A View From The Bridge Complete Guide

A View From The Bridge-1955

English Literature/Own Notes

Context 

• The concept of the play was inspired from a local story in the docks where the longshoremen worked where long ago, a longshoreman rattled on his relatives to the Immigration Bureaucracy to stop a wedding between one of his brothers and his niece. He was ostracised from the society and was rumoured to be killed by one of the brothers. Working on the docks, Arthur Miller was inspired by this story which emerged to be the main plot of the play. 
• Arthur Miller also took a key interest in complex relationships and portraying realistic characters which perhaps stemmed from his personal love life. 
• Genre of the play is Greek Tragedy. At the earlier stages, we might think it is about a family drama, however once the problems of the family spills out to the entire community, it elevates to another level. The play becomes a “tragedy of a common man” which echoes the format of greek tragedies. Furthermore, it also discusses psychological realism. 

Title

• The title of the play symbolises the link between the two cultures or two kinds of people referred to in the play, the Italian Immigrants and the Americans. It is the only connection between the land of opportunities (America) and the poor community where law plays an important role (Italy)
• None of the characters actually visit the Bridge in the play, however are close to it by living in Red Hook. This comes to only one answer to why the title of the play is focused on the Bridge. Miller wants the readers to view the play from a larger context. Instead of focusing on the petty melodrama of the protagonist, Miller wants us to see the great panoramic view. Questions such as “What are the moral implications of Eddie’s actions”, “What is justice?” and “How does Eddie’s actions affect the Italian culture?” can only be answered with a view from the bridge. 

Tone and Writing Style 

• The tone of the play is objective. It is not biased towards any character and shares sympathy for all, even the characters which deserve the least. 
• The writing is very colloquial as the play is portrayed with Brooklyn dialect. This colloquial language connects with the slum like and inferior setting. 
• The writing style gives us emotional views on the character. It is written in dialogue form as it is a drama but also includes stage directions, dramatic pauses and double negatives to vary the emotion through writing. 
• The narrator, Alfieri provides the readers with intellectual ideas, themes of justice and even poetry language. He is honest and impartial and only comments on the action of the play
• Catharsis- Fear purged by the readers that the protagonist feels. Feeling of pity through human compassion (pathos) 
• There are numerous metaphors and similes used to relate to the scenario. 

Setting

• The play is set in the slum like and inferior setting of Red Hook, Brooklyn. It unfolds in the Carbone household which is a “clean, homely and sparse” apartment.
• The household is near the Brooklyn Bridge (the sea) where the longshoremen work in the docks. However an important detail is that the men of the play do not think of their job as inferior. Eddie thinks of it as a duty and is proud to be one whereas the Italians migrate to America to work on the docks. They are proud working class men who understand the struggle of poverty and know to not take things for granted. 
• The Carbone household resembles the 90’s with the phonograph and the pediment. The space at front shows that the family drama spills to the community. 
• We can see the tragedy waiting for him. It was inevitable. He was propelled to his fate helplessly. 

Introduction 

• The play begins with Alfieri’s commentary about the community and the setting. As he passes by the longshoremen pitching, they “uneasily nod” to him. This shows the lack of trust they have on lawyers as they connect them with something bad. Trust is the first theme introduced as it is hard to gain in this community. 
• Justice and Law is a very important theme to be look into in this play. He talks about several allusions such as Al Capone ( the greatest Carthaginian)  who used to be America’s best known gangsters and Frankie Yale. Carthage was an ancient city which fought several wars against Rome. He compares this challenge to the Romans to the gangsters challenging the bureaucracy. 
• He reveals that their society has the same values even though the violence has reduced. They were forced to accommodate the Sicilian culture with American law. Alfieri also foreshadows that there is always a case about illegal immigrations which is beyond the help of lawyers. He also introduces the protagonist of the play, Eddie Carbone. 
• There is a difference between civil law and old school moral law

