The audience of the play must feel pity, sympathy and empathy for the tragic hero so we understand him and we could also share his pain with him in a way. It will make the audience feel as if they are actually in the play and they feel for the character. The tragic story must end with death because that’s the whole point of the play and will give it that sense of waste. So therefore there must be a downfall. The causes are that there maybe a flaw or maybe fate gets in the way. An example of fate getting in the way was William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”. The downfall may happen because of a coincidence or sometimes the scheming of others. When the tragic hero dies, we feel a sense of waste as we loose a piece of the jigsaw and that piece was greatness. Before the end of the play that protagonist must have a self realisation and must realise how foolish he has been. This is because they realise all their mistakes just before they die and this makes the story sadder and tragic by the protagonist realising he was wrong in whatever he did and then he must die as well. With the qualities and setting listed above, a play will be tragic if followed.
In this case though “a view from the bridge”; Arthur Miller did not give the protagonist any tragic hero qualities. He is very normal and he is still a tragic hero in his own ways. Eddie Carbone is very limited character as he is only ‘powerful’ in his own house. Unlike most tragic heroes, he does not talk in poetic verses; he actually talks in an inarticulate manner of speech. For example; “you got too big a heart, what’re you so touchy heh” and “don’t trust nobody”. Because of his bad grammar he doesn’t make sense at times and this shows what kind of upbringing he had yet he does try to make clear points. His character also has a lack of nobility and high status because his only a normal middle aged man. His character is too clumsy to be noble because he goes to the law just because his niece is in love. If he was noble and high status he would get a sword or something and slash the throat of his enemy but he goes to a lawyer which shows how ordinary and weak he is. It may emphasise how weak he is. Nevertheless he is at the same a time a much respected member of the neighbourhood because of his street smartness and he is against snitching which is good to the neighbourhood. His diction does have liveliness and a force. We can tell this because Beatrice and Catherine do what he says most of the time. Also Alfieri reminds us of his essential goodness; “he was a good man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten o’clock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came.” Alfieri basically tells us all how good Eddie was no matter what and how kind he was and how he cared for his family.
There are other aspects of the play’s main character and its structure that make it possible to view the drama as tragic.
Arthur Miller admired Greek drama and has used some elements in “A view from the bridge”.
Arthur Miller uses Alfieri as a chorus. Alfieri is like Arthur Millers mouthpiece and gives us the introduction. Alfieri does it with hints that the outcome will be tragic. “I sat there helpless” and “run its bloody course”. Arthur Miller sets the scene very calmly and shows Eddie very happy up until the cousins come over. Catherine is like Eddie’s kingdom and the cousins could act like the villains coming to take it away from Eddie so that’s how it could be a tragedy even though if its not in the proper form. Arthur Miller says; “a single rising line of intensity leading to an explosive climax”. That’s how Arthur Miller describes Greek dramas and it is also how any of us would describe “A view from the bridge”. It is an intense play which focuses on Eddies obsession.
Secondly there is initial friction and conflict evident in the play. The sense of Eddie’s control and dominance is threatened at the end of the first act by the emergence of the enemy. His foolishness and the irony of his actions turn him against the rules of his society as he snitches on his wife’s cousins for emigrating. Then the speed of the second act shows that Eddie wants to get everything over and done with but knows that it’s wrong. We see Eddie hurtling uncontrollably towards his own fate. This is highlighted by shorter scenes and fewer lengthy set pieces.
