Arthur Millers a View from the Bridge Essay

During the years pas age World War 2 there was an influx of Italian immigrants to America. The the Statess relative wealth meant that the lower socio-economic groups migrated to America in at xd of a better life. Arthur Miller, the playwright, came from a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants who had lost much of their wealth during the 1929 depression. He had several(prenominal) menial jobs one of which was as a longshore homo in Brooklyn, where he heard many stories which were his inspiration for A View from the Bridge. Beca theatrical role A View from the Bridge is based on real life planets, its bases are based on hoi pollois experience of life in the post-war era, Love, Justice and honour.However, love is the downfall of one of the fibers, Eddie, a hero who stands up for his beliefs in order to save Catherine, or so he believes. This theme is the perfect definition of a Greek disaster to which the play byer be compared. Alfieri has two functions in the play. He is both a c haracter and a narrator. He breaks the fourth wall and communicates directly with the audience, summarising sections of the play and allowing the lower-middle-class audience to interpret the undertaking story.We are first introduced to Alfieri at the solution of the play where he presents a monologue which in like manner acts as a prologue. He talks about the play in the past deform referring to it as if it has already happened and he has Watched it run its bloody course. The use of the word bloody shows that violence is a recurring theme and withal implies that there is a tragic end to it. He first takes off his hat to the audience as a sign of respect and even possibly reminiscence.You see how uneasily they nod to me? Thats because I am a lawyer. The rhetorical question explains the relationship between him and other people in the community. Because he represents Ameri arsehole law people treat him suspiciously. However, the detail that he is a lawyer suggests that he is ed ucated and for this reason is highly respected in his community. The way he speaks represents his education.Miller said that he wanted to make this play a modern Greek tragedy. unpolluted Greek tragedies included a Greek Chorus which was a virtuoso actor or group of actors who were characters in the play but to a fault stepped out of the natural action as a narrator, to comment on the action and communicate with the audience directly. Alfieri fulfils this function and is the equivalent of the chorus in several respects. Firstly he introduces the play and its themes. The audience is instilled with a sense of entrust because if his use of Standard English and because he is a lawyer. Secondly he moves the play on, he retells events which have already happened.He gives details of places, dates and times, change the play to move on more quickly, without the characters having to give this information. His narration is too mixed with brief comments He was as good a man as he had to b ehe brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten oclock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came. In this quote Alfieri is setting the time which moves the play on from the previous scene and also he is explaining Eddies persona, a good man He also explains aspects of the play, for fount his look were like tunnels, suggests that Eddie cant see the whole story, he alone sees a part of it. This intimate understanding of what is going on allows him to pair a communication gap between the middle-class audience and working-class characters, enabling the audience to form an understanding of the story and the emotions that the characters are feeling. mountain is one of a series of inevitable or predetermined events, for example in the play Eddies ultimate fate is to die, this is clear from the beginning. We also know that because of the fate of Eddie Alfieri is powerless to stop the tragedy. We know this when he says As powerless as I, Alfieri cannot control fate, h owever he can alleviate suffering. In Alfieris opening monologue Alfieri expresses the idea that tragedy is unceasing in some Caesars year, in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff of Syracuse, another lawyer. The use of the name Caesar an ancient emperor shows the idea that humans dont change, a Tragedy is timeless and can apply to an Ancient era, and it harks back to the Greek theme.