How does Miller Dramatize the Downfall of Eddie Carbone?

Essay by sadeer February 2008

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A pivotal moment is when Eddie rings the immigration bureau as when Catherine finds out that he has betrayed the immigrants she stares at Eddie in 'a realized horror' and is furious at him for doing this. The next time she sees Eddie she calls him a 'rat', from this the audience can see that Catherine has absolutely grown up and no longer worries about Eddie's opinions.

Rodolfo is a crucial character as his arrival is what makes Catherine change. Beatrice is also an important character as she makes Catherine see that her relationship with Eddie isn't right but Catherine is 'moved at the prospect'.

Overall, their relationship begins by being very close and ends up being distant and spiteful as Eddie is unable to portray his emotions. Catherine enjoys the way Eddie behaves towards her but she changes when Rodolfo arrives. Catherine's relationship with Rodolfo grows which results in her relationship with Eddie deteriorating.

Moments before Eddie dies Catherine is feeling hatred and anger towards Eddie but she tells Eddie 'I never meant to do nothing bad to you'. This could be understood by the audience as Catherine admitting that she regrets some of her actions and partly blames herself for Eddie's death.

The illegal immigrants arrive, Carbone greets them nicely however the audience can tell using the speech along with the body language that Eddie feels awkward. Eddie notices, and so does the audience that Catherine fancies the look of Rodolfo, and Eddie is not too please about this, showing again his likeness for Catherine and his jealously of Rodolfo. The evidence of this is how Eddie tries to keep Rodolfo out of the conversation and he addresses only Marco when speaking about things that affect both the brothers. When Catherine asks Rodolfo to sing Eddie interrupts him because he knows that Catherine is in awe with Rodolfo. Miller shows evidence of this by Eddie sternly telling Rodolfo and Marco about the risk of being caught by immigration. He subsequently gets Catherine out of the room by asking her what the heels are for and he tells her to take them off. Indicating that he does not want Catherine looking her best for Rodolfo.

Eddie is now letting his bad feelings about Rodolfo shown to Beatrice. "He gives me the heeby- jeebies," these two words tell us that Eddie thinks Rodolfo is gay. Eddie knows that he is wrong; Rodolfo can't be gay because he is out with Catherine. Eddie is obviously jealous of Rodolfo's good looks. Beatrice then makes him shut up about Rodolfo and she switches to something else. Miller reveals that Eddie and Beatrice are having problems with their sex life; Eddie cannot probably relax with Beatrice when he knows that Catherine is out with Rodolfo. Eddie is then pleased to see her when she gets back so he can't help but smile at her. This now makes the audience think that Eddie fancies Catherine. Eddie gets rid of Rodolfo and has a private conversation with Catherine. Eddie is trying to say that he doesn't like Rodolfo but he finds it hard to tell her outright. Beatrice breaks up this conversation when it gets heated up and it is obvious that Beatrice is angry with Eddie for giving her no freedom to do what she wants. When Eddie has left Beatrice tells Catherine to be herself, but act more like a woman in front of Eddie.

The characters' behaviour changes drastically through the play. Marco's behaviour towards Eddie changes, at the beginning of the play Marco is quiet and respects Eddie, but towards the end of act 1 Marco's attitude towards Eddie is different. Marco's change of attitude is also because Eddie keeps on picking on Marco's brother Rodolfo, Marco has to show Eddie he can't push Rodolfo around anymore. Marco is trying to tell Eddie to back off "Slowly raises the chair higher and higher".

The behaviour of the characters increases the tension because Marco can lift the chair and Eddie can't. This is a threat coming from Marco to Eddie and it is trying to tell Eddie stop picking on Rodolfo. Miller also uses jealously to increase the tension. Beatrice usually supports Rodolfo and Catherine and this makes Eddie jealous "Well he didn't exactly drag her off though, Eddie".

This increases the tension because Eddie tells Marco that Rodolfo takes Catherine out without anyone's permission, Marco tells Rodolfo off ,but Beatrice stood up for Rodolfo. Beatrice also tries to make Catherine more independent "You're a grown woman".

Beatrice increases the tension because she becomes a bit jealous that Eddie pays too much attention to Catherine than her. Beatrice tries to get Catherine out of the house she does this by telling her to take the job she had been offered previously. She also does this because she wants to spend more time alone with Eddie.

The tension also increases when Miller uses revenge. Eddie acts polite and asks Rodolfo to have a boxing match, just a game as friends. Eddie's intention wasn't to be nice, but to use this as a chance to get his own back on Rodolfo for going out with his niece Catherine "Now I'm gonna hit you". This increases the tension because Eddie does not like Rodolfo and Catherine's relationship. So Eddie decides to hit Rodolfo to take revenge on him. Rodolfo also then takes revenge on Eddie by asking Catherine to dance "Dance Catherine. Come.". Rodolfo previously said no to dancing because he wants Eddie to approve of him "No. I-I'm tired". Rodolfo changes his mind to get revenge on Eddie and this increased the tension.

The tension also increases because Eddie seems to humiliate Rodolfo and Catherine in front of one another. Eddie humiliates Rodolfo in the boxing match when he hits him in front of Catherine. Eddie also humiliates Catherine by telling her to take her shoes off in front of Rodolfo.

Miller also uses stage directions to increase the tension because the stage directions tell the audience how the characters are feeling, when they're talking to someone or doing something "(Rubbing his fists together)".

This increases the tension because it shows Eddie's aggression. The stage directions are telling the audience Eddie is glad in what he has done and he would want to do it again. It's a sign of victory. The short speeches used in the play also increase tension. It increases the tension because the speech is quick and usually short which causes suspense "I don't want to hit you Eddie".

