Use of Language in A View from the Bridge Essay -- A View from the Bri

Use of Language in A View from the Bridge Examine Miller’s use of language and dramatic devices in helping the audience to understand the themes of A View From The Bridge Arthur Miller is regarded as a great dramatist and he explores the life struggles of an ordinary man against authority and insurmountable odds and in ‘A View From The Bridge’ he uses many dramatic devices and enigmatic themes to help the audience understand the play. Some of the main themes are jealousy, love, law, justice and social class. The play opens with Alfieri’s thoughtful analysis of the situation in Red Hook. Alfieri is a sympathetic and an educated lawyer and ‘And when I saw him walk through my door, I knew why I had waited’ clearly shows Alfieri’s character of being a perceptive and understanding man. He speaks in a conversational style and he tells the story in a series of flashbacks and he is in control of the play. He immediately creates the atmosphere – where crime was once set in that very neighborhood. Alfieri has a mysterious role and Miller uses him as a crucial link between the characters he is also used as a narrator, commentator and sometimes a character. He talks about it being ‘better to settle for half’ and how he likes that better as, the search for absolute justice results in intolerable consequences as well as, being virtually impossible. Giving details on how the law is limited and cannot deal with every human problem he explains the boundaries to both Marco and Eddie, knowing in his heart they will probably ignore what he has said, however, he cannot take further action to avoid the conflict. Alfieri’s role is to look over the action and remain the purpose throughout, also, Alfieri offers the audienc... ... the audience is aware, from Alfieri’s speech, that the main character is led by fate towards an ending that cannot be escaped by anyone. Miller used the basic themes to build his play up on such as, justice, love, jealousy, law and social class. He used them to put the play together and help the audience understand the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters. He used dramatic devices and certain language, from Alfieri’s educated speech to Eddie’s inexpert however, realistic American language, to do so. Miller used these techniques in a clever way so he was able to express his ideas fully. One way was through Alfieri, he was used as a character and a narrator to emphasize the themes to the audience. Alfieri leaves the audience thinking about these techniques and themes that Miller used that caused Eddie to get the tragic ending that he did.