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 ?