Who or what is responsible for Eddie's death?

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Jerry Nguyen                English Coursework

Who or what is responsible for Eddie’s death?

Arthur Miller described this play as being “the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge…the gullet of New York”

Arthur Miller was born on October 1915, in New York City. His parents were both immigrants to the USA. Miller’s family lived in prosperity due to the success of his father’s clothing manufacturing business. However as the clothing manufacturing collapse, the family became bankrupt, with the American Economy as a whole following the Wall Street crash. Following the Wall Street crash, Miller worked as a longshoreman in New York’s Brooklyn harbour. He experienced “a dangerous and mysterious world at the water’s edge that drama and literature had never touched” and discovered the “waterfronts was the Wild West, a desert beyond the law.” The bay were populated and worked by people who were immigrants. They were poorly paid exploited by their bosses.

Miller’s family fled to the USA in hope for work, wealth and security that their home country could not guarantee. During the days studying at Michigan University, Arthur Miller followed a course of playwright and this gradually became his primary ambition. He graduated in 1938 and work as a journalist. One of his most famous play is “A View from the Bridge”. The play consists of drama, justice and bloody death.

A View from the Bridge is a modern tragedy set in 1950’s Brooklyn about a man’s obsession with his niece, and what that obsession ultimately brings about.

Eddie Carbone, the protagonist of the play is also the antagonist. Eddie Capone is an Italian longshoreman who earns his money from the dock of Red Hook, New York. Day by day he is working his head off to support his wife, Beatrice, and niece, Catherine. When Beatrice’s cousin, Rodolfo and Marco (two brother seeking refuge in the USA) appeared on the scene all things changed as the story finally unfolds in a tragic “bloody” death.

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Eddie’s wife, Beatrice, was aware of the deeper, more disturbing reason for Eddie’s protectiveness towards Catherine. Nevertheless, Catherine is very selfish in her behaviour, had Catherine listened to Eddie and retained respect for him, she might have not have fallen for Rodolfo and caused the chain of events leading to the tragedy. Catherine should have been more conscientious, more obedient and resisted Rodolfo’s advance at Eddie’s behest. Catherine was careless, absent minded and inattentive.

Beatrice is liable for Eddie’s death based on the fact that she has not provided Catherine with the correct advice. Moreover, Beatrice encourages ...

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