How Does Miller Create Tension in the Opening of "View from Bridge" ?

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“A View From The Bridge” Act One Page 3-15 In the opening of the book (3-15) we are given a lot of information about Eddie and his family, we can figure out that Eddie is portrayed as the man of the house and Beatrice Eddie’s wife and Catherine Eddie’s niece tend to Eddie after his work at the docks as a longshoreman. Very early on the book there is a general theme set of justice vs law the audience are hinted this when the chorus Alfieri who is a lawyer walks past two longshoremen who give him a nod. They do this as in Red Hook when a lawyer or priest walks past in the street it is seen as bad luck “In this neighbourhood to meet a lawyer or a priest on the street is unlucky. We’re only thought of in connection with disasters. And they’d rather not get too close” in a way the quote above foreshadows the tragedy to come. On page 3 (my book) we are introduced to Eddie Carbone for the first time, Eddie has just finished work for the day and is coming home when he gets home he is welcomed by his niece Catherine first who Eddie and his wife have opted to take care after her mother passed away. Catherine’s attitude towards Eddie is very abnormal and the audience would have already figured that out as soon as Eddie enters his apartment Catherine greets him with a very excited tone “Hi, Eddie!” Eddie asks Catherine why she’s so dressed up and Catherine decides to show of her assets to Eddie “Where you goin’ all dressed up?” Catherine replies “I just got it. You like it?” so from the text you can tell that obviously something odd is going on, explained in Eddies conscious mind he knows that having a sexual fetish over your own niece is absurd but in his sub-conscious mind he seems to think its ok. Eddie is a strong believer in the American Dream which most people were at that time. Obviously now everyone has realised it’s a pile of lies but never the less at the time

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