Alfieri

• Alfieri is the chorus or the narrator of the play who comments on the actions of the characters and plot development as the play unfolds. Alfieri is a ‘portly, good humoured and thoughtful’ man who is in his 50s. Alfieri is portrayed to be a lawyer, a well educated man who follows the American laws as well as takes the Italian customs into consideration. 
• Alfieri is the embodiment of the Brooklyn Bridge which is the symbolic link between the two cultures. He is the difficult stretch between small, ethnic communities with dock workers and the intellectual Manhattan and the cosmopolitan rich. 
• Being the narrator of the play, his commentary is unbiased and objective and focuses on the larger moral implications from the family squabble. He is also inconsequential to the actions of the story. Although Eddie Carbone comes to him for advice, that is the maximum of what Alfieri can do. He cannot stop it from running “its bloody course” and is powerless even though he knows how it is going to end from the start. He powerlessly watches as tragic event unfolds which shows there is no illusion to reality. Thus, in the last act, he breaks the wall and speaks to the audience. 
• Alfieri is just like Arthur Miller, the teller of tales who cannot change what has happened. Alfieri describes himself as powerless several times, emphasizing his inability as a man of law to stop the tragic events of the play.

Eddie Carbone, The Euripidean greek hero

• Eddie Carbone is the tragic protagonist of the play. He is described as forty, a husky, slightly overweight longshoreman
• At the earlier stage, he is portrayed to be a good, hardworking longshoreman who supports his family consisting of a wife and his niece. Pride and duty are two values he holds close to his heart. 
• Although he was born poor, we see that he worked his way up to the docks and adopted his niece after her mother died from the kindness in his heart. He raised her despite the harsh conditions of poverty by taking ‘food from my own mouth to give her’. He is considered to kind, generous and a normal working class man as he says it is ‘an honour, Bea’ to let the Italian immigrants stay with them
• However, with the progression of the play this is not how he stays. Eddie is not a flat character but a round one filled with problems and unexplored emotions which lead to most of the problems in the play. He is selfish and constantly interested in promoting his innocence. 
• He creates his own fictional fantasy world where his absurd decisions make sense. The entire play is largely about discovery. Throughout the play, he has two secrets which he has to protect above and beyond; His incestuous desires towards Catherine and the illegal entry of the immigrants. As the play unfolds, we see that he cannot control or accept his desires and is incapable of dealing with either secrets being revealed. Thus, reveals the latter in hope that no one finds out about his desires
• However, we see that Eddie is completely unaware of his desires or pushes them far behind hoping it would not be revealed. Eddie is solely a tragic protagonist due to his veiled desires and troubles in relationships. He alone, searches his identity and along with him, we do too. He is defined by his desires and problems. 
• At the start of the play, we see that Eddie is portrayed as a fatherly figure to Catherine, with the advice to not talk to Louis and “walking wavey”, “their heads are turning like windmills”. He is assumed to be a possessive fatherly figure in the niece’s life. However, with the entry of a young man who seizes the attention of Catherine, Eddie’s ugly emotions are revealed. His actions with the niece has a sexual undertone such as ‘Turn around, let me see the back’ and lighting the cigar. 
• Even though, Eddie is unaware of his feelings till the end, others are aware. Alfieri warns him to let her go and Rodolpho sees his feelings with his possessiveness and lack of acceptance towards him. It is not until the end when Eddie realises his feelings as Beatrice makes a remark about his inarticulate desires saying ‘ You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!’
• To see why Eddie is unaware of feelings, we find out that Eddie has constructed a world where his suppressed urges make sense. He hides behind the law and wants a factual reason to justify his actions. Since, he does not have any outlet for his emotions, he transforms it to hatred towards Rodolpho and Marco.
• Since pride is very important for him and the community, he also bases his actions on it such as avenging Marco. The main flaw of Eddie is his deranged love and fictional world which he is unable to recognise or escape from. 
• His deranged love for Catherine affects all his relationships. As he is unable to recognise his feelings for her, his marital relations with Beatrice is affected, his frustration is released as anger towards Rodolpho and he has a power play with Marco who he initially liked. His flaws lead to his self destruction.
• Ironic that Eddie kisses Rodolpho to emasculate him. We are following a greek drama’s characteristics in this play where a noble man has one flaw and that flaw leads to his destruction. Many characters have to face the repercussions due to the whimsical character of the lead role
• Although Eddie harbours feelings for Catherine and snitches on his own family, his death grants him a modicum of dignity. A quality of pathos allows us to empathise Eddie.

