By the end of the drama, the hero must lose everything, even perhaps his life, through his own hubris, or pride. The hero has to be of royal or noble birth and have one great ambition, such as saving his country. For instance, if the play lasts three hours, then that represents action which lasts three hours too, with no breaks or flashbacks.Īlso, there is no change of setting all the action is set in one place. For example, the play has to run in “real time”. Classical (or ancient Greek) tragedyĬlassical tragedy dates from around the 5 th century BC in Ancient Greece. The voyage is not only a physical one, it is also a psychological one between two different ways of thinking.Ī View from the Bridge has elements of a classical (or ancient Greek) tragedy although it is actually a modern tragedy. Now that you have this image in your mind, you can see how the stage already tells you a lot about the plot there is the new world of America, with its laws and morals on one side, and the old world of Europe, also with its laws and morals, on the other side and the characters have all had to make the voyage across the Atlantic, either themselves or through their ancestors. The stage and the space above it represent the Atlantic Ocean. The left curtain represents the east coast of America, and the right curtain represents the west coast of Europe. It might help you if you try to imagine that you are sitting in the audience looking ahead at a stage. Every production will therefore be unique and give the audience a different experience. All productions of A View from the Bridge will be different some directors may decide to use a very bare set, others may fill the stage with props and background. There are stage directions to help guide actors and it is written in dialogue. A View from the Bridge is written in the form of a play, and is therefore intended to be watched in performance rather than just being read. Writers choose all sorts of different ways, or forms, to write texts, such as novels, poems, and plays. The use of form in A View from the Bridge

A view from the bridge play