English Coursework on Miller Essay Example for Free

English Coursework on Miller Essay Alfieris speech at the beginning begins by introducing a lot of concepts which are explored upon later in the play. He begins with a speech on lawyers and the distrust that originates from it, You see how uneasily they nod to me? Thats because I am a lawyer a lawyer means the law, and in Sicily the law has not been a friendly idea. We can see later in the play that both Eddie and Marcus turn to the law for help, but the law lets them down, You mean to tell me that theres no law that a guy which he aint right can go to work and marry a girl and. These two parts of the play link to show us that the law will often clash with loyalty, and when something interferes with loyalty, one often has to turn to the law for help; however, the law may often deal with the problems too severely. We can see this by the drastic action that Eddie has to take to remove Rodolpho from the scene. However, the idea of justice is introduced. It is possible to deduce that the law governing Italy is not the law that is written as we can see from what Alfieri says about justice Justice is very important here and what Marco says about the law, All the law is not in a book, later in the play. This may be suggesting through authorial intention that something greater governed Italy than the written law, which controlled justice in its own right. We can see throughout the play what this other law may be: loyalty. One of the first major mentions of a sense of loyalty begins with Eddie, And they spit on him in the street, his own father and his brothers. This suggests that the law is secondary to loyalty within a family, and if the law is acted upon when there is a problem in a family, the loyalty is broken and the one who broke it is punished in another way. This is a premonition of what happens to Eddie later on. Eddie speaks his own fate in this small anecdote, He was crazy after, I tell you that, boy. At the end of the play, after Eddie has broken his loyalty, we see him grow crazier as Beatrice confirms, Hes crazy now, you know the way they get, what good is it! and we see in the stage directions, He is incensing himself and little bits of laughter even escape him as his eyes are murderous. This completes the anecdote, and suggests that the play was futile from the beginning and an inevitable turn of events towards the end of the play, making the play a tragedy. This is reinforced by Alfieris beginning speech, in which he says, heard the same complaint and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. This also shows Alfieris futile attempts to help the situation and the inevitable bloody course towards the ending. As well as demonstrating the anecdote, Eddie may also represent affectionate emotions between members of a family. It could be interpreted that Eddie feels a love for Catherine, Hi Eddie! [Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it ] near the beginning of the play. Miller maybe exploring the effects of such forbidden love, as it were, on a marriage. We can see the effects on Beatrice, When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie? as Eddie fights his possible love for Catherine within him. Eddie tries his best to suppress his other feelings until he has to warp the past in order to cope with his relations with Beatrice by putting the blame on her, I want my respect, Beatrice what I feel like doin in the bed and what I dont feel like doin. This suggests that Eddie does not want this unwanted love for Catherine as he attempts to change history to cover it up and put it behind him. Beatrice reacts differently however in her discussion with Catherine, If it was a prince came here for you it would be no different. This suggests she is fighting against Eddie to get Catherine out of the house so that her relationship with Eddie can return to normal. Along with Catherines love for Rodolpho, this can show that love for another person can overcome a strong attachment with another and break bonds to allow the love to flourish, in this case, Beatrice is severing the ties between Catherine and her home. However he also has trouble letting go of Catherine, Hes stealing from me! . This quote suggests that he sees Catherine as his own personal property and not a woman of her own right. This idea of owning Catherine is reinforced by the way he is unable to stop giving her orders even when he was trying to right their relationship, Suppose I told her to go out. This suggests that Eddie does not fully understand the situation and cannot ever be trusted to ever completely understand the freedom he has to give Catherine. To focus more on his relationship with Catherine, we can see a protection around Catherine and a wish to hold her down as a baby which is shown in the first scenes. I think its too short, aint it? Through this Miller may be suggesting that if the one a person loves changes, the other will strive to keep that person as how they were even though they can never return. There is, however, a tenderness when it comes to critisizing Catherine, Yeah, its nice. This shows he cannot bring himself to hurt Catherine at the beginning and only wishes for her to feel good. However Eddie may be loving a Catherine that no longer exists, and so he strives to hold Catherine down, Youre a baby, you dont understand these things,. This will in turn hurt Catherine as she is unable to be free whilst continuing her relationship with Eddie. We can see how Catherine reacts to these restrictions Eddie places on her. She is upset by his disapproval of her skirt, [almost in tears because he disapproves] which suggests she has great respect for Eddies opinions about her. As Eddie exerts his dominance over her,Listen, I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldnt wave to him no more and she tries to get out of it [trying to joke him out of his warning], we can see this as another premonition as how she tries to get away from Eddie later in the play. Beatrice poses the question in her mind, Look, honey, you wanna get married, or dont you wanna get married? of whether she should break the bonds and be free, or stay with Eddie and never become a woman. At this point, Catherine is unable to decide I dont know B. and these quotes show us that she has not broken away the ties between herself and Eddie. However later on, her love for Rodolpho and to live her own life overcome her love for Eddie, Hes a rat! He belongs in the sewer! . This suggests that throughout the play we have seen Catherine become a woman from being a child, and Miller might be telling us, through the dramatic changes in her affections, that becoming a woman from a child is a traumatic experience for many. From this Miller has introduced most of the main ideas in the rest of the play from the scene at the beginning. Because they have been set in motion from the beginning, and are carried through right to the end, we get more of the idea of inevitability and tragedy within the play. What is more, because they reach fruition right at the end, they remind us of a cyclic pattern in which we are reminded of the beginning of the play. This suggests to the audience that the whole event was futile as it will do nothing to help such situations in the future.