How does Miller create dramatic tension between Marco and Eddie at the

How does Miller create dramatic tension between Marco and Eddie at the end of Act One? So far in the play Marco and Rodolfo have illegally immigrated to America, seeking shelter with their cousin Beatrice and her husband Eddie. Living with them is Catherine, their niece, who falls head over heels in love with Rodolfo. Eddie is not happy, as he is incredibly overprotective of Catherine. This overprotectiveness turns to jealousy, which turns into an obsession. At the end of Act One all five characters are in the living room, sharing a cosy after dinner chat. At this point of â€Å"A View From The Bridge† Eddie is feeling intensely jealous of Rodolfo and he doesn’t really understand why. He talks to Alfieri about it, yet Alfieri seems to immediately understand what is going on and just before this scene hints at the bloody outcome of this tale. Marco, too, recognizes Eddie’s feelings for Catherine, though he appears to be the only one in the family who sees it. The premonition in Alfieri’s soliloquy make the audience think. It makes them ask question like who’s going to die? How are they going to die? Why are they going to die? The audience want to know the answers to all of these questions right at the beginning of the play and will start to guess what will happen, yet they have to pay attention to understand what is going on and make predictions. The personalities of the characters greatly affect the tension of this part of the play. For example, if Marco were not so silent and still, his threat would not be so obvious. When he â€Å"takes a chair, places it in front of Eddie, and looks down at it† it is a contrast to his natural behaviour. Eddie, however, still does not get it, as he believes that the worl... ...gland, for example, where the sense of community is much less, the dramatic tension would not exist. In fact the situation would probably not have arisen at all. Catherine would have had more freedom, Eddie and Beatrice would have attended marriage counselling and most likely Marco and Rodolfo could have immigrated legally. The play would be quite boring. In conclusion, many things contribute to the tension at the end of Act One. It would be nearly impossible to have the same sort of tension if just one aspect of the play was changed. The tension would probably remain but it would be utterly different. It could be more or less effective than the way it is now, but I feel it would be more likely that a master playwright like Arthur Miller would understand what he was doing, and would try and make the play as dramatic as he could, to get his point across.