Sunday, March 15, 2020

Never grow up Essays

Never grow up Essays Never grow up Essay Never grow up Essay Marco, who is the elder of the two illegally immigrated cousins, does live up to Eddies views of masculinity. He is everything that Eddie believes a man should be. The reason he immigrated into the country was to provide for is hungry family back in his home in Sicily. He wants his family to have food on the table just like Eddie does. Marco came to the country because he thought that if he worked and earned money he could send it back home to his wife and kids: If I stay there they will never grow up.  Eddie takes a liking to Marco straight away. We can see that he respects him because of what he is hoping to do for his family, he seems very interested in Marco and asks a lot of questions,   So whatre you wanna do, you gonna stay here in this country or you wanna go back?   And   Well, youre married, aint you?  It then becomes clear that Eddie is losing, or he thinks he is losing, his role of the man in the household. Eddie has always believed that he is the dominant person in the family but now that he has met Marco he feels threatened. He feels that Marco is threatening all the respect and pride that Eddie has earned. Eddie behaves peculiarly when he asks Rodolfo if he can box which leads to a boxing match between Eddie and Rodolfo, which is just supposed to be harmless but when Eddie actually hits Rodolfo then tension builds up, causing a moment of hostility and almost aggression between Eddie and Marco. Marco challenges Eddie to lift a chair by the bottom of the leg. Eddie fails. Marco succeeds and holds the chair above Eddies head as if he was going to hit him with it. This moment of tension between them shows Marcos hostility towards Eddie and is a warning to Eddie for him to leave Rodolfo alone. In the final scene at the end of the play we see that Eddie can not take any more and turns both cousins in to the immigration bureau. Marco fills up with rage and anger and shouts:   He killed my children! That one stole the food from my children!  Eddie becomes offended and demands that he apologizes and demands that he gives his name back,   Hes gonna take that back or Ill kill him! You hear me?  The play ends with Marco and Eddie in a fight. Eddie has a knife threatening to kill Marco. All Eddie wanted was for Marco to tell the people that what he said wasnt true because that was all that is all it comes down to in the end, pride and respect, You lied about me, Marco. Now say it. Come on now, say it!  There is a link between the three traits, aggression, hostility and manliness. Eddie will get aggressive if people dont conform to his way of thinking, and this will also include hostility and not always to the intended people. Eddie himself struggles with expressing himself in any other way than violence because he is not very educated; this causes internal frustration and causes him to lash out with violence. In contrast with Eddy, Alfiari (the chorus like character, who is similar to that of Henry Vs, who speeds up the play) who is educated and a man of the law, reserved and careful. In the final scene, the fight between Eddie and Marco involves hostility and aggression due to manliness, as Eddie wants his respect and he wants his name back. Another quality of manliness: honour. However Eddie betrays Marco and Rodolpho by tipping off the Immigration Bureau:  I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them. Today hostility is viewed upon as wrong, when A View From the Bridge was written, hostility made up part of the day-to-day running of people in this era. Today women are treated as equals and any discrimination is taken incredibly seriously, in the time the play written, women had very few rights and were constantly stereotyped and abused.  In this play women dont play any particular part, accept for objects of affection, arguing points and stereotypical slaves. They are also victims of male aggression and hostility, Beatrice also believes that the female characters are also responsible for the tragedy that befalls the male characters: Whatever happened we all done it, and dont you forget it, Catherine. Women in this era, were forced into these roles, they had few rights and were treated poorly. Another character in the play, Alfieri, plays a similar part to a chorus, similar to ones in Greek plays, narrating the play and commenting on events; he also plays a part in the play as a lawyer and a family friend. He is essential to the structure of the play as he opens and closes it and at other times moves the action quickly forward.  The language in this play is mostly colloquial. Beatrice and Eddie, who were both never educated very well, use colloquial probably the most. They use short, simple sentences:   Yiz ever work on the piers of Italy?  And:   or take a trolley or sumpm? Catherine goes to school and is being educated is the most obvious to be the better language speaker but still uses the word yiz . Radolpho is not able to speak English very well due to the fact that he is speaking in his second language and struggles sometimes,   the machine, the machine is necessary.   His sentences are lively and witty and entertaining. Marco seems to be able to speak English better than his brother. His sentences are usually serious and quite intense:   Too loud. The guests in that hotel are all Englishmen. They dont like too loud. Although we read the drama A view from the bridge it was initially intended to be performed on the stage this would have made the play more dramatic because the audience would feel like they are a part of it. The setting would cause problems because it is constantly changing so the stage set-up would have to be skilfully done so as little time was wasted as possible changing the set.  If we were to act a small part of the play in groups it would probably help us to understand why Arthur Miller had so many stage directions in the script. It is because every little detail needed to be shown to reveal the authenticity of the play and to give it a feeling of what it was actually like to be there.  As there are so many stage directions, it would be difficult to keep up with all the different stage directions.  The play is a tragedy. Miller was heavily influenced by this tradition of playwriting from Greek tragedy to the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen. His plays also make important social and political comments reflecting Millers belief in Communism.