| People Do Not Accept Reality Essay, Research Paper
The tragedy in ?A View from The Bridge? is based around
people?s unwillingness to accept realityPeople do not accept realityThis has been taken to its fullest extent in this play as
it ends in the demise of Eddie.HIS reality contains a secret ? a secret lust for
Catherine, This to Eddie is something disgusting something depraved ? as to him
she is a daughter and some conflicting inner voice tells him that is the only
way it can be. For her he has an intense love but maybe this love arises from
lust.Or his lust from love?The main tool, which is instrumental in Eddies downfall
and in truth any downfall is his ?tragic flaw?, which in Eddies case is his
inability to accept the reality towards his feelings for Catherine. Arthur Miller defined tragedy as: "tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total
compulsion to evaluate himself justly." ? This means that Eddies tragedy
is him denying that which is true ? his feelings from within ? he refuses to
accept them.This contributes to or even constitutes the dramatic irony
of the play.The seed of irony is placed at the start of the play where
Alfieri starts the play by talking about ?Something amusing? whilst walking
through the Carbone neighbourhood as people ?uneasily nod their head? towards
him. He then goes on to tell us this happens because people only think of
lawyers ?in connection with disasters, and they?d rather not get too close.? So
from the beginning the audience know something tragic is going to happen as he
continues talking about great tragedies, which have happened in that area and
he then ends the dramatic monologue with the line; ?and sat there as powerless as I and watched it run its
bloody course? ? this speaks of tragedy and of bloodshed of fighting and of
loss of life.The illegal immigrants are also an ironic aspect of the
play for two reasons; Marco who starts of in the play with the highest ?respect?
for Eddie ends up ?stealing his name? and the ultimate disrespect killing Eddie
? Marco is also ironic himself for in killing Eddie he removes any chance of
making money for his wife and children – the only reasons he came America. Rodolfo is ironic for reasons of respect also ? Eddie sees
him as a threat and keeps repeating that he is taking his respect but all the
time even until the end Rodolfo has the highest of respect for Eddie.All this is instrumental in Eddies ?tragic downfall? ? he
falls from grace ? thus; at the beginning of the play Eddie has everything ? or at
least everything HE
wants ? A house, a wife, respect, friends and all the other things – which to
Eddie constitute a good life are present at the start of the play but then
slowly go away due to his own faults the audience can see this fall coming so
to them there must be a sense of dramatic irony as Eddie refuses to accept
reality and blunders onward making more mistakes and losing all that is dear to
him And in the end the only thing he is left with is the love
of his wife even though it could be argued that all he needs is her love
although through his own actions his tragic fall ends in death.And the audience?s point of view must be considered
paramount here as this is a play, which sets out to show the audience something
? it has not been made simply for enjoyment although that role is fulfilled
adequately.In all this the lawyer is the catalyst ? that is to say he
speeds up the reaction between Eddie and Rodolfo ? After talking with Eddie the
lawyers suggests that there is only one solution to eddies ?problem? and that
is to phone the Immigration authorities ? This to Eddie is a terrible thing to
do as he cites earlier in the play; ?You ? don?t ? know ? nothin?? ? and from the ways he
talks about immigrants you can see he clearly believes that anyone who
?snitches? is a not his sort of person.The different types of conflictThe underlying forces in this play are Eddie?s lust and
Eddie?s want of ?respect? and these forces drive the whole play ? Without them
Eddie would just dote upon Catherine and would not end up dead ?
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