preview

Theme Of Identity In A View From The Bridge

Decent Essays
Open Document

“You’re a blank, a cipher… a zero.” (Albee, 1962, p.18). With these words, Martha the main character in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” showed her husband, George, that he was nothing. Edward Albee, the writer of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” talked mainly about Martha and George who pretend to have different identities just in order not to face reality. Moreover, Arthur Miller, the author of “A View from the Bridge” presented the idea of identity in a different way. Miller used the character Eddie to show how people’s identities are constantly changing due to some changes in their lives. Modern playwrights question the idea of a definite identity. Edward Albee questions the idea of a definite identity through his character, Martha. At the …show more content…

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

Get Access