Explore in Detail How Arthur Miller Effectively Creates Tension at the End of Act 1 in His Play a View from the Bridge

562 Words3 Pages
Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice. Initial Situation Eddie is a little overprotective of Catherine. Beatrice's illegal immigrant cousins arrive from Sicily. All seems well in the Carbone household. Eddie isn't particularly happy about his niece, Catherine, getting a job. He chills out about it, though. All it takes is some big doe eyes from Catherine and some tough talk from Beatrice, his wife. We also meet Beatrice's Sicilian cousins, Marco and Rodolpho. The illegal immigrants are going to hang out at the Carbone place until they can find their own crib. Marco is here is to send money home to his starving, tuberculosis-ridden family, and Rodolpho is here to stay. Eddie immediately warms up to the Marco but is suspicious of the singing, sewing Rodolpho. Uh oh – all the pieces are in place for disaster. Conflict Eddie swears to stop Catherine from fraternizing with Rodolpho. Catherine and Rodolpho are late coming home after a movie. Eddie is out in the street, pacing and freaking out. Apparently Catherine and Rodolpho have been out quite a bit lately, seeing the beautiful sights of their lovely little slum, Red Hook. Beatrice fails miserably at calming Eddie down about the situation. Eddie goes on and on about how unmanly Rodolpho is. Apparently, men who sing and have blond hair just "ain't right" in Eddie's book. The main conflict becomes pretty clear when Eddie swears to put an end to the budding romance. Complication Eddie goes to the lawyer, Alfieri. Eddie tries every argument he can think to convince Catherine that Rodolpho is no good: He's not a working man! He's just wants to marry you to become an American! When Catherine doesn't buy it, Eddie takes his first

More about Explore in Detail How Arthur Miller Effectively Creates Tension at the End of Act 1 in His Play a View from the Bridge

Open Document