A View from a Bridge Dramatic Techniques
How does Arthur Miller successfully engage an audience with
"A play with no surprise"?
A view from a bridge is a play written by Arthur Miller in the 1950's. Miller wrote the play as a modern day Greek tragedy in New York Brooklyn. Arthur Miller captures the audience with a true story twisted in his own words from which emerge the controversial ideas of incest, cultural obligation and masculinity. The part in the play where Alfieri mentions it is not what but how' means that even though we know the end result its how the end result happens in such an unexpected but inevitable way that it grips us and leaves us in shock even after the end.
The play is set in a ghetto community of Sicilian Italians. Most Italians at that time lived in poorer areas rather than regular Americans who lived in richer areas. During the 1950's the Italians that lived in America had working class jobs. Miller was studying the lives of dockworkers and longshoremen in Brooklyn's harbour. The characters in Millers play also work as dockworkers. In the play women stayed at home cooked, cleaned and raised the children the men where breadwinners they would work take lead of the family. This idea of men being the lead and women being a mediocre compared to men, was part of Italian culture. This idea is quite controversial in Act 2, as it is Beatrice who recognises Eddie's feelings for Catherine, and it is also Beatrice who stops him from going any further.
Most of the Italians in A view from a bridge are immigrants who had come to seek the American dream. The American dream in their mind was a good job that had a high income. Many of the immigrants lived illegally. Every Italian with or without any relation (to the immigrant) was to remain silent about the matter. This was another aspect about Sicilian code of honour. Italians would come to America to find work, to live a good life, to earn a decent living. A quotation to show why immigrants come to America Me, yes forever me I want to be
"A play with no surprise"?
A view from a bridge is a play written by Arthur Miller in the 1950's. Miller wrote the play as a modern day Greek tragedy in New York Brooklyn. Arthur Miller captures the audience with a true story twisted in his own words from which emerge the controversial ideas of incest, cultural obligation and masculinity. The part in the play where Alfieri mentions it is not what but how' means that even though we know the end result its how the end result happens in such an unexpected but inevitable way that it grips us and leaves us in shock even after the end.
The play is set in a ghetto community of Sicilian Italians. Most Italians at that time lived in poorer areas rather than regular Americans who lived in richer areas. During the 1950's the Italians that lived in America had working class jobs. Miller was studying the lives of dockworkers and longshoremen in Brooklyn's harbour. The characters in Millers play also work as dockworkers. In the play women stayed at home cooked, cleaned and raised the children the men where breadwinners they would work take lead of the family. This idea of men being the lead and women being a mediocre compared to men, was part of Italian culture. This idea is quite controversial in Act 2, as it is Beatrice who recognises Eddie's feelings for Catherine, and it is also Beatrice who stops him from going any further.
Most of the Italians in A view from a bridge are immigrants who had come to seek the American dream. The American dream in their mind was a good job that had a high income. Many of the immigrants lived illegally. Every Italian with or without any relation (to the immigrant) was to remain silent about the matter. This was another aspect about Sicilian code of honour. Italians would come to America to find work, to live a good life, to earn a decent living. A quotation to show why immigrants come to America Me, yes forever me I want to be