Miller as chosen Eddie Carbone as a tragic hero because he is an ordinary man. He wake’s up every morning and sleeps in an apartment just like a normal man would. This is different from Shakespeare tragic heroes because Macbeth was related to the king and was a warrior while Romeo was for one of the rich and leading family in Verona. Miller has an ordinary man as a tragic hero because tragedy happens to any body including the audience
Passion is something that destroys a tragic hero e.g. Macbeth passion was to become the King while Romeo’s passion was to marry Juliet. In this play Eddie’s passion is for his wife’s niece Catherine. Every tragedy must have a trigger e.g. Macbeth trigger was meeting the witches, Romeos trigger was going to the caplets party while in this play Eddie’s trigger was Marco and Rodolfo coming to his house .A tragic hero then commits an irrevocable act (an act that can’t be reversed) e.g. Macbeth kills King Duncan and Romeo kills Tybalt.
Like most tragic heroes, Eddie has respect at the beginning of the play because he is caring for his wife and cousins who are illegal immigrants and he tries to advice the family as he is the head. This is similar to Macbeth because he was a ma of respect because he was strong and a good fighter and Romeo was a ma of respect because he was a calm person, peaceful and would not get into fights with is enemies. At the beginning Marco shows Eddie respect by calling him by his first name “Eduardo” to show he is in a higher status and has to be treated formally. Beatrice shows Eddie respect by saying “you are an angle” meaning he is a good willing man who helps people when they are in need just like an angle would. However, Miller is using irony as in a tragedy the Gods curse the hero, rather than bless them. Louis shows respect by telling him “believe me, Eddie, you got a lot of credit coming to you” meaning he has done a lot to help Marco and Rodolfo and he has been a good man in the community and defiantly disserves credit. Eddie gradually loses respect by making accusations about Rodolfo. He made accusations about him when he was talking to Beatrice, he said “he sings in the ships and now they call him paper doll” He also makes accusations about him by telling Catherine he is only marrying her to become an American citizen and when he is talking to Alfieri he s accused him of being a thief ad a homosexual. Eddie tried to degrade Rodolfo in front of Catherine by kissing her to show he is in power and can humiliate somebody. He also tries to show Rodolfo is week and can’t defend his woman. Eddie also degrades him self by kissing another man in front of Catherine. This is an irony because earlier he called him a homosexual. Catherine will not respect him anymore because it’s a disgusting act and not a man would do. Miller has him doing this bestial behaviour with brute force to try to impose his will and also trying to suggest that brute force is the way to solve things. In the 1950 such acts in stage would repel the audience.
Marco becomes Eddies Nemesis. Nemesis is an ancient Greek goddess who hunted down wrong dower restlessly and won’t settle for half, and was regarded as implacable. Marco in a is implacable because the only for him to buy medicine for his children is by working which he can’t do due to the incident that happened earlier. This is similar to “Macbeth” . Mucdaff is implacable because Macbeth has killed his wife and children so he wants to get his own back. Early on in the play makes it clear by making Eddie say “Marco goes round like a man, nobody kids with Marco” This is ironic because later n in the play Eddie is going to kid Marco. Miller also shows that Eddie is strong guy by making Mike say “that older one, the boy is a bull”. Miller chooses the bull image because it is a strong fierce animal that represents brute force. At the end of act 1, he makes it clear Marco is stronger than Eddie in the chair challenge. At this time Marco warns Eddie to keep off. It is a real physical strength that Eddie can’t do but he can. Miller emphasises Marcos brute strength and show if you have strength over somebody you don’t have reason.
Beatrice tries to tries to stop the final confrontation by firstly she tells Marco to go for the wedding between Rodolfo and Catherine to avoid Marco who will come to the house “let’s go some place. Come” she then tells Eddie that he always liked Marco “you got noting against Marco, you always liked Marco”. Beatrice says “I love you” and if he loves her he wouldn’t fight. Beatrice’s plea with Eddie several times but every time she does it Eddie has a reason. For example when Beatrice tells him to go to the wedding to avoid Marco, he said “where am I going? This is my house” showing that he is not scared and ready to fight for his reputation. Rodolfo also tries to stop the confrontation by going down to his knee and kissing in a Sicilian gesture of respect Eddies land and told him Marco is in the church praying. Eddie still rejects Rodolfo gesture of respect because he has no respect for him and most importantly he wants his respect back.
