Dramatic strategies Essays

Dramatic strategies Essays Dramatic strategies Paper Dramatic strategies Paper Describe how Arthur Miller presents Eddies character in the play and the dramatic strategies he uses to control the audiences feelings towards him.  This essay is about the main character in the play A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, set in 1950s. This character is Eddie Carbone. This essay focuses on the aspects of his character that led to his destruction. Another aspect this essay will explore is how Arthur Miller uses dramatic strategies to control the audiences feelings towards him. The play is set in Brooklyn, New York, despite the fact that Eddie is Italian and an immigrant, illegal or legal, unknown. He works as a longshoreman. He lives with his wife, Beatrice, and his niece Catherine.  The main reason for his downfall was due to the love he felt for Catherine, his niece. This is shown right at the start of the play when Eddie comes and Catherine greets him with Hi Eddie! and he is pleased and therefore shy about it. His love for Catherine is too much as opposed to a typical Uncle/Niece relationship. His relationship in the play mainly focuses on Catherine. He is very passionate about her and there is a lot of tension concerning Catherine (for example, when Rodolfo and Catherine are dancing together). At the end of the play, he dies because of his pride and love for Catherine, in a very tragic and ironic way (Eddies own knife, with which he intended to kill Marco, was used against him, almost like he killed himself). Eddie is a very hardworking man, who looks after his family. He is also very protective of Catherine. At the beginning of the play, he says to her, I think its too short, aint it? He does not want Catherine attracting the attention of men. He quotes that the way she walks down the street with high heels causing mens heads turning towards her. He is always concerned about her and does not want her to start a job before finishing school. The thing that concerns him most is that she is going to work with plumbers, whereas he wanted her to work in an office or a lawyers office. He also says to Catherine I dont like the neighbourhood over there, showing that there might be men whose attention will wander to Catherine. Another thing about his overprotective behaviour is that he does not want Catherine being fashionable. When at the start of the play, Catherine is wearing a skirt, Eddie says, I think its too short. However, in the movie it is revealed that the skirt is not actually as small as he made it out to be in the play.  When Eddie is told about Catherines job, there is a sudden change of atmosphere. This shows that Eddie controls the atmosphere of the play. There is a bit of tension at this point, shown by the stage direction Pause. Eddie looks at Catherine, then back to Beatrice. The use of pause here shows the sudden change of mood. He argues that he did not want her to take a job like that, when he says but that aint what I had in mind. However, we know that this is not the only reason he wants to keep her from starting a job. There are also some hidden feelings that are revealed to the audience later on in the play when Beatrice says, you can never have her. There is a hint here that might show that Beatrice realises what Eddie is really after when she says, you gonna keep her in the house all her life? and Eddie overreacts to this (insulted) What kinda remark is that? His overreaction shows that Beatrice is not far from the truth. He is also a very honourable man. At the start, when we are told about Beatrices cousins migrating to America, he says, Its an honour B. This also shows that he is also a very generous man, who cares and looks after his family and helps out his relatives. He says he will be honoured to help them out as shown in the play The man would be honoured to lend me a place to sleep. When Marco does arrive he calls Eddie Eduardo (Eddie in Italian), which means he is showing him respect for his hospitality. There is also irony here when he tells the story about Vinny Bolzano and how he snitched to the Immigration Bureau. Catherine rhetorically asks what, was he crazy? Eddie answers that he was crazy afterwards. When Eddie also snitches to the Bureau, he is crazy about Catherines relationship with Rodolfo. The irony is that he near the beginning of the play Eddie says that, Hows he gonna show his face? and you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away, but in Act 2 when he does snitch to the Immigration Bureau, he regrets it that he snitched and is ashamed to show his face and loses all his friends.