A view from the Bridge Essay Example for Free

A view from the Bridge Essay 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 dont like the looks theyre 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 shell be in the office but that aint what I had in mind We are afforded here a confirmation of the tragedy that is likely to unfold by the way Eddies wife; Beatrice reacts to Eddies dismay at Katies 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 dont understand you; shes seventeen years old you gonna keep her in the house all her life? To re enforce our understanding of Eddies 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 Shakespeares 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. Hes gonna take that back, hes gonna take that back of Ill kill him! You hear me? Ill kill him! Ill kill him. This point is further emphasised by Eddies point blank refusal to accept Rodolphos 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 didnt take my name; hes only a punk. Marcos 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. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.