The Importance of Dramatic Tension in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge

The Importance of Dramatic Tension in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge

Throughout A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller creates and sustains

dramatic tension to keep the audience’s attention. He also uses

dramatic tension to guide and provoke the audience’s thoughts and

responses towards A View from the Bridge. He does this by using

different techniques, for example, posing unanswered questions in the

audience’s mind and using dramatic pauses. Arthur Miller also controls

the amount of tension between the characters to create highs and lows

in the plot on stage, but in fact could effectively raise the

awareness of the audience of the underlying tension suppressed between

the characters.

A View from the Bridge in told a series of flashback in the point of

view of Alfieri, the lawyer and the narrator of the play. In the

beginning of the play, he already mentions that the course of events

are not pleasant in his opening speech:

“…as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course.”

This prepares the audience for the opening of the play, in which we

immediately the primary cause of tension in the play, Eddie’s

over-protection of Catherine when they discuss a job opportunity as he

says:

“You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things.”

This clearly shows his underestimation of Catherine and the whole

conversation shows his affection and self-inflicted responsibility for

Catherine.

This continues throughout Act I despite Catherine’s growth in

character, as there are many accounts of conflict between Eddie and

Beatrice and between Eddie and Rodolfo over Rodolfo and Catherine’s

relationship. Eddie shows hi...

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...t least injure him badly. Arthur Miller uses this to

intimidate the audience as well, bringing the scene to a dramatic

close.

A View from the Bridge is mainly built upon tension to sustain the

audience’s interest, and this is reflected in Arthur Miller’s choice

of title. The bridge is supposedly the Brooklyn Bridge, where the play

is set near by, but more importantly, because the story is told in the

view point of Alfieri. Alfieri, as a lawyer and the narrator of the

story, has a very middle and unbiased view of the plot. A bridge is

built to connect two areas without bias, like Alfieri’s viewpoint of

the story. Another interpretation is that a bridge is built on a

certain amount of tension, like the story, and perhaps is the best

interpretation for a play that relies so much on tension to function

and structure.