Marco and Rodolpho 

• Rodolpho is air of liberty in the play. He is the embodiment of youth and filled with dreams that the world is a better place than it actually is. He is carefree and light hearted which draws Catherine’s attention. The budding romance between these two characters becomes the spear which unravels all the problems. He is effeminate 
• Throughout the play, we see that Eddie suspects that Rodolpho is interested in Catherine only for American citizenship. This is not answered in the play which allows us to also think the same. More than portraying him as a full person, Miller defines him as a montage of conflicts. 
• His light spirit and outgoing personality is in contrast to his brother’s strict behaviour
• Marco is more of a realist than Rodolpho himself. Both of them have survived the depths of poverty and hunger. Since Marco has a family to support and older, he is more mature than his brother.
• Marco is said to be a ‘regular bull’/ ‘regular slave’. He is more devoted to his family and his kids. Has strong objectives and goals to fulfil in America. 
• At the start of the play, we see Marco’s personality to be more liked by Eddie, However as there is a clash in power, Eddie’s frustration changes its direction to Marco. He is a peacemaker and is oblivious to Eddie’s intentions as he tries to defuse the tension between Eddie and his brother. 
• Eddie’s hatred towards Rodolpho initially stems Catherines attention shifting from him to the young and dreamy character. It gradually develops with the behaviour of Rodolpho being different from other, stereotypical men who are manly. He is called as a‘chorus girl’, ‘blonde’, ‘whacky hair’ and ‘like a weird’. Eddie’s hatred towards Rodolpho maybe justified as there is high suspicion he wants Catherine for the citizenship and also does not fit into the stereotypical confinement.
• His hatred is channeled through the punch, when he tries to “teach” Rodolpho how to fight. This punch reveals Eddie’s ulterior motives to Marco who takes offence and decides to show his sheer prowess to suppress Eddie. A power play occurs between them.
• Both Marco and Eddie try to hide behind the law as they want the law to side their notions. When Eddie hurts Marco’s way of earning money, he unleashes his ruthless, barbaric attitude saying that ‘He killed my children. That one stole the food from my children’

