Arthur Miller And View From The Bridge Essay, Research Paper

My initial reaction to the play was absolutely hideous, and my malcontent was

vibrant. I felt that reading A View From The Bridge was a tedious waste of time

and that the play itself was a trivial piece of literature. I found the play to

be neither intriguing nor interesting in the tiniest fashion. The only aspect

that I found mildly intriguing was the character of the protagonist, Eddie

Carbone, as it miraculously appealed to my passion for psychology.

Unfortunately, this enigma of Eddie?s constitution only guided me through the

first act, where after, I was completely annoyed and jaded. The two-act horror

is centered on the self-delusion of Eddie Carbone, as he is thrust into a

continuously evolving world in which he will not conform. As his environment is

morphing with the times, Eddie feels compiled to halt it, as his pathetic

temperament will not wallow him to cope with the change, or behave in an orderly

fashion. Eddie begins to veil himself from his love for his eighteen-year-old

niece, Catherine, near the commencement of the play, whence he begins to

criticize her and her perfectly normal actions. ?Now don?t aggravate me,

Katie, you are walkin? wavy! I don?t like the looks they?re givin? you

in the candy store. And with them new high heels on the sidewalk — clack,

clack, clack. The heads are turnin? like windmills.?(Page 7) In this quote

we see how Eddie falsely attributes his harshness towards Catherine as

protection, rather than selfishness and his obsession to have her solely to

himself. Another element in Eddie?s constitution is his personal honor, which

he tosses aside whence he takes it upon himself to call the Immigration Bureau

to reveal his nemesis and competitor for Catherine?s love, Rodolpho, to the

police. This is apparent when Alfieri tells Eddie the consequences to him

calling the Immigration Bureau: ?You won?t have a friend in the world,

Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel

the same will despise you! Put it out of your mind.?(Page 66) These aspects

are portrayed thoroughly expansively in this horrible excuse for a play, and

have a strong effect on the reader. A View From The Bridge is an unusually

single-minded play and an apparent sense of doom shrouds it. The main ideas are

compiled into one story line, and the play is absent of much needed sub-plots.

In my opinion, these vapid aspects were completely pathetic, yet in an uncanny

manner, extremely human. In one way or another, everyone experiences a hint of

self-delusion or a pinch of personal honor in their everyday lives. I myself am

continually faced with the standing of my own personal honor, especially when

plunged into debates. When faced with such a situation, my own personal honor

becomes a grand old deal, as it disables me form accepting error or fault. Due

to the sense of humanity and realism in Arthur Miller?s catastrophic blunder

of a play, the un-enthused un-amused reader is able to experience a pang of

refreshment. This brief moment of diversion is endured whence they realize that

on some proverbial, undefined level, they are able to connect with the

characters and their emotions and therefore understand the concepts and ideas of

the play. There were many characters in the play that effectively enabled me to

comprehend the subjects of Arthur Miller?s play. For instance the character of

Marco helped me grasp a stronger understanding about personal honor and standing

by your beliefs, as his character exemplified this trait. I also enjoyed the

character of Alfieri, as I found that from his distant pint of view, he

empowered me to understand all the various ideas portrayed in the play from an

unbiased point of view. Though the character of Alfieri aided me the most, I

found the most effective character in the play to be the devil?s spawn

himself, Eddie Carbone, as the play is portrayed mainly through his eyes.

Eddie’s shallow, miserable nature is a powerful, hard-hitting aspect noted

extensively in the play. As per previously mentioned, I despised Arthur

Miller?s A View From The Bridge. The two-act, eighty-six-paged horrendous

nightmare will forever be embedded in my mind as a complete was of time and

effort. I despise this pathetic excuse for English literature and wish for it to

blaze in Hades.