To What Extent Is Eddie Responsible For His Own Death In 'A View From A Bridge'?
In this essay, I hope to prove that Eddie Carbone, the principal male character in this play, is to some extent responsible for his own death. However I am also hoping to ascertain fate and destiny's involvement with the time, place, and situation in which he died. Factors which may have influenced Eddie's opinions of certain circumstances will also be explored, such as social and historical backgrounds, communication between characters, relationships, fate and destiny, tragedy, and mirroring of Arthur Miller's own life.
Eddie Carbone was brought up in early twentieth-century Red Hook, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is in New York, one of the biggest cities in the United States and Red Hook is just one of the slum localities that it is made up of.
P.12: 'This is the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge.'- Alfieri.
Eddie grew up through the Second World War and the Great Depression. He experienced the Wall Street Crash too, where many thousands of people suffered starvation and poverty. At the beginning of the play, we find ourselves in a place where the 'American Dream' no longer means very much. All the land which was available to people hundreds of years ago has now all been bought and so people can no longer have their own houses on their own land. The United States had become what most other countries are in the world. It was fully inhabited and there was no free space. People congregated in cities as there was work in factories and offices. Agriculture and land ownership was no longer an option for most people- they didn't have the money. Eddie Carbone is a good example of the average person; he is a longshoreman, a man who works on the docks. It isn't a permanent job, he gets work when it's there. If there is no work then he doesn't get any money that day. All of this could become very worrying for a man as from day, he didn't know if he could feed his family or not.
P.39: 'Sometimes we lay off, there's no ships three,
Eddie Carbone was brought up in early twentieth-century Red Hook, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is in New York, one of the biggest cities in the United States and Red Hook is just one of the slum localities that it is made up of.
P.12: 'This is the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge.'- Alfieri.
Eddie grew up through the Second World War and the Great Depression. He experienced the Wall Street Crash too, where many thousands of people suffered starvation and poverty. At the beginning of the play, we find ourselves in a place where the 'American Dream' no longer means very much. All the land which was available to people hundreds of years ago has now all been bought and so people can no longer have their own houses on their own land. The United States had become what most other countries are in the world. It was fully inhabited and there was no free space. People congregated in cities as there was work in factories and offices. Agriculture and land ownership was no longer an option for most people- they didn't have the money. Eddie Carbone is a good example of the average person; he is a longshoreman, a man who works on the docks. It isn't a permanent job, he gets work when it's there. If there is no work then he doesn't get any money that day. All of this could become very worrying for a man as from day, he didn't know if he could feed his family or not.
P.39: 'Sometimes we lay off, there's no ships three,