To What Extent Can Eddie Be Described as a Tragic Hero in ‘a View from the Bridge' by Arthur Miller?

"The American Dream is the largely unacknowledged screen in front of which all American writing plays itself out," Arthur Miller has said (Galvin). To many people Arthur Miller is known for his role against communist accusations and using his writing to portray what has happened during McCarthyism. From Miller’s struggles as a child to his first big break as a playwright to his fight against the government, he has still been able to maintain integrity in his writing and captivated many audiences over the years.

Eddie Corazon is a juvenile delinquent who is involved in gang activity, but surprisingly loves to read. The rest of his gang does not believe in reading or being educated, and only want to break the law; but Eddie cares about his education. Throughout Muchacho, Eddie has to secretly educate himself while dealing with the doubt from his peers. Through obstacles and setbacks such as dealing with school, Eddie learns that he needs to follow his own path.

When Edie enters Terry’s world, she confronts him, not just with qualities if gentleness and kindness, but also with an uncompromising morality that he sees as dangerously impractical. Edie was a special exist in the film and she was represented as the angelic human being in this dark world of men. In Terry’s impression of Edie was a brave girl who always has courage to find the truth, her gentleness and her passion to help people were influent Terry’s understanding of his own world. Terry thinks that Edie’s kindness to others and her courageous to fix the things she sees in the Waterfront is wrong, are dangerous and unrealistic. Edie was one of the main factor that encouraged Terry to speak up in the court, her encouragement is very important to release the true self of Terry. In Terry’s word, “she is the first decent thing that’s ever happened to me.” that means Edie’s appear and her impact on Terry is huge and not to be neglect. The camera angle indicate clearly of Terry’s face are full of guilt when Edie said she was Joey’s sister. The only things that Terry were afraid to talk about with Edie is conscience, when Edie asked Terry what happened on the roof that night when Joey die, she said about

A view from the Bridge was written by Arthur Miller in 1955 and set in

Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, is “a drama treating a serious subject and involving persons of significance” (Kirszner and Mandell 1086), the success of a tragedy occurs when the audience “feels both fear and pity because they see in themselves the potential for similar situations” (Kirszner and Mandell 1087). Aristotle’s literary theory of tragedy applies only to “imitation of persons who are above the common level, he must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous – a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families” (Aristotle) because his theory was developed for application to the literary works of poets and playwrights such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, whose works were the interpretations of Greek mythology. This means that one cannot look fully to Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero in application to modern literature. Therefore, many scholars and literary critics look to playwright Arthur Miller’s description written in his article Tragedy and the Common Man where he writes, “I believe that common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were” (Miller). Miller points out in his article that the common man can exhibit all the same qualities and characteristics as those of a man born into nobility, and that same common man can execute the same actions. But not all tragedies are heroic, there must be specific elements in the creation of a tragic hero that can be difficult to

When Eddie and Beatrice are waiting for Rodolpho and Catherine to get home after a movie, Eddie goes down to the street and talks to them trying to figure out why Rodolpho had her out so late at night. When Rodolpho leaves, Eddie begins talking to Catherine and says that he is upset that Rodolpho did not to ask for permission to take her out. He goes on and says that Rodolpho does not respect Catherine and Eddie tries to split the couple apart with the idea that Rodolpho is only interested in Catherine to become a citizen. This is Eddie’s first attempt to split Catherine and Rodolpho apart. This is an unsettling thought because the audience does not suspect that Rodolpho’s feelings for Catherine are in any way fake. Eddie becomes very torn apart when she begins to date Rodolpho. He becomes convinced that something is not “right” with him and tries to intervene. When this plan does not work, he goes to a lawyer to try in hopes that the law can separate them. Of course, there is no law and Eddie becomes frustrated. When he gets drunk, he goes back to the house and tries to kick Rodolpho out of the house. He is jealous that Rodolpho is getting all of Catherine’s attention and the fact that he kisses her on the mouth leaves an uneasy feeling on the audience, adding onto Eddie’s unsightly protagonist image. When Catherine says that she is going to go with Rodolpho, Eddie becomes extremely angry and

This can be shown by, “Sure, he’s terrific!  Look at him go!” and “He could be very good Marco.  I’ll teach him again.”  By praising Rodolfo, he is making Rodolfo want to continue boxing with him.  Eddie shows more and more authority over Rodolfo and if they go boxing more, Eddie gets the opportunity to humiliate and embarrass Rodolfo more, and prove to everybody that he is stronger. The tension between the two characters is important, as it continues to grow stronger, until Eddie attacks Marco and Rodolfo.  This is important, as this is the point where the tension is first revealed obviously and directly to the reader, through physical actions, although not real violence. The audience may feel that there will be real violence later on in the play, as Eddie keeps encouraging Rodolfo to fight and continuously tries to insult him.

Throughout the novel, Eddie also can be exemplified as a sympathetic character. sympathetic characters are when readers feel sympathy for throughout a story. The reader can feel empathy for Eddie, when the author describes the pain of Eddie’s gunshot wound. The pain was described to be unbearable and the description of the event of the gunshot pains a morbid picture in the reader’s mind. During Eddie’s time as a soldier in World War II, any reader can feel an astonishing amount of sympathy for Eddie. During, Eddie’s time as a soldier, he experienced, “A piercing pain ripped through Eddie's leg. He screamed a long, hard curse then crumbled to the ground. Blood was spewing below his knee. Plane engines roared. The skies lit in bluish flashes. He lay there, bleeding and burning, his eyes shut against the searing heat, and for the first time in his life, he felt ready to die,” (Albom 84). The reader can comprehend Eddies suffering and pain. Eddie was on the ground, in a war zone hurt and slowly dying. Readers can feel a lot of sympathy for when Eddie wanted to let go of the world and die. Before Eddie’s death, he ran under a falling amusement park ride to save a little girl, Eddie

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

In the first scene we meet Eddie and Catherine together. This is when we start to understand the relationship between the two by the language they use with each other, the dialogue, and actions they use with each other. "Hi Eddie!" "(Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it)" the first instinct is that they are going out with each other. Catherine has a new skirt. When Catherine runs her hands over her skirt the point is even more obvious. By doing this it is like she is flirting with Eddie.

Hundreds of years ago Greek plays were very popular. People would plan to go to these plays for entertainment and to have fun with their friends. These plays would also help to teach the audience all about Greek mythology. The main character in these plays often had something tragic occur at the end, such as death. This character was the referred to as the “tragic hero.” A couple hundred years later a Greek philosopher named Aristotle described tragedy with 4 simple elements, nobility of the character, the flaws of the tragic hero, the start of the tragic hero’s downfall, and his/her punishment. In Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone there is a character that shows this definition of tragedy by the end of the book and or play. This is usually caused by something called hubris, excessive pride. Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone all fulfill Aristotle 's definition of tragedy.

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

Eddie is a longshoreman and earns his living on the New York docks and he is the plays protagonist but also as a famous Greek philosopher called Aristotle said " The tragic hero is one who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous, moving from happiness to misery through some frailty or error in judgement. " And this is exactly what Eddie Carbone is, a tragic hero. The plot is based around Eddie agreeing to shelter Marco and Rodolfo (his wife, Beatrice's illegally immigrated cousins) while they seek refuge in the Sicilian community of Redhook. As his wife's niece Catherine whom he has unconditional love for as a daughter begins to take a liking to Rodolfo, Eddies love begins to transform into jealousy and hate of Rodolfo and as a consequence Eddie commits an unjustifiable and indefensible act of hatred which in the Sicilian community would be classed as a 'crime' against everybody around him including his family by revealing Marco and Rodolfo to the immigration bureau.