Through the dialogue and actions of the characters, the audience is able to recognise the dramatic tension being developed, but have to explore beneath the surface in order to do so. Miller uses a lot of symbolism to disguise the underlying tension as can be clearly seen in his dialogue towards Rodolfo.
Eddie uses a lot of symbolism to demonstrate Rodolfo’s artificiality stating that “they paint the oranges to make them look orange.” This suggests that perhaps Rodolfo has veiled himself in order to cover his flaws similar to what the oranges had been made to do. This also relates to Rodolfo’s hair which Eddie believes to be dyed.
When corrected by Eddie about lemons being green, Eddie resents this interference. “I know lemons are green for Christ’s sake.” Eddie clearly loathes the idea of Rodolfo intervening and shows his frustration through swearing in the name of Christ, a sign of anger.
Eddie also manages to dig his claws into the skin of Marco, by enraging him with a joke Marco clearly does not find funny. “They count the kids and there’s couple extra than when they left.” This joke presents itself to be light hearted on the surface as Eddie is “laughing” whilst saying this, but Marco receives it as a deep insult. “No- no…,” Marcos repetition highlights his loss for words along with the punctuation which displays the pauses. Being an Italian Catholic, this joke causes all the more of an offence as sex out of marriage was strongly disapproved of. “It’s more strict in our town” and “It’s not so free here” suggests that it is in Rodolfo’s beliefs that Americans are less stern on the subject of adultery and are more likely to commit this sin.
Nevertheless, Eddie feels as though Rodolfo is the one who needs to set his priorities straight and takes his point of being strict to his advantage.
“It ain’t so free her either, Rodolfo like you think,” Eddie says “pacing up and down,” which indicates his agitation. “They think just because a girl don’t go around with a shawl over her head that she ain’t strict.” Eddie is proposing the idea that Rodolfo is unaware of Catherine’s background, therefore does not know that she too is from a strict culture. “But in your town, you wouldn’t drag off some girl without permission.” Rodolfo at last learns of Eddie’s attitude towards his behaviour with Catherine as Eddie strongly implies that Rodolfo is taking liberties with his niece. Eddie also feels though Rodolfo should ask from him before taking Catherine out.
However, Beatrice jumps to Rodolfo’s defence saying with a “criticizing force,” “Well then, be an uncle then” after Eddie talks of not being Catherine’s father. Eddie feels the impact of this sentence and fails to reply.
Marco on the other hand, sides with Eddie despite their slight dispute earlier on, and goes on to lecture Rodolfo. “You come home early now,” Marco scolds Rodolfo. His language resembles that of a parent to child, and results in Rodolfo feeling an immense amount of embarrassment. The stage direction “embarrassed” demonstrates the tension caused between caused by Eddie and raises the question of why Beatrice sides with Rodolfo whilst Marco defends Eddie.
Beatrice does not approve of the way Eddie is preventing Catherine from growing up and feels as though it is time her niece acts her age and starts to go out a little more. She is becoming wary of Eddie’s possession over Catherine and therefore, instead of sticking by her husband, encourages Rodolfo and Catherine to go out late in the night.
Marco, however does not want to jeopardise his place under Eddie roof, and feels he has to pair with Eddie in order to secure it. Rodolfo is unconscious of Marco’s true intention and goes onto resent his brother for causing shame upon him, especially since it is in Catherine’s view.
By now Catherine is “flushed with revolt,” and acts upon it by asking Rodolfo to dance. “Eddie freezes” which clearly illustrates the sudden increased tension. Rodolfo identifies this and respects Eddie’s wishes. “No, I- I’m tired,” Rodolfo’s hesitant response along with the stage direction “in deference to Eddie,” shows that he is considering Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine’s unexpected request and refuses to strengthen the tension.
However, this respect is not shared amongst the rest of the family. Beatrice, in fact is in favour with Rodolfo dancing and manages to persuade her cousin to do her niece says. “Go ahead, dance, Rodolfo,” Beatrice certainly does not seem to have a problem on the idea that Catherine and Rodolfo may have close physical contact, in contrast to Eddie’s views once again demonstrating the tense relationship shared between husband and wife.
Whilst dancing, Eddie is unable to fight the temptation to ridicule Rodolfo, after learning of his experience in the field of cooking. “He’s a cook too!” Eddie says in a taunting manner. Rodolfo, oblivious to Eddies tone receives it as a compliment and “smiles thankfully.” Eddie continues his mockery but is clever in doing so. “He’s lucky, believe me.” The tone of sarcasm is apparent to the audience, but evidently not to Rodolfo. Eddie successfully manages to mask the true face of his comments, another example to how all the tension is beneath the surface, not above.
