A View from the Bridge

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Explore the way Arthur Miller writes about justice in “A View from the Bridge”. Write about the characters’ search for justice and their feelings that the law is inadequate.

   “A View from the Bridge”, by Arthur Miller, is based in an immigrant society, called Red Hook, and is rooted in the late 1940’s. Red Hook is a “slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge”.  Arthur Miller highlights different characters’ views on the law and justice and the way these beliefs conflict between life in America and in Sicily. Throughout the play Alfieri, a lawyer, provides a balanced point of view on the law.

   The play opens with a monologue from Alfieri, which informs the audience about the law and justice system. In Sicily “the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten”. This indicates that the law has deep historical origins and appears to be grand. Alfieri talks about when he first came to America, when the state law had little hold over people, such as “Al Capone”, and justice was sought out personally. However, during the time of the play state law had to be obeyed and personal justice sometimes ignored, “now we are quite civilized, quite American”. It is ironic that Alfieri says, “Now we settle for half”, because it’s this that Eddie Carbone, the longshoreman, refuses to do later on in the play.

   Nevertheless, in America the majority of the Italian-American population, in communities like Red Hook, still preferred to seek out justice with community laws, such as the unwritten code of honour. It is the later generations of Italian-Americans, like Catherine; who is Eddie’s niece, that begin to conform to the American State law and justice system. The community in Red Hook do not concern themselves with breaking the immigration law or other laws. They have their own ideas about law and seeking justice.  They do not accept betrayal or injustice. A prime example is the story of Vinny Bolzano. Eddie and his wife, Beatrice, explain to Catherine what would happen to someone if she betrayed an illegal immigrant in the community. Vinny’s family were hiding his uncle in their house and Vinny, “no more than fourteen”, “snitched to the Immigration”. His family avenged this with violence, “they grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him down the stairs- three flights his head was bouncin’ like a coconut.” This level of violence conveys the magnitude of Vinny’s betrayal. Eddie says to Catherine “you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away”. This is a tragic irony because Eddie finds himself in that situation later on during the play.

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   Eddie has several pursuits for justice in the play. His view on justice is misplaced. He believes that Rodolfo, Beatrice’s immigrant cousin, shouldn’t be allowed by law to have a relationship with and marry Catherine. He thinks that Rodolfo only wants to marry Catherine “to get his papers”. He feels that it is unjust for Rodolfo to do this. Eddie tries to back his point of view by implying that Rodolfo is a homosexual, “with that wacky hair; he’s like a chorus girls or sump’m.”

   Eddie’s visit to Alfieri highlights Eddie’s frustrations and his feelings that the law ...

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