How Far Do You Think "A View From The Bridge" By Arthur Miller Is A Classic Tragedy?

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How Far Do You Think “A View From The Bridge” By Arthur Miller Is A Classic Tragedy?

A view from the Bridge was written by Arthur Miller in 1955 and set in the 1950’s Brooklyn, New York. Most of this area was inhabited by immigrants that arrived from countries such as Italy and Sicily, before the restriction of immigrant's law was passed. Although the law denies people to migrate to the country. Illegal immigrants will often be smuggled in from countries like Sicily. The main area is based in Red Hook. Illegal immigrants come into the country and work on the dockyards and Sicily at the time was in great poverty and hardship. The people in this area of red hook are Italian American civilian citizens that have travelled the Island of Sicily because of the hard times that they have had. Such things like no cars, no food, no school, no clean water and no jobs for the poor.

Two such characters are in the play called Rodolfo and Marco, who are brothers. That has come from such areas of Sicily. Eddie is married to Beatrice but has sexual feelings for his niece, Catherine and because of his pride he cannot admit that he is in the wrong. This makes it difficult for him to take good advice when given. Eventually Eddie cannot take the thought of losing Catherine to Rodolfo, he phones the immigration bureau and tells them about Rodolfo and Marco. When the immigration officers come and take Rodolfo and Marco. Marco realises that Eddie was the one who told the immigration officers about them being illegal immigrants. Marco is furious because he knows that he has no chance of staying in America and provide money for his family in Sicily. Whereas if Rodolfo marries Catherine he would become an American citizen. Finally when the day of Catherine’s and Rodolfo’s wedding day arrives. Eddie and Marco come face to face with each other. Eddie brings out a knife and lunges towards Marco where he reverses the knife and stabs Eddie. The inevitable death of the protagonist takes place.

Arthur Miller in this play uses quite a lot of Aristotelian elements of tragedy, such as using a “chorus” to introduce themes and ideas and inform the audience that the protagonist will have a “fatal flaw” that will lead to his downfall because of his hubris pride.  It contains “universal truth” and has to be didactic so the audience can learn from the play. Aristotle also believed that the audience had to experience “Catharsis” meaning that the audience will have a feeling of extreme emotions which will help keep the audience interested. Arthur Miller also uses Aristotle's way of ending the play by the realisation of the protagonist’s mistake and the rightful order and time is restored.

Although Alfieri has the smallest part in the play, nevertheless he is very important to introducing the scene atmosphere and the set. Alfieri is introduced to us by Arthur Miller “Enters Alfieri a lawyer in his fifties turning grey; he is portly, good humoured, and thoughtful.” We get a feeling that he is a wealthy person because he is “portly” telling us his got plenty of food to eat. The fact that he is “turning grey” makes the audience assume that he is wise and understands what is really going on in the play. Also the prologue, Alfieri becomes informative straight away and explains to the audience. At the beginning Alfieri tells us how the people of the community react to the law and being a lawyer himself and introduces the community’s laws to the audience. Alfieri tells us how “In this neighbourhood to meet a lawyer or a priest on the street is unlucky. We’re only thought of in connection with disasters, and they’d rather not get too close…” this quote explains that people didn’t like lawyers or priests because if they were around, then it meant that something bad has happened so they just stayed away. Also the quote “I often think behind those suspicious little nod of theirs lie three thousands years of distrust.” This quote emphasises that this is not just happening know but this was the same with their ancestors and that this is a universal issue. Alfieri sets a lot of precursors to heighten the audience and make tension and suspense. He uses a precursor at the beginning by saying “the flat air in my office suddenly washes in with the green scent of the sea… in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff at Syracuse, another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint and sat there as powerless as I.” This quote gives us a sense that this problem that we are going to find in time has happened again and again. It tells us that Alfieri is almost having a dega vu.        

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Alfieri introduces the characters to us and tells us how Eddie's fate is inevitable he tells us by saying “powerless as I and watched it runs its bloody course”. This tells us Eddie is a tragic hero and he is fated to die. As chorus Alfieri knows what is going to happen, but even so he tries to stop it, 'she can't marry you, can she?' He also sees Eddie’s real feelings and tries to relate to the audience 'there is too much love for the niece' and without the lawyer scenes it becomes difficult to understand the subtext. ...

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