as he plays a narrative role. Miller uses Rodolfo to highlight Eddie’s problems with homosexuality and jealousy, and ends up kissing him to attempt to prove a point. And finally Marco is used as the final trigger, of his pride, Eddie’s Achilles heel.
The dramatic techniques that Miller uses create an effective and realistic situation of being torn between pride & principles, and jealousy & lust. Eddie is a typical and highly effective example of a tragic hero.
