Many plays use the balance of power as a theme to advance the plot and define their characters. In Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, the patriarchal figure of Eddie becomes a tragic hero through his loss of power and his reaction. The character Baroka in Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel initially displays a similar level of power, but humorously feigns weakness in what is ultimately a show of strength. For both characters, the extent of their control is demonstrated by younger female characters: for Eddie, it is his niece, Catherine, and for Baroka, it is Sidi, the village belle and finally his wife. These characters and their interactions are defined by power, and its shifting balance is key to both plays. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay As the head of the family in A View from the Bridge, Eddie has a character defined by the power he wields. This is first emphasized by Miller by the fact that he is the only man in the family; the women, Catherine and Béatrice, are very submissive, even if only to their faces. Eddie is essentially served by the two women, with Catherine lighting her matches and offering to “get him a beer”. Although he doesn't openly ask anything of them, his domination is very clear, particularly when he forbids Catherine from getting a job that would allow her more independence from him, with her "almost in tears because he disapproves.” Eddie's necessary downfall, as a tragic character, therefore focuses entirely on his loss of power and how it affects him. When Marco and Rodolpho, the Italian subs, arrive in the house, Eddie is no longer the only male figure. This alone is enough to challenge his authority, and the perceived threat causes him to increasingly assert his dominance, ordering Catherine to change her attire with the simple command: "Do me a favor, will you?" However, the more he does it, the more power he loses. By becoming too disrespectful towards Rodolpho, he inspires Marco to display his own power by threateningly raising a chair over Eddie's head "like a weapon", and his exaggerated control over Catherine causes her to rebel against him and ends up by pushing it back. Although no weakness is necessarily exposed at this point in the play, a definite lack of power is evident through the other characters' displays of dominance. This culminates in the play's ultimate display of control: Eddie flags down the two subs, powerless against the law. By resorting to this, Eddie goes against the values ​​of his entire community, exposing his true weakness as a dependence on power and a need for control. The character of Baroka in The Lion and the Jewel is comparable to that of Eddie in that both men exhibit patriarchal behavior. roles. This is exaggerated in Baroka because he is the village chief and has many wives. Soyinka demonstrates the wives' submission (and thus Baroka's dominance) through the favored wife, who performs tasks deemed degrading by Western culture, such as "pulling out his armpit hair." Unlike Eddie, Baroka clearly asserts his control, ordering the villagers and wives around as he pleases. However, the biggest difference between the two lies in Baroka's willingness to expose his own weakness, even if he does so wrongly; he is not afraid of temporarily weakening his position because he is confident that his power will be restored. The act of intentionally emasculating oneself has the exact opposite effect to Eddie reporting the.