The characters often interrupt each other when they're talking to another character. The end of act 1 is a cliff hanger because the scene is left with a dramatic ending and the audience want to know what happens next. The point where the curtain drops causes suspense because Marco has stood up to Eddie. In conclusion Miller has created an atmosphere of increasing tension in the characters' behaviour, jealousy, revenge, humiliation, stage directions, the speech of the characters and the use of rivalry.

Alfieri's speech at the beginning begins by introducing a lot of concepts which are explored upon later in the play. He begins with a speech on lawyers and the distrust that originates from it, "You see how uneasily they nod to me? That's because I am a lawyer… a lawyer means the law, and in Sicily … the law has not been a friendly idea". We can see later in the play that both Eddie and Marco turn to the law for help, but the law lets them down, "You mean to tell me that there's no law that a guy which he ain't right can go to work and marry a girl and - ?". These two parts of the play link to show us that the law will often clash with loyalty, and when something interferes with loyalty, one often has to turn to the law for help; however, the law may often deal with the problems too severely. We can see this by the drastic action that Eddie has to take to remove Rodolpho from the scene.

Perhaps one of the reasons the community distrusts the corporate federal law so much is that it does not appear to be justice. Alfieri himself says "This is not God… only God makes justice". The idea that the corporate federal law is inadequate comes out in a few places in the play. The best reference is when Marco is in jail and talks to Alfieri about what will happen to Eddie. Marco demands justice he says "all the law is not in a book" This shows Marco, an Italian has rules of his own, he goes on to talk about honour and blood. Again Alfieri, an Italian but someone who is a member of the American community reminds Marco of the law. This tells us that Italians have many different rules to Americans to do with punishment and believe in getting justice rather than abiding by the law. In this Miller is trying to show that the culture clash as Americans believe more in law whereas the Italians believe in justice.

Within the society there are quite clearly 2 or 3 different types of law: community law, family law and Alfieri`s corporate federal law. Throughout the play it is very clear that the community law is far more important to the characters than the corporate federal law. One significant reference to this is in act 1 at the start when Eddie gets Beatrice to tell Catherine the Vinny Bolzano story. Vinny Bolzano was a child who caused 'injustice' by 'snitching' to the immigration authorities about some local immigrants. Even though this is illegal, Eddie and most of the community see it as injustice. Vinny was brutally punished and shamed. The irony and significance of this story is the fast that Eddie, even after talking about loyalty and honour also 'snitches' on Marco and Rodolfo and is shamed , but he claims he did the right thing.

Therefore this is as disastrous for Eddie as his punishment for what he has done comes in three ways; firstly he loses his reputation in the neighbourhood. Secondly he loses the respect of his friends and family and third he ends up dead. All as a direct result of 'snitching' on Marco and Rodolfo to the immigration authorities, from this point the audience sympathise with Marco. The audience might sympathise with Marco because he came all the way from Italy, desperate for money. He needed money to send back to his family. Now that Marco is caught by the police because he is illegal immigrant and he can't get a job anywhere and can't send any money to his family. Marco's kids would now be in more trouble because when Marco was in Italy he was working although for little amount of money, but he now will be in jail and can't send any money back to his family.

On the other hand, even though Alfieri cannot adjust the future, one function, which he does have, is to be able to foretell the future. From his commencing introduction he informs the audience that it is 'unlucky' to 'meet a lawyer' because they are 'thought of in connection with disasters'. This takes place a few seconds before Eddie's initial meeting with Alfieri. In merely the first paragraph of Alfieri's speech, he reveals subtlety that he knows the ending, which will not end well. The references to the tragic protagonist, Eddie, are all in the past tense; his 'name was Eddie Carbone', 'eyes were like tunnels'. This should also be noted, as it is a significant indication to the devastating conclusion. Alfieri introduces Eddie's first appearance to the audience, immediately after describing cases, which ended in blood, to show an indication of Eddie's outcome. This proves that by the end of all the flashbacks, Eddie will no longer live. Alfieri's function is to slowly give indications of Eddie's fate.

In his play "A View from the Bridge", Arthur Miller intends us to feel sympathy towards the protagonist, Eddie Carbone. Miller wants the audience to view Eddie positively, however Eddie displays negative personality traits like aggression, violence and over-protectiveness therefore there is a conflict between how Miller wants us to feel, that Eddie is a tragic hero, and how he actually does behave. The narrator Alfieri is deployed to often defend or explain Eddie's actions. After Eddie has shown a negative characteristic, Alfieri is deployed to get the audience back on Eddie's side. Without Alfieri, the audience would dislike Eddie and would immediately reject him. Miller has done this so that the audience's views towards Eddie are constantly shifting throughout the play.

Eddie Carbone is a very ambiguous character, people can interpret his actions in different ways and he can be portrayed by the actor or director (to a certain extent) in a particular way. The author of the play, Arthur Miller, I believe has purposely made Eddie this way to reflect humans and their reactions to unusual situations because human nature, like Eddie Carbone is one of murkiness, neither black nor white, easy to interpret in multiple ways. Eddie Carbone brings out many diverse feelings in people watching him because of his actions and I think that is what Arthur Miller expected and wanted to happen. As Arthur Miller made View From The Bridge a play it gives the actor and director a chance to represent Eddie sympathetically or severely, rational or totally crazy and so on. Therefore I believe that Miller has portrayed Eddie Carbone as the character we want to die as result of his actions.

The audience can notice that at the end after Eddie's death we do not hear from any other character. I think the reason Miller done this to make the audience think about what happened, by achieving I would say Miller was really smart at writing this play.

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