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Arthur Miller's influence
Arthur Miller's plays compared to his other plays
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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.
Sister Flowers and A View From the Bridge are two short stories with strong correspondence and likeness. In the story, Sister Flowers by Maya Angelou our narrator Marguerite, a young African American female gives the reader introspect of her life and how a scholarly educated and aristocratic woman named Mrs.Bertha Flowers has made an impact on the narrator's life. While in the story A View From the Bridge by Cherokee Paul Mcdonald a man talks about his encounter with a boy he met on a bridge. Both short stories from the choice of character comparisons with both Marguerite and the boy on the bridge , The author's theme,syntax and symbols to overall effectiveness of both narratives proves that these two stories are more the same as a sense to their overall message they are trying to communicate to the reader.
Exploring the Themes of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge East of Staten Island is Brooklyn, the second largest borough and the
Miller's Tension in Act I of The Crucible The anti-Communist hysteria during the 1950's led to a mass persecution of people associated with Communism. Post WW2 America was a nation if fear and suspicion because of the on going cold war with Russia, anyone one remotely connected to a known communist could be persecuted, this sparked a fear that Russia could take over the world. At the time a playwright, Arthur Miller could not express his feelings due to society's strong support for McCarthyism. So Arthur Miller wrote a play about the Salem witch-hunts during 16th century America. Miller had to be subtle in how he expressed his feelings about the political movement McCarthyism, so he used the play as an allegory.
who helps him on the way. The presence of law and justice is always in
In the play ‘A View from the Bridge’, an Italian-American family take in two illegal immigrants. The youngest of them, Rudolpho, falls in love with the niece of Beatrice, Catherine. Eddie Carbone, the main character, is driven by desire and lust, which eventually brings upon his own downfall. He calls the Immigration Bureau to arrest the two immigrants in an attempt to get his niece back, and so the scheme fails, and the play ends when Marco murders Eddie in a mere act of self-defence. Miller uses the character of Alfieri to increase dramatic tension throughout the play, doing so by introducing the idea of inevitability in the play. He establishes the character as a chorus, a component of early Greek theatre and tragedies. Alfieri basically expresses to the audience what the main character, Eddie Carbone, could not say, such as his fears or secrets. By knowing what will happen, and knowing how the play would end, whether a happy ending or sad, the principle of certainty and inevitability is revealed. Alfieri isn’t even capable of changing anything, altering the future, which also increases dramatic tension in the play. Throughout, Alfieri’s roles are obvious; he’s both the family lawyer and also the narrator of the play.
In this essay I will attempt to stage the Boxing scene for the play of
The play, ‘The Crucible’, illustrates how people react to mass hysteria created by a person or group of people, as people did during the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s and the Salem witch hunts of 1962. Many Americans were wrongly accused of being Communist sympathizers. The activities of the House of Un-American Activities Committee began to be linked with the witchcraft trials that had taken place in the town of Salem. This provided Miller with the catalyst to write ‘The Crucible’. Without the knowledge of the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch hunts, ‘The Crucible’ may be seen as a melodrama and the events in the play, sensationalised. It is not a melodrama because it is not overly dramatic; the McCarthy hearings and the witch hunts inject realism in the play. The play deals with historical events and with characters that have a historical context.
Analysis of The Crucible by Arthur Miller ‘You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor.’ Assess the developments in John Proctor’s character that validate this statement. How does Miller create a sense of tension and suspense in the build up to this climatic moment in Act 4? In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible he has used many dramatic devices in order to create tension and build up to the climaxes of the story.
the very end of the first act that Eddie has met his match, and is
and his niece. ' This story became the model of A View From The Bridge
commenting on events; he also plays a part in the play as a lawyer and
The play “A view from the bridge” is set in Red hook area of New York,
A view from the Bridge was written by Arthur Miller in 1955 and set in
A View From The Bridge Essay-Arthur Miller “A View From The Bridge” is a story with many themes and aspects such as love, The American Dream, Justice, Law and Family Honour. The story “A View From The Bridge” is about an Italian American community living in Red Hook, New York. The Italian American community in Red Hook are mainly all immigrants living in the country unlawfully. I will briefly describe the play. Alfieri, an Italian-American lawyer in his fifties, enters the stage and sits in his office.
If you were directing the play "a view from a bridge" what advice would you give to the actor playing Eddie about his character? Use quotations and close reference to the text. "A view from a bridge" is a play with five main characters. Eddie and Beatrice are married whilst they adopt Catherine, who is Eddie's niece. Marco and Rudolfo are their cousins who come to stay from Sicily.