“I can’t cook, I can’t sing, I can’t make dresses.” Eddies repetition of words using just three examples as simple but effective. Miller’s use of language presents the message across powerfully and the stage directions “twisting the newspaper in a tight roll,” adds to the tense atmosphere in the room.
Eddie finally reaches the purpose of his jeering saying” I would be like in a dress store.” Insulting Rodolfo’s manhood, Eddie implies that Rodolfo is effeminate and as a result, is not suitable to work on the waterfront. This as ever does not float to the surface but every person including Rodolfo himself is able to sense what is lying beneath the water.
Eddie continues his performance, and even goes as far as actually causing physical harm to Rodolfo. To maintain the underlying tension, Miller makes sure that Eddie behaves in a manner which is subtle yet effective, and doing so, experiments the use of language. “What do you say Danish?” Addressing Rodolfo in a friendly affectionate term, Eddie manages to win Rodolfo’s trust and allows him to believe that Eddie may not be so bad after all.
This following scene in which Rodolfo and Eddie are boxing, the audience are able to observe the different feelings and emotions of which Rodolfo faces.
At first Rodolfo seems “embarrassed” but later on starts to actually enjoy himself. “Rodolfo laughs.” This suggests that although Rodolfo started of reluctant, he does not find boxing as bad as he had first thought.
Eddie praises Rodolfo often, which successfully covers up his true intention of hurting him. “Hey, that’s very good!” and “Sure, he’s terrific!” encourages Rodolfo to box further and does not raise any suspicion on Eddies behalf.
Catherine being the first person to be concerned cries out “with beginning alarm” but is then reassured by Beatrice who “senses only the comradeship.” This, once again, expresses Eddie’s intelligence of keeping everything beneath the surface of which only the audience are able to notice.
Eddie appears as though he has no intention of causing any real harm to Rodolfo but as known by the audience, this is not entirely true. The stage directions show that Rodolfo “mildly staggers” as a result of Eddies blow suggesting that perhaps he was taken in by surprise at Eddie’s performance. When asked if he is hurt Rodolfo undecidedly replies “No, no, he didn’t hurt me.” The repetition points out Rodolfo’s uncertainty to whether he is harmed or not and also, highlights his loss for words.
It is evident to the audience that in spite of the fact that Rodolfo is hurt, he is forced to speak otherwise. He would appear foolish of him if he were to say he had felt the force of Eddie’s punch and all the more unmanly. Rodolfo does not want to confirm his feminine tenderness and give Eddie more of a reason to believe in his homosexuality.
Eddie feels triumphant and finishes the phase by once again praising Rodolfo.
“He could be very good Marco, I’ll teach him again.” Here, Eddie suggests that by teaching Rodolfo again, he shall inflict pain upon him once more. By now Rodolfo is feeling resentful and wants to antagonise Eddie. “Dance, Catherine, come.” Whereas earlier Rodolfo was reluctant to dance in deference to Eddie, now Rodolfo does not seem to care about what Eddie may or may not think.
Marco also seems to have been stirred by Eddie’s performance and decides that he too, will play a ‘friendly’ game to demonstrate his power. He asks Eddie to lift a chair holding just one leg up in the air. Eddie does not feel as though this will be difficult, but is later proved wrong when unable to achieve this task successfully. Marco on the other hand manages to lift the chair without any real problems which is shown through the stage direction,” slowly raises the chair higher and higher.” Being the focus of this room at this point, Marco stands “face to face with Eddie, with a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaws.” The facial expression emphasises on the immense amount of tension between both Marco and Eddie. Along with this the simile “chair raised like a weapon over Eddies head” displays Marcos threatening behaviour. The act finishes of with Marcos transformation from “a glare of warning into a smile of triumph.” Both images created here, illustrates the power of which Marco believes to have over Eddie.
Miller uses a sharp, witty structure in the play, in which the end of Act 1 foreshadows the end of Act 2. Where at the end of Act 1, the audience can see Marco threatening Eddie, using a chair as a symbol of his strength, at the end of Act 2, Marco actually carries out this threat. Eddie ends up falling in the fate of death under Marcos hands. It can be argued that Eddie was responsible for his death as he went against his own morality, and informed the Immigration Beaureu about members of his family- an issue the audience hear of at the beginning of the play. This ‘defying of own morals’ is the main cause of Eddies destruction linking in perfectly with tragedy where the main character is generally ‘destined for doom.’
On the whole, Miller’s play is a play of dramatic tension all occurring beneath the surface. The majority of the time the characters in “A View from the Bridge” are being friendly and affectionate towards one another.