In what respects is ‘A View from the Bridge’ a modern tragedy?
Eddie Carbone would rather die than admit to himself the truth of his feelings
In what respects is 'A View from the Bridge' a modern tragedy?
"A View from the Bridge is a tragedy in classic form and I think it is a modern classic". So wrote the New York Daily News in 1955. A tragedy according to the Oxford Concise Dictionary is "A play in which the protagonist is overcome by a combination of social and psychological circumstances". The review and the dictionary definition do therefore, encapsulate the very essence of this play - indeed a modern tragedy. "A View from the Bridge" is a demonstration of tragedy as Eddie Carbone, the protagonist does indeed die as a result of his feelings and the affect it has on society around him.
The idea of immigrants at this time is also a good way to display tragedy. The immigrants had no money and had to fight to stay in America where they were underpaid. Eddie Carbone has a job, but it is a job that only just supports him and his family and has to work hard to maintain his job. This idea of cruelness to humanity in terms of the immigrants receiving harsh treatment is in itself tragic. During 1950's America is would have been every Italian working mans dream to come to America and earn more money that they could send back to their family.
The play also relates to Greek Tragedy in other ways like, the setting of the play and how it concentrates on the predominantly Sicilian-American occupied section of Brooklyn known as Red Hook. The community is bound by codes of justice and vengeance as those prevailing in Sophocles' Thebes. Like many classic tragic figures (including Shakespeare's Hamlet), Eddie's effort to get rid of the one man he perceives as his enemy cannot control fate's ripple effect on Marco.
"A View from the Bridge" presents reality rather than aiming to represent an interpretation of reality allowing the reader or onlooker the freedom to draw their own conclusions.
Miller leaves us in no doubt that it is a modern tragedy as he himself wrote that the story was of "the awesomeness of a passion which despite its contradicting of itself - interest of the individual it inhabits, despite every kind of warning, despite even its destruction of the moral beliefs of the individual proceeds to magnify its power over him until it destroys him". It is ...
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"A View from the Bridge" presents reality rather than aiming to represent an interpretation of reality allowing the reader or onlooker the freedom to draw their own conclusions.
Miller leaves us in no doubt that it is a modern tragedy as he himself wrote that the story was of "the awesomeness of a passion which despite its contradicting of itself - interest of the individual it inhabits, despite every kind of warning, despite even its destruction of the moral beliefs of the individual proceeds to magnify its power over him until it destroys him". It is also classic modern tragedy in terms of irony because of Eddies burning desire to get Catherine back he kills himself to fix the damage that he has caused not just himself but other people too. For example Marco will probably be sent back to Italy where his family will have little or no money, and Beatrice is left without Eddie being there. The ironic part of the play is the fact that Eddie Carbone dies and Catherine and Rodolopho still get together, so his death does not cause Catherine and Rodolpho to split but merely causes Beatrice and Catherine immense grief. The fact that his name is taken away from him is in my view just an excuse for him to die, through picking a fight with Marco, who Eddie knows is likely to kill him because of his anger and his physical strength. I think that what Miller is saying is true and that Eddie is given these warnings, and the audience just want to cry out to him to try to help him, but Eddie is helpless. Eddie's downward spiral just seems to continue on and on until he after he has reported Rodolpho and Marco to the immigration service, when Eddie has a self-recognition period. He realises what he has done and knows the only way out is death.
Eddie Carbone is in love with his niece by marriage, Catherine or Katie as he affectionately calls her. He has bought up the orphaned child as his own, loved her unconditionally. However, on the cusp of womanhood he has fallen in love with her, something he cannot admit to himself, as it is too terrible to acknowledge. The first clue to this unlawful love is his obsessive concern for her appearance "Katie, you are walkin' wavy! I don't like the looks they're givin' you in the candy store. And with them new high heels on the sidewalk - clack, clack, clack. The heads are turnin' like windmills". Without realising quite why he has done it, he has delayed her oncoming womanhood by keeping her at school and secretarial college. This way he can protect her from external influences keeping her 'wings clipped'. This is why he is so keen to dissuade her from taking a job offered to her. "I know she'll be in the office but that ain't what I had in mind"
We are afforded here a confirmation of the tragedy that is likely to unfold by the way Eddie's wife; Beatrice reacts to Eddie's dismay at Katie's first steps to freedom. We feel her sense of urgency in her attempting to put distance between Katie and Eddie, she remonstrates with Eddie "I don't understand you; she's seventeen years old you gonna keep her in the house all her life?" To re - enforce our understanding of Eddie's true feelings another character fills us in on ensuring drama. This part belongs to Alfieri the lawyer / narrator of the play who in the traditional tragedy takes the part of the Greek chorus. More educated and yet part of the community, he tries to forestall the inevitably tragic ending even though he knows he is powerless to stop it.
As the play progresses a monstrous change creeps up on Eddie. He is violently opposed to this romance between Rudolpho and Catherine. Eddie is not intelligent enough to realise that this opposition is not motivated, as he thinks, by a dislike of the boy and the suspicion that he is a homosexual. Not even the Alfieri can persuade Eddie to let go of the girl. Most ancient tragedies have a recognition scene wherein self-realisation dawns on the protagonist, in this case Eddie as it happened with Oedipus Rex. All of Shakespeare's tragedies have recognition scenes. In this play there is 'no formal recognition scene'. Only after Eddie has given Marco and Rudolpho up to the immigration service and he knows that he is facing certain death, due to his jealous desperate behaviour, does he begin to realise his faults and this is when the recognition scene takes place. This is similar in Millers 'A Death of a Salesman'. He is adamant about wanting his name back, and he knows that he is in an impossible situation so he sees no other way out, and this is when everything comes crashing down around Eddie because he realises what he has done and cannot change anything.
In my opinion what makes this play such an important and textbook "modern tragedy" is the way the viewer or reader is made aware of the inevitability of a tragic outcome given the setting and cast of characters. We are aware of the importance of "name" to the Italians, and the system men are judged by in the ethnic group in America. As Eddie loses more and more control over his feelings for Katie and thereby causing the problem to worsen he is in desperate need of some other focus, - hence the significance of his blinding desire to clear his name of traitor which Marco has accused him of being. He feels if this can be sorted out so will his life. "He's gonna take that back, he's gonna take that back of I'll kill him! You hear me? I'll kill him! I'll kill him". This point is further emphasised by Eddies point blank refusal to accept Rodolpho's apology which would help to sort things out. Eddie knows that if he and Rodolpho were seen to have made up that things between Marco and Eddie may possibly be patched up. Eddies near hysterical response is "I want my name! He didn't take my name; he's only a punk. Marco's got my name" By refusing the option that would have diffused the situation, the way is cleared for the inevitable outcome, his sense of self - righteousness over Marco taking his 'name' obscures his vision as to the real villainy of the piece - his wrongful love for Catherine. The audience now knows that he truly would rather die than admit his true feelings showed in his horrified utterance of 'Beatrice' in response to her accusation of "you want somethin' else Eddie, and you can never have her!"
The outcome of this disaster is one man killed, one facing deportation and therefore financial ruin for his family. Two families are ruined. All this has come about from the combination of one mans psychological make up and the circumstances ensuing from his social background. A truly modern tragedy.
