A View from the Bridge - Arthur Miller

·      I thought that this play was good at showing the relationships between families and how these relationships change when new people come along. I also thought it was good at showing how far people will go for people they love. I particularly like how there is a sort of narrator – Alfieri giving background information on what’s going on to make it more understandable.

·      The best bit of the play for me was when the main character Eddie is talking to Alfieri about how Rodolpho isn’t right because he sings. And also another best bit for me is at the end of the play when Marco and Eddie are fighting in the street and Eddie is stabbed with his own knife, then Alfieri gives a little speech, because it was a nice way to round off all the drama that had been going on.

·      I thought that the character of Eddie was well written and complex as in that what he says may be different to how he really feels and that he seems more like a character that’s more likely to keep his feelings hidden. I like the character of Beatrice as she seems to understand Eddie and the things he does, even thought she doesn’t really do much for herself she helps Eddie with his problems. The character of Catherine is my favourite because she starts off doing what Eddie wants and tries to please him but then as the play goes on she starts to do things for herself and starts sticking up for herself – she becomes her own person. Marco comes across as a family man – he just wants to earn a decent living to keep his family fed, sheltered etc. but in the end of the second act we see a different side to him, a more angry side. Rodolpho is a different character to the others as he sings etc. that Eddie frowns on him for doing.

·      The stage device I enjoyed was, “Eddie lunges with the knife. Marco grabs his arm, turning the blade inward and pressing it home as the women and Louis and Mike rush in and separate them, and Eddie, the knife still in his hand, falls to his knees before Marco. The two women support him for a moment, calling his name again and again.” Because it’s all the tension between Marco and Eddie coming to a close, but in a dramatic way.

·      The aspects of love that I found interesting was the love between Eddie and Catherine as it starts off as a family love but as the play progresses we see Eddie become obsessive over Catherine until we see that he has deeper feelings for her than just family love. This interested me because it’s not what usually happens in families, and nowadays we know its wrong and it doesn’t happen, and also it’s good how Arthur Miller has written Eddie’s obsession to slowly progress through the play until he makes it clear how he`s feeling in front of Beatrice and Rodolpho. 

The Sun Rising, The Flea, The Broken Heart - John Donne

The Sun Rising:
- 3 stanzas, each 10 lines long
- lines 1,  5, 6 in iambic tetrameter, line 2 dimeter, lines 3, 4, 7-10 pentameter
- rhyme scheme is ABBACDCDEE
- first stanza is about the sun rising and it's light coming through the windows disturbing those inside, and . how the speaker wants the sun to go bother everyone else. Also that love is not subject to time or the seasons.
-second stanza is about the suns beams being strong and the speaker could eclipse the beams but doesn't want to lose sight of his love. And they're asking whether the treasures of India are in the same place or in bed with the speaker, along with the king's the sun shined on yesterday.
-third stanza is about how the speaker's lover is their centrality and nothing else matters, how princes play at having countries compared to what he has. Also how the sun desires ease and now by shining on the speaker's bed it's shining on the world.
- I think that how John Donne has compared his love to the sun rising is like saying that everyday the love is the same, and nothing can disturb it, just like the sun will rise no matter what else is going on.

The Flea
- 3 stanzas, each 9 lines long
- rhyme scheme is similarly regular in couplets with the final line rhyming with the final couplet, AABBCCDDD
- first stanza is about how the speaker and his love's blood are mingled in the flea, and how the flea is closer to her than him because she denies him that closeness, but in the flea their two bloods have become one.
- second stanza is about how because both their bloods are mingled in the flea it's the same as them being married - but no more than that, they are united in the living walls of the flea even though she won't make love to him and the speaker asking her not to kill herself by killing the flea.
- third stanza is about how she killed the flea , and the speaker asking what the flea's sin was, neither of them is less noble for killing the flea and if she would sleep with him she would lose no more honour than she lost when she killed the flea.
- I think it's weird that Donne is comparing the speaker's lover not sleeping with them to a flea but like how he's said that their bloods are mingled together.

The Broken Heart
- 4 stanzas, each 8 lines long
- lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 iambic tetrameter, lines 4, 7, 8 iambic pentameter
- rhyme scheme; ABABCCDD
- first stanza is about how if any man claims to have been in love for an hour is mad because love itself isn't destroyed in that time, but love destroys the lover in less time than that. And how love works fast and violently.
- second stanza is about love demands the whole heart whereas other feelings only demand part of it, also how other feelings come to us but love draws us to it.
- third stanza is about how if what the speaker is saying about love is false then when did he leave the room without a heart when he first saw her? Also, that his love could have learned to treat him better but the impact of love shattered his heart.
- fourth stanza is about how even though the impact of love shattered his heart, it isn't completely useless but after the shock of his first love - he'll never love the same again.
- I think that the way that Donne has written love to be destructive is different to how we usually hear about love, but it's nice how in the last stanza he has said even though his first love shattered his heart they are the only person he'll ever love properly.