Arthur Millers a View from the Bridge Essay

During the years following World War 2 there was an influx of Italian immigrants to America. The ground forcess relative wealth meant t assume the lower socio-economic groups migrated to America in search of a better life. Arthur Miller, the persistwright, 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 humanity in Brooklyn, where he heard many stories which were his inspiration for A View from the duo. Beca engage A View from the Bridge is based on real life events, its themes are based on peoples experience of life in the post-war era, Love, Justice and honour.However, love is the evenfall of one of the characters, 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 classical tragedy to which the play female genital organ be compared. Alfieri has two functions in the play. He is both a character and a narrator. He breaks the fourth wall and communicates outright with the audience, summarising sections of the play and allowing the middle-class audience to interpret the working-class tier.We are first introduced to Alfieri at the beginning of the play where he presents a monologue which also acts as a prologue. He talks about the play in the past tense 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 also 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 attorney. The rhetorical question explains the relationship between him and other people in the community. Because he represents American law people treat him suspiciously. However, the fact that he is a lawyer suggests that he is educated 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. Classical Greek tragedies included a Greek Chorus which was a single actor or group of actors who were characters in the play but also stepped out of the 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 trust 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, enabling the play to move on more quickly, without the characters having to give this information. His narration is also conglomerate with brief comments He was as good a man as he had to behe brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten o quantify 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 example his eyes were like tunnels, suggests that Eddie cant see the whole story, he only sees a part of it. This intimate perceptiveness of what is going on allows him to bridge 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.Fate is one of a series of inevitable or predetermined events, for example in the play Eddies ultimate fate is to die, this is pretend 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, however he can all eviate suffering. In Alfieris opening monologue Alfieri expresses the idea that tragedy is timeless 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 assume to an Ancient era, and it harks back to the Greek theme.