Beatrice and Catherine

• The play stages the times of 1950s where woman were submissive and oppressed by the men of the household. The exemplar of such kind of women are Beatrice and to a lesser extent, Catherine. 
• Beatrice is portrayed to be a devoted housewife who is ruled by affection and protecting her loved ones. She is described to be a woman who is interested in taking care of her loved ones such as her cousins from Italy. She raises Catherine like her own daughter along with Eddie Carbone
• One of the main aspects which allows us to sympathise over is the fact that Eddie’s unruly desires clouds his vision towards Beatrice. However, Beatrice knows her husband better than he knows himself. From an earlier stage, she sees the hints of Eddie’s incestuous urges towards Catherine and tries to put a full stop to it. Might be jealous also that she doesn’t receive half of the attention Eddie showers on Catherine. Thus, she encourages Catherine to her seize her life in her own hands and be more independent. 
• She is extremely satisfied when Rodolpho comes into the picture and swoops Catherine away (because of a motherly attitude and also because her husband is saved). She points out from the beginning and reprimands Eddie for his feelings towards his niece. 
• Throughout the play, we see that even though Beatrice does not side with Eddie’s intentions, she still sticks with him (devoted) like when despite the fact that she wanted to go, she stuck with Eddie who did not want to go when Catherine was going to get married.
• She also serves as a mediator who everyone can talk to. She is patient, caring, giving and supportive. However, she becomes the victim in the end as she loses her husband to his destruction, her cousins from the disrespect her husband gave them and her niece through marriage. 
• When she recognises Eddie’s feelings, she immediately warns Catherine to not be a child in front of him anymore, and that she has grown up and cannot play around anymore. “a little more independent” “you still walk around in front of him with a slip” 
• Just like Alfieri, She knew from the start on how it was going to end but had to watch it run its bloody course. And for that, she becomes a very sympathising character. The ending is very dramatic and powerful as Eddie dies in her hands, saying ‘My Bea’ as if finally at the end he understands what he had done and has come to her yearning for forgiveness which gives closure for a deranged character like Eddie. It is a massive development from the fact that in Act I she asked her husband, ‘When am I gonna be wife again?’
• Catherine is a smart, independent and young character who is subconsciously the reason behind all the problems. Her close relationship with Eddie seemed fatherly to her but the otherwise to Eddie. We see that Eddie’s opinion matters a lot to her when she still asked him to come to the wedding and said ‘You like it?’ several times. She is modern and has a good fashion sense making her popular with the opposite gender. 
• The character’s reference to ‘Madonna’ symbolises her innocence and pure nature. We can see that Eddie’s opinion matters a lot to her as he has done so much for her. Struggling to maintain distance between a fatherly figure to a new character in her life, she invites Rodolpho saying ‘Teach me’
• Towards the end of the play, we can see that her submissive behaviour disappears and she lives the way she wants to, or at least tries. Her character lacks complexity due to her naive nature which changes towards the end. 
• Although Beatrice warns her to be more independent, towards the end of the play, Catherine berates Eddie more than Beatrice found appropriate.
• The idea of independence correlates with finding a man. The women of the play are fairly two dimensional. The Madonna complex: where a man is not able to have a full sexual relationship due to the wife becoming a mother of someone and is not a sexual partner
• Beatrice is the one who draws sympathy from the modern audience as she takes the burden of the tragedy

Important events 

1. The kiss between Catherine, Rodolpho and Eddie
2. Vinny Bolzano’ story
3. Marco lifting the chair to exert power
4. Beatrice and Catherine’s talk
5. Eddie and Marco fight after Eddie calls the Bureau on him
6. Eddie’s death in Bea’s arms

Important quotes

1. “Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stolen than a word that you gave away.” – Miller sets us Eddie as a person so vehemently against betrayal and it seems illogical for him to betray at the end. This demanded a drastic change in his priorities and values which was triggered through his deranged desires. 
2. “His eyes were like tunnels; my first thought was that he had committed a crime, but soon I saw it was only a passion that had moved into his body, like a stranger.” – The suppressed and unleashed passion for his niece is a stranger in his body as he actively rejects the idea. 
3. “Eddie: My B.!” – Beatrice is a tirelessly forgiving character in the play who is extremely jealous of her niece. This is the only time when Eddie honestly needs Beatrice in the play and she forgives him. 
4. You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!
5. And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain alarm. – Ends the play
6. “All the law is not in a book.” ‘He killed my children. That one stole the food from my children’ “where’s the law for that?”
7. “You like it?” “Listen, you’ve been giving me the willies the way you walk down the street” “Their heads are turnin’ like windmills” (Almost in tears because he disapproves)
8. “Eddie, I wish there was one guy you wouldn’t tell me things about”
9. “Listen, they’ll think its a millionaire’s house compared to where they live” “What kind of work did yiz do? Whatever there is, anything”
10. “You got too big a heart”“You lived in a house all your life, what do you know about it? You never worked in your life.”
11. “Its an honour, Bea. I mean it”
12. “I don’t understand you; she’s seventeen years old, you are gonna keep her in the house all her life?”
13. (He is coming more and more to address Marco only) “What’s the high heels for, Garbo?”
14. (his face puffed with trouble) (He looks away)“heeby-jeebies” “whacky hair; chorus girl; like a weird”
15. “When am I gonna be wife again, Eddie?”“I cant talk about it”- Eddie exemplifies the trait of self-denial.
16. “He’s a regular slave” “a regular bull”
17. “You still walk around in front of him in your slip”
18. (imperious demand)
19. “ Oh Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothing about that, I mean”
20. “I am a patsy”- He is cheated on or blamed for something or easily taken advantage of 
21. “ I was so powerless to stop it”
22. (glare of warning to a smile of triumph)
23. “He’s a rat. He belongs in the sewer”

