How does Miller build tension in Act 1 in A View from the Bridge?
How does Miller build tension in Act 1 in A View from the Bridge?
The play A View from the Bridge was written by American playwright Arthur Miler in the early 1950’s. The play is set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This is where the ports are near the Brooklyn Bridge that is the gateway to Manhattan. The play is centred on an Italian-American longshoreman– Eddie Carbone. Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and his niece Catherine who he has developed improper feelings for, however his feelings are repressed. These matters are further complicated when Catherine falls in love with immigrants they are sheltering from the US government. Eddie repressed feelings suddenly begin to seep out in the form of rage and anger. Miller initially wanted the play to have one big arc culminating in a “final bang”. It was intended to have only one Act but was split up into the two. Because of this, the first Act does not contain any major climaxes in the plot but rather includes various tension-building elements that form the path to the eventual pinnacle at the end of the play. A View from the Bridge is a very tense play, with numerous layers of conflict consistently going on, and almost all of these are with Eddie. The tension aroused in Act 1 is crucial for the rest of the play. Miller during Act 1 creates tensions in a variety of manners.
One of the ways Miller creates tension is through the sphere of sex and love. This is a key theme throughout the play. There are many examples of sexual tension in Act 1. On various examples it is obvious to the audience the sexual tension that exists between Eddie and Catherine even if they cannot see it. This is evident right from the opening of the play where Eddie is complementing Catherine on her new look. Eddie is supposedly the father figure in the life of Catherine and though nothing he says here is too improper, Miller from the outset has planted the seeds that Eddie thinks that Catherine, to some extent, is quite attractive. This idea that
The play A View from the Bridge was written by American playwright Arthur Miler in the early 1950’s. The play is set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This is where the ports are near the Brooklyn Bridge that is the gateway to Manhattan. The play is centred on an Italian-American longshoreman– Eddie Carbone. Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and his niece Catherine who he has developed improper feelings for, however his feelings are repressed. These matters are further complicated when Catherine falls in love with immigrants they are sheltering from the US government. Eddie repressed feelings suddenly begin to seep out in the form of rage and anger. Miller initially wanted the play to have one big arc culminating in a “final bang”. It was intended to have only one Act but was split up into the two. Because of this, the first Act does not contain any major climaxes in the plot but rather includes various tension-building elements that form the path to the eventual pinnacle at the end of the play. A View from the Bridge is a very tense play, with numerous layers of conflict consistently going on, and almost all of these are with Eddie. The tension aroused in Act 1 is crucial for the rest of the play. Miller during Act 1 creates tensions in a variety of manners.
One of the ways Miller creates tension is through the sphere of sex and love. This is a key theme throughout the play. There are many examples of sexual tension in Act 1. On various examples it is obvious to the audience the sexual tension that exists between Eddie and Catherine even if they cannot see it. This is evident right from the opening of the play where Eddie is complementing Catherine on her new look. Eddie is supposedly the father figure in the life of Catherine and though nothing he says here is too improper, Miller from the outset has planted the seeds that Eddie thinks that Catherine, to some extent, is quite attractive. This idea that