『다리 위에서 본 풍경』 - 중용과 조화

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the right way of life implied in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Miller views society as a complicated network of individuals who need to balance their needs and desires against those of the wider social group in order to live fulfilled and contented lives. Important, for Miller, is the balanced way of life which takes on both individual and social responsibility; a balance trying to make the world a better place. He lays emphasis on the harmonious relationship between the individual and society. So he tries to teach his reader and audience certain truths about their own lives. Raising social and moral problems, he writes about the individual's sucess and failure, guilt and betrayal, and about love and responsibility. We can read his plays as lessons suggesting ways by which we can improve our society and life. Miller makes people all over the world accept unpleasant truths about their own lives and overcome them to lead a better life. He thinks highly of the social moderation and harmony that a modern man should observe and support as his/her life mottos. The issues of responsibility to oneself and his/her community are concerns which Miller again emphasizes in A View from the Bridge. Eddie Carbone wants to possess his niece, Catherine, who has grown up in his family. He recognizes the responsibility he has for others. He knows informing is wrong and his love for Catherine is wrong. But Eddie can't handle his own emotion. He is obsessed by incest, ignorant of his duty and responsibility in family and society. He refuses to distinguish between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong. He breaks the social convention by betraying the cousins. Eddie tells the Immigration Bureau about his wife's relatives so they will be returned to Italy to prevent Rodolpho from taking Catherine away from him. To neglect either personal or social responsibility is self-destructive. Because Eddie pays for his betrayal with his own life. Eddie's heavy price for breaking certain moral restrictions exemplifies how important it is to keep social conventions, a conventional way of thinking based on understanding and solidarity in a community of ordinary men. In contrast with Eddie's perverse desire, Rodolpho's love of Catherine is a sincere one. He never desires to own Catherine. He thinks he will lead a happy and independent life with Catherine. Catherine also respect and have a liking for Rodolpho with all her heart and soul. They are the representatives of the new world controlled by new order and value where people can usually develop their relationships through compromise and concession, harmony and morality. Miller insists that there is a moral law which judges our individual and collective actions. Miller sees such a law as fundamental to the growth and development of the ordinary individual and his society.