The dramatic significance Essay Example for Free

The dramatic significance Essay A view from the Bridge was written and set in the mid 1950s. Arthur Miller (the author) in his biography Time Bends explains the idea of the play came from a story he had heard about a longshoreman, but until he visited Sicily a few years later, and saw for himself the poverty of the people he did not use this idea. The play was set in Red Hook, Alfieri in his opening speech described Red Hook a slum and he mentions Al Capone, the greatest Carthaginian of all and tells us (the audience) that Frankie Yale was cut precisely in half by a machine gun on the corner of Union street This is also showing us the type of violence and culture in this place. Work here has very little pay and the people, often newly arrived immigrants looking for better opportunities, are exploited by the bosses. Arthur Miller was very concerned to let his audiences know about the tough lives of these people. Alfieri, in his first speech aimed directly at the audience mentions And now we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle for half, and I like it better. I no longer keep a pistol in my filing cabinet. He says this because in the twenties before this Red Hook was The slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge. It was The gullet of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world because people used to take matters into their own hands and forgot the law but now they dont now we are quite civilized. The word Gullet sounds ugly and emphasises the nature of this area. The scene we are studying is significant because we are able to see the antagonism of Eddie towards Rodolfo intensify, and become dramatised in the form of a boxing Lesson. The scene also shows how close Catherine and Rodolfo become after Eddie trying to separate them. We also see the way Beatrice is mostly in the middle of the characters. She is very aware how tense Eddie is becoming due to the growing relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo. However she is very pleased with them both. We also see Marco agreeing with Eddies authority but warning him not to bully his brother by having a show of physical strength, this show of strength prefigures what happens at the end of the play. Before Alfieris speech to the audience Eddie came and spoke to Alfieri about Catherine and Rodolfo. His first excuse he is trying to convince Alfieri that Rodolfo only wants his papers and his second excuse is that he is a homosexual. Eddies real reason is that his love for Catherine is out of control. Eddie is trying to do this because he thinks Catherine deserves better that Rodolfo and also says for an excuse that Rodolfo is only after Catherine for his papers to be an American citizen. Alfieri tells Eddie that the only way to get Rodolfo into trouble with the law is to tell the authorities about the illegal immigrants.