How Does Arthur Miller Use Alfieri as a Dramatic Device
How does Arthur Miller use Alfieri as a
Dramatic device to make the
Play more enjoyable?
A View from the Bridge is a play set in the 1940’s by Arthur miller, it is a play written in the style of a Greek tragedy. Arthur Miller sets the scene in Red Hook in New York, Red Hook is a slum area inhibited mainly by Italian immigrants. The play revolves around the Carbone family who are also Italian Immigrants called Eddie and Beatrice; a married couple with their niece Catherine. The family smuggle in two relatives into their home by the names of Marco and Rodolfo; during the play Rodolfo becomes friendly with Catherine. The idea of Rodolfo and Catherine as a couple torments Eddie, Eddie’s torment is made clear to us through Alfieri. Alfieri is considered as the mouth of the play as he opens and closes the play, he has three major roles that make the play enjoyable for the reader, he creates dramatic tension through commentating the play and explaining what is happening at each scene, he is both an actor and commentator in the play so he reveals more about the characters and the deeply lying emotions within them, he is also the narrator of the play so he sets the scene and tells the audience what is going on. In this essay I will talk about how Arthur miller uses Alfieri as a dramatic device to enhance the enjoyment for the audience through various techniques such as foreshadowing and how Miller uses Alfieri to expose Eddie’s weaknesses. Also as we progress through the play and Alfieri reveals more about Eddie’s character our understanding of human behaviour is also enhanced.
At the start of the play Alfieri is introduced as a narrator to set the scene, he does this by firstly introducing his role in the play as a lawyer and then states how the people of Red Hook react to his presence. We can see from the quotation “You see how uneasily they look at me? I often think that behind that suspicious little nod of theirs lie three thousand years of distrust.” This
Dramatic device to make the
Play more enjoyable?
A View from the Bridge is a play set in the 1940’s by Arthur miller, it is a play written in the style of a Greek tragedy. Arthur Miller sets the scene in Red Hook in New York, Red Hook is a slum area inhibited mainly by Italian immigrants. The play revolves around the Carbone family who are also Italian Immigrants called Eddie and Beatrice; a married couple with their niece Catherine. The family smuggle in two relatives into their home by the names of Marco and Rodolfo; during the play Rodolfo becomes friendly with Catherine. The idea of Rodolfo and Catherine as a couple torments Eddie, Eddie’s torment is made clear to us through Alfieri. Alfieri is considered as the mouth of the play as he opens and closes the play, he has three major roles that make the play enjoyable for the reader, he creates dramatic tension through commentating the play and explaining what is happening at each scene, he is both an actor and commentator in the play so he reveals more about the characters and the deeply lying emotions within them, he is also the narrator of the play so he sets the scene and tells the audience what is going on. In this essay I will talk about how Arthur miller uses Alfieri as a dramatic device to enhance the enjoyment for the audience through various techniques such as foreshadowing and how Miller uses Alfieri to expose Eddie’s weaknesses. Also as we progress through the play and Alfieri reveals more about Eddie’s character our understanding of human behaviour is also enhanced.
At the start of the play Alfieri is introduced as a narrator to set the scene, he does this by firstly introducing his role in the play as a lawyer and then states how the people of Red Hook react to his presence. We can see from the quotation “You see how uneasily they look at me? I often think that behind that suspicious little nod of theirs lie three thousand years of distrust.” This