Miller styles this confrontation in the form of a western gun fight. Convention of a western gun fight related relates to the idea of Brooklyn being the “Wild West”. In the 1950 cowboy films were very popular. They all had certain common redeem into it which Miller uses to portray his confrontation. In a cowboy film you will have one gun fighter coming down the main street…….in the play “Marco appears outside, walking down the door from a distance point”, Then you will have one gun fighter refusing to leave the town…………Eddie says “where? Where am I going?”, one gun fighter adjusting his belt……… “Eddie hosting his pants” ,the arriving of a gun fighter asking for a challenge…………..Marco is calling as he nears the door shouting “Eddie Carbone” and the other fighter issuing a counter challenge “Eddie as though flinging his challenge”. Eddie shouts out his name three times to show he is not ashamed of his name because the whole play is about reputation and people wanting there names to be respected.
In the counter challenge an actor would show Eddies aggression by swaggering his body as he walks up to Marco, his voice would be sounding aggressive to show anger and clench his arms as he punches the air.
Millers also has a western convention of a crowd of no lookers standing on the side walks watching the fight. Miller has realised that people “enjoy” watching a fight, but are not willing to try to stop it.
Eddies public address on stage is a dramatic pause because it is full of rhetorical questions which nobody can answer back. He wants the crowd to answer ‘yes’ but the audience and Marco know that it’s false. He does this to make the crowd on stage his side. This is very dramatic because Eddie uses strong accusations on Marco how ungrateful he has been and also refers to the story of the Good Samaritan in the bible to make his accusation stronger. During all this Marco is impassive which makes him menacing and this would frustrate Eddie. Moreover the silent Marco is waiting like a silent gunfighter waiting for his opponent to make the first move.
Miller brings in the western cowboy style by making Marco and Eddie spread there arms just like two cowboys with there gun hovering over there own gun butts in a western film. This fight between Marco and Eddie is very brutal because they are both trying to use there physical power against each other. Eddie pulls out a knife out to finish the fight off like in a street fight because he knows Marco is stronger. Immediately Marco strikes him and shouts “animaaaaal” and later he says it again to show that Eddie does not reason. Miller has the fight so brute to show that men don’t reason when they are controlled by passion and it raises the question whether this is the way men behave. Miller want to make it clear that what ever the characters on stage might think this is not an honourable ting to do.
Eddie is being forced to stab him self is symbiotic of his own self destruction in a tragedy. The hero has to realise what he should have done before actually dieing. When Eddie says “My B” he realises it is Beatrice he loves. When the tragic hero dies, the audience feel sympathy because he would have avoided the whole thing at the beginning. At the moment of Eddie’s death a dramatic tableau is created when Eddie dies in Beatrice’s arms as she covers Eddie in her body. At the end of the play the crowd on stage turn to the audience and the lights are turned down leaving Beatrice and Eddie in a glow while behind in dull prayers of the people and the keening of for women continue. The audience see a man who is dead with his wife and her women keening in the background in dull prayers. The idea of dull prayers is Eddie didn’t die as a hero instead he dies as a waste. All this puts the audience in the right frame of mind to listen to the epilogue.
The epilogue, a traditional feature of a tragedy, delivers the moral to remind the audience. For example in “Romeo and Juliet” the princes message was what hatred would bring to families and in Macbeth, Malcolm says that a good king brigs peace and harmony. In “view from the bridge” the epilogue is that men who are pure in following there code of honour but the code of honour itself was perverse because it doesn’t allow those who follow it to “settle for half”. However another persons tragedy is entertaining if it doesn’t evolve you or if the same thing doesn’t happen to you. Miller finishes with an ellipsis followed by the word “alarm”. He wants to alarm the audience what would happen if they allowed passion to control them.
Miller’s point towards the play is to remind people what would happen if countries started behaving like people. There will be massive amounts of lives lost, for example the USA fighting with Iraq. However what happens if a country decides to take the law into there own hands and not “settle for half?”
