Is Eddie a Tragic Hero? (the View from the Bridge)

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays John Proctor, the protagonist, as a tragic hero who has a major flaw—lust for Abigail, his teenage house servant. For fear of being exiled in a town where reputation is highly upheld, Proctor initially tries to hide his crime of adultery, but this affair triggers a major series of events in Salem, where unproven accusations lead to internal struggle and eventually to catastrophe.

Last but not least, Edward Bloom is at fault for the poor relationship built up over the years of him and son mainly by the reason of him choosing his dream and job over his family. As Edward pursues his dream of becoming a great man, he was rarely at home. William even referred to their home in Edward’s eyes as a “refueling station” (fifteen).

Eddie’s father influenced Eddie to be the chaperone in the family despite his age. At an early age he felt as though he had a financial responsibility, which influenced him to get a job as both a shoe-shiner and a paperboy. He describes his family’s structure as the father being the head of the family, and the mother as the heart. This helped create a balance within the family, but caused tension between Eddie and his father’s expectations. Eddie experienced two spheres of education, American school and Chinese school. “I loved going to American school, but Chinese school was another matter.” (Yung 25) He disliked the limited exposure of Chinese education, and felt that he had been exposed to a wider world in American school, which eventually led him to flunk out of school. This came as a disappointment to Eddie’s father, and added immense pressure to Eddie. The confinement he felt in Chinatown frustrated him, his overprotective mother crippled his adventurous-ambition and the pressure added by his father to lead the family caused him to runaway when at the age of 13. He

After Eddie found out all of the interesting things that he never knew about his father, he is now more accepting himself as a person and where he came from, as well as accepting where his father came

Edward Bloom is a true hero, he has a unique personality; different from everyone else, always the strongest, bravest and has the greatest work effort; he was not the ordinary. He is also very adventurous “takes the dangerous shortcut that can get him killed to go to a town” (Big Fish) and has a partner with him all the time: the giant, wife and his rival throughout his life, Don Price. He sees a girl for the first time and states that he is going to marry her: love at first sight, he has no idea who she is or where she lives but gets small bits of information from his boss by working for him for free; instead of getting paid in cash, he gets paid by getting information about this girl he fell in love with. Eventually Edward’s work pays off

Out of the five people Eddie meets in heaven, Ruby clarifies the theme the best. Ruby shows that she is connected to everyone who has ever been too Ruby Pier. She believes the if Ruby Pier had never been built, all the people connected to it would be in a better place. Ruby and Eddie had never meet before heaven and yet they are connected. Without Ruby, Ruby Pier would have never been created. Without the pier, Eddie’s life would have taken a different turn. It is interesting to see that people you have never met can have the biggest impact on your life.

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. There are many characteristics of a tragic hero that help decide whether a character can be considered one. In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, one of the main character’s, Brutus, can be considered a tragic hero. In the play he has a major fatal flaw, he is easily manipulated. This fatal flaw leads to a serious error in judgement, and eventually his downfall.

In the Tragedy of Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare there are multiple people that can be defined as the tragic hero of the play, but only one is the true tragic hero. After the death of Pompey, Caesar is the supposed to be the next king but the conspirators believe he will only hurt the government, so they form a conspiracy to kill him. After they kill him, they flee out of the city as they are chased by Antony and his army. Throughout the battle each conspirator eventually commits suicide. A tragic hero is a man of high rank or status in life who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his/her downfall. Brutus, one of the conspirators is a tragic hero. He was dragged into the conspiracy against his good friend Julius Caesar and faces a huge consequence for killing him.

The second person Eddie meets in heaven resonated with me, the Captain. The Captain was Eddie’s captain in the army. The Captain showed compassion, pride in his position, and took his vocation serious. He grew up in a military family, and military was all he knew. The captain being a lifetime military man promised his soldiers he would “leave no one behind” (Albom, 2003, p. 64). This promise alone brought comfort to the soldiers he led. He led his soldiers with ease, his soldiers looked to him to keep them alive. The captain was willing to do whatever it took to keep his men safe, even shoot them in the leg if he needed to. In the end, the captain gave his own life for his soldiers, if that isn’t a calling, I don’t know what is. The Captain

Eddie is introduced as a moral man with ethics and principles. Miller showed that at the beginning of the play, Eddie tells the story of a young boy who ratted on immigrant relatives staying in his home and warn Catherine that she must be absolutely silent about Marco and Rodolpho. Moreover, there was a discussion between Eddie and Beatrice; where Beatrice is afraid of her immigrant cousins being caught. Therefore, Eddie told her: “listen if everybody keeps his mouth shut, nothing can happen. They’ll pay for their board.”(Miller, 1955, p.9).Later in the story, Eddie revealed a different identity .He was blinded with passion to the point of immorality. When he knew about Catherine falling in love with Rodolpho, he told Alfieri that he is going to call the immigration so he can keep Catherine just for him. Even though he knew that he is going to suffer for calling immigration, but does so anyway .Eddie: “Give me the number if the Immigration Bureau.”(Miller, 1955, p.61).To sum up, Miller displayed identity that could be moral with ethics and turns to be and identity that is blinded with

can see the type of man Eddie is, as when he meets the brothers for

At the beginning of the play, Eddie is portrayed as a sensible and smart character. Eddie and the girls (Catherine and Beatrice) all have a requited respect for each other – Beatrice: “Mmm! You’re an angel! God’ll bless you” – and there are no problems as such, even when the immigrants first come. He is also respected by the community – Alfieri: “He was good a man as he had to be in life that was.” But this dominant respect that he gains is what he is very used to and the slight changes where Catherine finds another man in her life and Beatrice also looks after the two immigrants (Rodolpho and Marco) effects Eddie hugely. The respect that he becomes used to is now shared by the women in his life between the men in his house and he craves for more attention. This can be considered one of his flaws that lead to his downfall. He is also shown caring for Catherine in the beginning of the play. He can be seen as a normal uncle or father – Beatrice: “She’s got a job.” Eddie: “What job? She’s gonna finish school.” He is also very proud of Catherine – “Sure she’s the best… You look like a

A tragic hero is a main character that is usually of noble birth, suffers a catastrophe, and has a tragic flaw during his or her role in a novel or play. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero. When making a tragic hero, Shakespeare has his character go through hesitation and doubt before making a decision, presents the character with inner turmoil through soliloquy, and focuses on the choices the character makes instead of their fate.

a young woman “…You still walk around in front of him in your slip …”

The setting is very dark and gloomy, and we are blocked off from the rest of the world meaning that the story is focused on the environment he find himself in. We can see this on page 11 line 155: “Eddie pictures himself walking out of the station into the huge London night.” He can only see the train station and picture his mum at home, and everything outside the train station is just dark, like the night. The environment reflects his thought patterns, as his thoughts also are dark and gloomy, and he cannot think outside his own life and his relationship with his mother.