How Effectively Does Arthur Miller Build The Play Up Dramatically To Enhance The Power Of It's Tragic Ending?

How effectively does Arthur Miller build the play up dramatically to enhance the power of it's tragic ending?

Arthur Miller's 'A View from the Bridge' is a play set in 1950's Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn had a large immigrant community, mainly Italians, who would come to the USA to pursue the 'American Dream', although they would often start off as longshoreman, shifting cargo off of ships. The idea of an 'American Dream' is romanticised among the immigrants in Miller's play, being the reason for Marco and Rodolpho's journey there. The two submarines (slang for illegal immigrants that have come from 'under the water') quickly stir the peace in the Carbone family, with Rodolpho growing closer to Catherine (a naÐ"Їve 17 year old stenographer), and thus distancing himself from Eddie (the play's protaganist, who would eventually meet his demise at the hands of his own fatal flaws). The various conflicts, stage directions and layers of meaning in language are concepts that shall be explored in this essay.

The character's in 'A View from the Bridge' are complex and deep enough to be explored as dramatic devices themselves. Firstly, we have Eddie Carbone, our protaganist of the play. Eddie is a middle-aged, hardworking second-generation Italian immigrant, intent on keeping his family, Beatrice and Catherine, fed and clothed. Eddie is seen as the alpha male in the play until the entrance of Marco, and as such he exerts a certain control, or ownership, over his 'daughter' Catherine. Eddie's relationship with Catherine is the main reason for the tragedy in the play, whether it be seen as over-protective or flirtatious. Then, we have Catherine herself, who is the orphaned daughter of Nancy, and niece of Eddie and Beatrice. She is the leading female of the play, and at the core of the many arguments between Eddie and the others. She is seemingly oblivious to the nature of the relationship between her and Eddie, considering it as purely platonic, while Beatrice seems to be the only other character that acknowledges some sexual tension between the two. Beatrice is the homely housewife in the Carbone family, keen to impress her two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, upon their arrival at the house. She frets over the state of her house, and worries that she '[hasn't] even [bought] a new tablecloth!' which is to the contrary of Eddie's opinion which is ' suppose my father didn't come to this country... I would be honoured to be lent a place to sleep.' Marco and Rodolpho are the pair of 'submarines' from Italy. They are almost complete opposites of eachother, with Marco being the masculine man of few words, who is tied down to his family back in Italy, while Rodolpho is an effeminate, outspoken free spirit. The only tie that binds is that they are brothers, family, which is an unspoken vow that is meant to remain forever unbroken. However, this is not the case, as late in the play Eddie calls the HUAC on Rodolpho and Marco in an effort to separate Rodolpho and Beatrice, but ends up deporting the immigrants of Mr and Mrs

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