A View From The Bridge - Tension and Conflict

2417 Words5 Pages

A View From The Bridge examining tension and conflict within the play.

The two scenes that I have chosen for my coursework, which I think are

exciting and interesting are:

1) End of act one Pg 38-42

2) End of play Pg 59-64

In my essay on "A View From The Bridge" I will be examining tension

and conflict within the play. Most of the tension and conflict arises

from the fact that Marco and Rodolfo are illegal immigrants. During

the 1930's immigration to the U.S.A was at an all time high. Over a

million Sicilians had already moved to the U.S.A. and there were more

moving over. Many Sicilians dreamed of a better life in America with a

good paid job and enough money to support their family. They hoped of

wealth and security that their home country could not guarantee. The

reality of the situation was that when they arrived many of them were

given jobs on the docks as dockworkers or longshoremen. The waterfront

was populated by people who were poorly paid, exploited by their

bosses and in many cases were only recent immigrants. The play is set

in Red Hook, "the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of

Brooklyn Bridgethe gullet of New York".

I have chosen the end of act one and the end of the play for scenes,

which I think best explore tension and conflict in the play. This is

because the main theme of the play, family loyalty, is shown in great

effect in these scenes. There is great tension between the family and

especially between Eddie and Marco in these two scenes. In the first

scene I have chosen we see this when Eddie begins to show signs of

jealousy towards Rodolfo.The end of the play shows a great deal of

tension between the family as it is torn apart. Feelings of pride and

honour add to ...

... middle of paper ...

...these two scenes in creating

tension and excitement. It is through his use of stage directions and

how he perceives tension that Miller creates an effective piece of

drama. My essay shows how Arthur Miller created tension and excitement

in the play and made it an effective piece of drama. I think Miller

was successful in creating tension and excitement in the play because

he uses lots of dialogue and stage directions to build up one's image

of tension. The play is quite an effective piece of drama as it

describes the reality of immigration in to the U.S.A during the

1930's. It purveys the history of Brooklyn and the slums, and shows

the dispute of written laws of U.S.A versus the unwritten laws of

Sicily. I enjoyed the play as I found it to be full of tension and

drama. I thought the play described the reality of immigration in the

1930's very accurately.

Open Document