Arthur_Miller

A View From the Bridge ,(1955), Arthur Miller (1915-) portrays the protagonist, Eddie Carboni, an uneducated Italian-American longshoreman, as a victim of American society in the 1950's. Set in Red Hook, an industrial area of Brooklyn, Eddie lives with his wife, Beatrice and her sister's child The play takes place in Brooklyn, New York along the shore, but most of the play takes place in the home of Eddie Carbone. “The main acting is the living room and dining room.......there is a rocker down front; a rounded dining table at the centre whit chairs; and a portable phonograph.” Also at the right, the forestage, a desk.” This is Mr. Alfieri’s law office and a telephone booth but it is covered up until the last scenes. Arthur Miller lets the reader know that it is a very poor, cramped and dirty community. Alfieri decides it as “the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge."Watched it run its bloody course". From this moment this indicates to the audience that there will be a tragedy and Alfieri will be the centre of it. This is also dramatic irony. This shows that there will be more and more conflict and violence as the play continues. Miller wrote a play before this called 'Death of a Salesman', which didn't have a narrator, but had a message that the audience didn't understand immediately when it was first performed. Miller got the idea of using a narrator from Greek tragedy so he used it in 'A View from the Bridge' so the audience understood the message and the play. He was interested in how people interact with each other. Miller makes Alfieri's character different to the other characters.