Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge

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In this essay I will discuss how the view’s of Eddie Carbone, the

lead role in “A View From The Bridge”, changes among the audience. I

plan to go through the script and note any important scenes which I

will then analyse in the audience’s perspective. A View From The

Bridge is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1955, which was

originally arranged in rhymes but later was changed. Miller has

written the play in conversational Brooklynese, for example, “nuttin’”

and the spelling of many words end with apostrophes. In "A View from

the Bridge", Miller describes a situation in which a man is forced by

his emotions to betray himself and his local society, to betray

something he had believed in his whole life. The man in question is

Eddie Carbone, a poor and hard-working longshoreman of Sicilian

origin. His character is defined both by his society's values and by

his forceful and emotive nature. The conflicts between these two

aspects of Eddie's character ultimately result in his

self-destruction.

In the 1950s, Europe was not doing well economically and was dominated

by poverty. America is known as rich, wealthy and merchandised land.

Because of this, many people migrated to America, and dreamt that

there would be a better life for them, where excitement, enthusiasm,

and adorability would welcome them in open arms. Jobs were thought

easy to get and highly paid. This is ironic as the Statue of Liberty

stands over them, which promised wealth, happiness and the American

dream, but failed to deliver. In America, where there is more money,

there are also more problems.

In this play, one later then sees how the a “Greek Tragedy” develops,

in which a central character is led by fate towards a destiny that

cannot be...

... middle of paper ...

...the same will despise you! Put it

out of your mind”. Eddie cannot accept this and storms out of his

office. At this point the audience could be thinking that Eddie is

being carried away by the whole situation and that enough is enough.

They may well also think that he is in denial.

Shortly after Eddie’s visit to Mr. Alfieri, Eddie gets ready to phone

the Immigration Bureau. He sees the telephone “glowing” at him. By

this, Miller means that Eddie was being lured by his anger, so much so

that he makes the call and reports his wife’s cousins. After making

contacting the Bureau, Eddie heads home. He comes home to an empty

flat and asks Beatrice where everybody is. It has turned out she has

moved the immigrants upstairs to their neighbour Mrs. Dondero. It

becomes clear with this gesture from Beatice, that she regrets

allowing the immigrants to stay with her.

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