There are tragic flaws in Eddie Carbone’s character. In simple words, Eddie is a decent man but he is overcome by his weakness. Alfieri tries to keep our understanding and makes the audience identify with his plight. Yet, he is totally self-destructive and this is brought about due to the strength of his will and his individual needs; he goes against society. Eddie is the type of man who will never settle for half and this messes with his life later on. Eddie had strength and dominance up until Rodolpho and Marco came along. Eddie is very impatient and gets aggressive because he decides to fight Marco with a knife. Furthermore we see he is impatient because he informs so quickly. Eddie Carbone was obsessed with Catherine and he saw more to it then just uncle and niece. Eddie is not evil by not wanting Catherine and Rodolpho to marry but is over-protective. Also Alfieri makes things clear for Eddie on page 35 act one when he says “she wants to get married, Eddie. She cant marry you can she?”. This shows Alfieri putting everything across to Eddie and from this we get the idea Eddie likes Catherine a lot. And because of this he struggles. Like many tragic characters he is at odds with his surroundings. It is safe to say Eddie Carbone doesn’t know himself because he snitches and that was going against his own rules so therefore we can say that he doesn’t know himself. Like the Italians, Eddie is primitive and won’t settle for half. And because he won’t settle for half bad things happen.
Next the catharsis, a key ingredient in tragedies; the sense of waste is brought about by his inability to settle for half and the strength of feeling he has for his ‘name’. We must feel pity for the character and so Arthur Miller uses a clever device for this. His mouth piece Alfieri. Alfieri is the one that makes us understand that all Eddie wanted was to protect his niece and that he was a good man. This makes us feel pity for him. Alfieri does this by saying; “who can ever know what will be discovered? Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny. A man works, raises a family, goes bowling, eats, gets old and then dies. Now as the weeks passed there was a future, a trouble that would not go away.” From this we can see Eddie is just a normal person living quiet a poor but average life and wishing the best for his family.
Arthur Miller called this play “a play with no surprise”. This is because in my opinion it had no surprise. The tragic character had a tragic fate. But that’s not the whole story. Eddie Carbone might not have possessed great qualities like tragic heroes but the story possessed qualities of tragic stories. Eddie Carbone in all our eyes was a normal man and we might not like his character but yet we still feel pity for him. This is simply because Alfieri tries to help us understand on more than one occasion about how Eddie jus wanted well and the other reason is that Eddie had lost something which he loved just as much as a tragic hero would love his wife. And that something Eddie had lost was Catherine but in the end Eddie was the one who died and didn’t get the chance to protect Catherine from the Italian immigrants. We feel pity for this man because all his life his worked really hard for this girl and she turns her back on him.
To conclude everything up, Arthur Miller didn’t want us to believe Eddie Carbone was right, but he admires this motivation to be pure to his own needs. Arthur Miller quotes; “in exhaustible tension of their straight line to the exploding flare of comparison realised at last.” Arthur Miller is saying here that Eddie feels tension and when he makes all the mistakes he is bound to make, he has a self realisation moment where everything comes back to him and he regrets it all.
I believe even though Eddie was disliked as a character and didn’t have noble qualities Arthur Miller manage to portray Eddie as a tragic character. This is because of Alfieri’s speeches most of all as he persuades us about Eddie. Eddie also has something to struggle for. He is in odd surroundings like tragic heroes so they have something in common. The audience may dislike Eddie a lot at end of the day but there’s one thing you cannot take away from the character. I believe that is respect; whether you love him or hate him we respect Eddie to the very end. This is clearly because of the fact that he loves his family so much and protects them with all his heart, even if it means fighting Catherine’s one and only love. Eddie manages to give hints across to people he doesn’t like in clever ways for example: the boxing match between Eddie and Rodolpho. Eddie was trying to give the hint to get Catherine you have to go through me first and this was very clever and imaginative of Eddie. Although Eddie doesn’t have all tragic ingredients, he has most of them.
Eddie as the main character has a flaw; he won’t let his niece marry Rodolpho even if they are in love. Also Rodolpho and Marco is the flaw as they give Eddie a lot of tension.
Fating coincidence in the story is Rodolpho and Marco coming over. Scheming of others helps make this play tragic as when Eddie schemes to inform the immigration police of Marco and Rodolpho, they will obviously take them away. This would cause more fights in the future and then some ones life would probably be on the line because of it meaning this story will be a tragic one. From this Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone as a Tragic Character.