Eddie Carbone in ‘A view from the bridge’

Eddie Carbone is main character in ‘A view from the bridge’. Set in the 1940’s ‘A view from the bridge’ was written in the 1950’s by Arthur Miller, (Miller was influenced by Greek tragedy). During those times Italian immigrants came over to America for work, dreams and freedom but like in this story it all ends in disaster, Eddie’s an Italian American. This play is a tragedy because the play ends in death, also Eddie Carbone is tragic in that he cannot change who he is, his circumstances are beyond his control and he cannot change them, this type of tragedy revolves around ‘hubris’- Eddie’s stubborn nature and male pride causes his inner conflict and ultimately his death.

In contrast to Alfieri, Eddie is not educated therefore he cannot express himself. He is also a stereotypical male as he cannot or will not cry. Therefore Eddie is presented as tragic in many ways.

The idea of the American dream is where the family has two cars and usually two children, there was more definition to gender roles then as the man would go out to work and earn all the money whilst the wife stays at home cleans the house, cooks and looks after the children and their daughters usually head cheerleader for her high school whilst the boy is captain of the football team.

– the ideal family draws the audience in. the American dream is different to the Carbone family in most ways, as the Carbone’s are poor, live in a run down small apartment in Brooklyn, Eddie and ‘B’ have no children of their own and are a dysfunctional family.

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Which Of The Following Is An Example Of Dramatic Irony?

Where as in the ideal American family there is two children that live in a huge house with their parents who are wealthy and have a big car, the mum is a housewife and the dad goes out to work. In this play miller presents a dysfunctional family Therefore Miller challenges the ideal concept of the American family using taboo subjects and deals with realism. Eddie falls for his niece and the fact that he is sexually frustrated compounds the tension.

Eddie is the protagonist of the play and Miller creates a sense of claustrophobia e.g. with all the characters being in the apartment at the same time, this is made worse by Eddie’s behaviour in order to create tension, Eddie’s journey through the play is a human one where all the audience follow him along to the end. The protagonist has a fatal flaw which for Eddie’s case is jealousy, it’s like Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ where the ‘green eyed monster’, green being the colour of envy takes over. No matter how hard he tries Eddie can’t keep control of his feelings for Catherine and the audience sees this through his actions and dialogue. This demonstrates Millers humanist and realist approach to life the play.

Arthur Miller uses character & stage directions to create atmosphere and tension, many of Miller’s other techniques used to create dramatic tension are: Pause, dialogue, dramatic climax, dramatic irony and stage directions, these all help to create intensity and to engage the audience. Stage directions are especially important in helping us and the actors to imagine exactly what is going on: they can help us picture each character’s actions and reactions. These techniques cause the audience to be drawn in. At the end of Act one, much tension is created through the use of such techniques .e.g. Pause with Eddie boxing with Rodolfo he is using this to vent his anger and hatred towards Rodolfo, but when Marco rises to them it shows things are more serious, Marco shows his protectiveness towards Rodolfo and is warning Eddie, which is ironic as he kills him at the end, therefore Miller has created dramatic irony.

There are numerous changes in tone. Again, this is often dependent on Eddie. If he is in a good mood, such as immediately the cousins arrive and the stage directions tell us he is “laughing”, the tone is light-hearted; if he is in a bad mood, such as later on that night when “his face puffed with trouble”, there is tension. This inconsistency shows his effort to hide his feeling.

As Eddie is un-educated he has difficulty expressing his feelings, as he is in love with Catherine his niece, we see him giving hints as to how much he likes her “I bless you and you don’t talk to me”, this shows his contradictory nature and how he wants to be close to Catherine but he cant be. Catherine doesn’t realise Eddie’s feelings for her though “enveloping her with his eyes” this causes Eddie to become angry at Rodolfo for being able to do as he likes with Catherine and Eddie is very sad by that as he cannot have Catherine for himself especially as he is married to her aunt.