A View from the Bridge

A detailed Summary of A View from the Bridge

How does Arthur Miller build the drama to the climax at the end of Act 1?

At The Beginning of "A view from the bridge" by Arthur Miller Alfieri enters and immediately creates the atmosphere. The atmosphere of a place where crime was once set in the heart of the neighborhood. Alfieri tells us the audience about the importance of justice and how justice is often administrated outside rather than inside the law. He Mentions Al Capone and Franky Yale and, later he starts that the conflict, like all the others, is beyond the power of anybody to stop it. He says most of the time there is a veneer of respectability; most of the time people are quite civilized.

Throughout the play, there are certain levels of tension and change of character that can be analyzed in further depth. This is all included in the way Arthur Miller builds the drama from the start of Act 1 to the end.

The play opens with Alfieri's analysis of the situation in Brooklyn. He speaks in an easy conversational style. Law and justice are important themes that run through the play. The story is told in a series of flashbacks with Alfieri in control.

Eddie enters and speaks to Catherine. Eddie is very pound of the way she

eatin' me out, Mr. Alfieri, because I struggled for that

Eddie feels out of his depth and cannot compete with the new words and experiences that Rodolpho is introducing to Catherine. This creates and even further conflict between the two men and between Eddie and Catherine. Eddie can now see that she is no longer his "possession because she is very attracted to this new life and her new exciting boyfriend.

Catherine looks for support from Beatrice before telling Eddie she has a new job. Here we are made to consider the lack of confidence she has towards Eddie. She forgets her own news in order to concentrate on Eddie important news-that Beatrice's cousins Marco and Rodolpho have arrived.

Eddies frustration is embodied in these lines. He feels a desperation which he does not fully say but It is possible that the audience can sense what he's really saying- that Catherine has rejected him, a fully grown man who "struggled for her" unlike Rodolpho.

"But I know what they're laughin' at, and when I think

of that guy layin' his hands on her I could- I mean it's

"Like one of them girls who went to college" says Eddie but later he becomes irritated because he feels her clothes are too short and that she is too provocative. The relationship between Catherine and Eddie appears open and sincere but there is uneasiness in the air. Catherine desperately wants eddies approval and she got incredibly upset when he disapproved of her clothes. Eddie feels a lot towards Catherine and feels pain when he thinks how the local men react when they see her.

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Approximate Word count = 1499
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English