Themes 

1. Justice and law- The ending of the play shows that American laws are inadequate. The play raise the question of whether the law is an adequate or ultimate authority on what is right and wrong.
2. Clash of culture and power
3. Dreams, Hopes and Plans
4. Love and desires
5. Womanhood and feminity 
6. Men and masculinity 
7. Respect and Pride
8. Betrayal
9. Maturity and Independence
10. In this manner, all the characters of the play—and perhaps all people—must undergo forms of immigration during their lives, whether literally leaving one country for another or moving out of a family home to one’s own, or transitioning from one stage in life to another. Everyone is simply seeking a place where he or she can comfortably belong.

Symbols and Motifs

1. The Brooklyn Bridge
2. Italy
3. High heels
4. Homosexuality, Womanhood and Community

Italy is the basis of the cultural traditions in Red Hook and unites the community in common social practices and religion.

Analysis

1. The play is largely about discoveries. Just because Eddie did not want anyone to know about his deranged love for Catherine, he blurted the second secret which caused his death. He is no afraid of anyone but the inarticulate feelings he has bottled up which drives him to his madness.
2. An unconscious sexual taboo
3. In the ending, for the first time Eddie is seeking for Beatrice’s approval 
4. All of his flawed decisions lead him to a fatal conclusion 
5. The main character is helplessly propelled to his destruction where his framework of reason breaks and he releases his subconscious emotions

Written in 1955 by a prolific playwright 

The tragic play 

Is psychological drama which revolves around the conflicts and issues that the characters of the Carbone household deal with which is set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 

Genre 

Purpose

Topic sentence 

Tone

Context

Title

Questions

ESSAY 

• How does Miller make the differences between the characters of Marco and Rodolpho such a dramatic part of the play?
• Do you think that Miller portrays Beatrice as a completely admirable character?
• How does Miller make Eddie’s feelings for Catherine such a disturbing part of the play?
• What do you find particularly striking about Miller’s portrayal of Catherine?
• To what extent does Miller make you feel that Eddie is responsible for his own death at the end of the play?
• What does Miller’s portrayal of Marco add to the dramatic impact of the play?
• How does Miller make Alfieri’s role in the play so significant?
• How does Miller make the relationship between Beatrice and Catherine such a memorable part of the play?
• How does Miller make two moments in the play particularly moving for you?
• How does Miller powerfully convey to you the rules Eddie’s community lives by?
• What does Miller’s portrayal of him make you feel about Rodolpho?

EXTRACTS

• PG 29 to PG 31- Katie!- How does Miller make this such a striking moment in the play?

• PG 36-37 (Till Alfieri’s monologue)-In what ways does Miller make this such an emotionally intense moment in the play?

• PG 41 “He’s lucky believe me” to “Sure, he’s terrific! Look at him go!”- What does Miller’s writing make you feel about Eddie at this moment in the play?

• Pg 11- 13 “I’m the best student, he says, and if I want, I should take the job and the end of the year he’ll let me take the examination and he’ll give me the certificate” to (After a moment of watching her face, EDDIE breaks into a smile, but it almost seems that tears will form in his eyes) – In what ways does Miller make this a striking and revealing moment in the play?

• PG 50 to PG 51- Alfieri’s line to The phone is glowing now- In what ways does Miller make this a striking and revealing moment in the play? 
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