‘ Her mother’ll turn over in the grave! (He gathers himself almost peremptorily)’
Eddie is determined to do something about his problem. We can see through Miller’s techniques that Eddie really wants this and would do anything for it. We do feel sorry for Eddie as the scene progresses because he is starting to realise that he has only one way out.
‘(Angering) Didn’t you hear what I told you?’
The Phone Box is a central image and because of this, Miller creates a tense atmosphere using a ‘lonely blue’ light on it. This signifies Eddie’s feelings and emotions. The audience can now relate to Eddie as a person in need of help.
After the phone call to the immigration bureau, we can see that Eddie is in regret. The stage direction at the end of the phone call is most powerful of all out of this scene.
‘Evidently he is being questioned further, and he slowly hangs up.’
As the other caller gets into the depth of the conversation we can see that Eddie is coming to terms with what he has done. What with all of the anger built up inside of him, Eddie didn’t really think about the full consequence of what would happen after the phone call. Therefore as the call ended he had had the time to think it over. As it is something that most people do at times in their lives we are able to relate to Eddie. This makes us empathize with him; it is a mistake, which a lot of people make. We feel even more for Eddie when we realise that he is on his own from now on and no one is going to be there to help him.
If I were to direct this scene I would make a few changes. The first one would be that I would have Eddie Walking briskly onto the stage when he was walking to the phone box. Then after the phone call I would have Eddie walking off slowly. This would elaborate on the fact that before the phone call, Eddie was sure that he was doing the right thing. Then afterwards we would be able to see clearly that Eddie was in regret. The second thing that I would change would be that Alfieri wouldn’t actually leave the stage; he would stay at the side but still in view of the audience. This way we would be able to see that Alfieri was incapable of helping Eddie or changing his mind.
The second section that I studied was the kiss between Rudolpho and Eddie. In this scene we can see that Eddie is emotionally unstable, he is drunk and cannot control his thoughts, actions and feelings.
In the stage directions just before Eddie enters the scene the text states, ‘looks around’ meaning Eddie looks around. I think this means that he is looking for some one, Beatrice.
‘Beatrice? (He goes to the open kitchen door and looks in) Beatrice? Beatrice?’
If this is the case then maybe he is looking for comfort; he needs a shoulder to cry on. Eddie is very vulnerable at this point; he has had too much to drink and therefore cannot quite control himself. He could do anything. This creates tension and the Audience are quite literally sitting on the edge of their seats in anticipation. We are worried about Eddie.
When Catherine enters from the bedroom and then Rudolpho afterwards Eddie is hit with another problem, Jealousy! It is obvious that Catherine and Rudolpho have been sleeping together and of course, Eddie feels hurt and indignant.
‘(Eddie sees him and his arm jerks slightly I shock…)’
This shows visually and physically that Eddie is shocked. He can’t control what he is doing because of the drink. As the scene progresses Eddie becomes angry and frustrated with Rudolfo. He cannot control his actions.
‘(Eddie grabs her arm)’
He is becoming more aggressive as the scene draws to the kiss. This aggression is taken out on the people around him. For example, when Catherine is kissed by Eddie there, is a great tensive atmosphere.
‘(…As she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth…)’
We really do feel for Eddie at this point. Miller has deliberately put this part in so that the empathy leads up to the major actions that Eddie takes. We empathise with him because we know that he is going out of control and we sit there and say to ourselves ‘what are you doing Eddie?’
If that wasn’t enough, we witness yet another dramatic mistake. Eddie kisses Rudolfo! It is unexpected and the Audience are shocked to see that Eddie is going to such limits. This just confirms all of the suspected thoughts from the Audience. Eddie really is over the limit; he is so unstable that he is letting his emotions run wild.
‘Rodolfo flies at him in attack, Eddie pins his arms laughing and suddenly kisses him.’
After the kiss everyone is shocked. Miller’s dramatic techniques make this scene most powerful in effect to the empathy of the audience. With Eddie in this emotionally unstable state and the actions he takes towards each character, there are sufficient amounts of tension and suspense. As this scene is not too far away from the murder, the Audience still empathise with Eddie right up to his dramatic death.
If I were to direct this scene I would only do one thing. That would be to move it. I would have it closer to the end just to make sure that the Audience’s sympathy was evident when Eddie died.
To evaluate my thoughts and ideas about ‘A View from the Bridge’ I would say that Arthur Miller has extreme talent. Eddie started off as a good guy, then turned into a bad guy and at the end everyone feels sorry for him when he dies. Miller is able to make the audience have an empathic response to Eddies death. Even though we know that he caused it himself. It was a tragedy and in one way it caused the audience to feel sorry and have pity. In another way they learnt from it, just like I have. It is always better to settle for half, its better than nothing because there is little chance that you are going to get exactly what you want.
