Language structure and stage devices Essay Example for Free

Language structure and stage guiles EssayA View from the Bridge is still pertinent to a contemporary audience. Discuss this in relation to Millers use of row, structure and stage devices showing how they are used dramatic effect.Miller intended the looseness to be a modern version of a Greek tragedy and even though Miller set the play in a specialized time and a specific place it still resembles that of a Greek tragedy. Miller has inputted a bit of him self into the play as the play is likewise based on his personal experiences. He confronts the audience with a situation which we know the outcome of, due to the timeless structure to a fault used in Greek theatre.A View from the Bridge is and always will be relevant to todays events, society and happenings because of its Greek theatre influence, using very strong morals and timeless themes. Such as Love, Betrayal, Hate, Jealousy, honor, and Identity, Which are maneuvered in and out of the play.In the opening section of the play Miller sets the scene in Red Hook, the spend that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge, portraying to the audience the areas personality.Miller manages this to a fine art, as he visited and worked in Brooklyn as a ship-fitter and whence knew the area and its surrounding people well. While in Brooklyn, he heard a story from a lawyer friend which was of a longshoreman who had snitched to the in-migration bureau on two brothers who were living illegally in his home just to stop an engagement between one of them and his niece. This story is where he got about of his ideas from. Due to this he was able to describe through his use of language all the events so they have a realistic feel which could make the contributor feel like it could have been set in todays society.The broken English used in the play, as a device, shows how uneducated the pillowcases are but also how identifiable they are with people in society today. Words missing or words abbreviated, us ing an apostrophe, show this. They been pullin this since the Immigration Law was put in They grab a green kid that dont know nothin, this broken speech is still direct and can be understood but still shows how the character feels. The language is used, like in Greek theatre, to also describe the settings with quite some precision. The devices Miller uses can also communicate to the audience what speech cannot.Furthermore, the language Miller uses combined with the stage devices he uses can communicate something completely different. For example when Eddie is teaching Rodolfo to box and there is overlapping dialogue from Beatrice and Catherine which builds a spate of tension from I dont want to hit you, Eddie to No, no, he didnt hurt me., (Page 41) after the climax is reached when Eddie punches Rodolfo. The overlapping dialogue is meant to show confusion and a build up of tension to when Eddie hits Rodolfo. Although the overlapping speech builds up tension the audience knew that this would happen.Another example of language or even the lack of language and dialogue cosmos used as a dramatic device is while Marco is lifting the chair (page 42). This is all done through language being used as a dramatic device. Here, is all that Marco says, the rest is communicated by his actions as he wants to communicate to Eddie what he cannot say aloud. He transforms what capacity appear like a glow of warning into a smile of triumph, and Eddies grin vanishes as he absorbs his look, this still has the intended impact that Marco wanted on Eddie without speech involved. This is very similar to what might have been used in Greek theatre, using acting and stage devices instead of language. Even today in every day life we do the same, using physical actions instead of words.Miller uses a lot of different techniques and devices to portray different ideas to the audience, to frame meaning and make them understand. The stage devices Miller uses create meaning for the audien ce and reveal subtext, showing the inner feelings of the characters. For example the phone booth glowing (Act 2, page 49), A phone booth begins to glow on the opposite side of the stage a faint, lonely blue.Eddie stands up, jaws clenched, this reveals an amount of subtext to the audience showing them that Eddie is thinking of phoning the Immigration Bureau. The revealed subtext is also showing us that Eddie is feeling savage and is trying to hold back on something, causing more tension. Another example of language being used as a dramatic device is while Eddie is taking cheep shots at Rodolfo making out that he is homosexual with the dramatic devices before and after the comments, using a newspaper as his prop. (He has been unconsciously twisting the newspaper into a tight roll. They are all regarding him now he senses he is exposing the issue and he is driven on.)I would be somewhere else. I would be like in a dress store. (He has bent the rolled paper and it suddenly tears in t wo.