The end of the play Essay Example for Free

The end of the play Essay But Alfieri respects Eddie for being willing to lay down his life for what he sees as justice, even if he does not have the backing of law, when he says the truth is holy. Arthur Miller wrote in the NY Times article that Tragedy arises when we are in the presence of a man who has missed accomplishing his joy. But the job must be there, the promise of the right way of life must be there. Eddie is a tragic character because he will do anything for the truth, or what he sees as the truth. Alfieri later says he allowed himself to be wholly know and for that I will love him more than all of my sensible clients. He prefers Eddie to the more sensible people he has come across because he fought for justice. But Eddie isnt sensible enough to separate justice from his own feelings of indignation. His actions are driven mainly by self interest but he doesnt realise this himself and he breaks a code of honour which binds Red Hook together. He betrays Eddie and Marco to the authorities which is extremely dishonourable. After Beatrice tells Catherine about Vinny Bolzano who betrayed his uncle to Immigration. Eddie says you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away. Honour is very important in the Italian-American community of Red Hook and Eddie is desperate for his reputation back at the end, so his death could be seen as his zenith. Eddies motives were not purely good, but himself purely. Alfieri sees it as an attractive aspect of Eddies character that he was not willing to sacrifice his dignity for a easier life even though he is aware of the problems it caused. The play draws to a close with the words And so I mourn him I admit it with a certain alarm Miller makes clear that Eddie is not a selfless hero, he is almost an anti-hero. In the end he loses everything; Catherine, his wife, his name. He can only fight Marco to the death. In death he restores some of his lost honour because he doesnt try to escape his fate. This can also be interpreted as Alfieris horror that Eddie destroyed himself and he was unable to stop it. Eddie is holding the knife as it stabs him, so he literally dies by his own hand so his death could also be seen as his nadir. This links with the part in his introduction at the start about lawyers before him sitting in their offices hearing similar cases, sitting there as a powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. reinforcing the sense of inevitably about Eddies downfall. Miller wants the ending of the play to inspire discussion and excuse us to question things we have previously accepted. He says in his definition of tragedy that it brings us knowledge or enlightenment as opposed to pathos which just brings us sadness, sympathy, on even fear, which just brings us sadness, sympathy or even fear. Without this final speech the play would just and with those things. Arguably, Alfieris speech is designed to bring us knowledge and enlightenment. On the other hands, Alfieri sounds confused. Miller certainly wants us to discuss the issues raised in his speech but Alfieri is not very persuasive in telling as why feels that something perversely pure calls out to [him] from [Eddies] memory. He sounds as if he has out much of an idea why he feels this way despite evidence to the contrary. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.