We can see there is tension in the family before the two Italians arrive but their arrival does not help the tension in the family. From the scene where Marco and Rodolfo arrive we can foresee that something is going to happen and there is going to be problems, especially between Rodolfo, Catherine and Eddie. Towards the end of the scene Rodolfo and Catherine are mostly talking to each other and Catherine seems quite smitten with Rodolfo. Especially when she finds out what a good singer he is. ‘(enthralled) leave him finish, it’s beautiful’ Eddie sees this and dislikes the fact that Catherine is giving Rodolfo so much attention. He firstly stops Rodolfo singing ‘look, kid; you don’t want to be picked up do ya?’ The reality is Rodolfo probably would not get picked up but Eddie did not want him to sing because he did not want Rodolfo to please Catherine. After he has stopped Rodolfo singing he tells Catherine to take her high heels off, this embarrasses and angers Catherine. Beatrice sees what Eddie is doing and is also angry at him for it. ‘Beatrice watches her go and gets up; in passing, she gives Eddie a cold look, restrained only by strangers, and goes to the table to pour coffee’ this quotation from the stage directions tells us how Beatrice is annoyed with Eddie for putting Catherine down and also shows us how she looks out for Catherine. Rodolfo irritates Eddie again by saying ‘especially when they are so beautiful’ and indicates to Catherine. Eddie can see that something is going to happen between Catherine and Rodolfo and we can see this from the stage direction with says ‘his face puffed with trouble’ this tells us that he does not want something to happen between Catherine and Rodolfo. Marco and Rodolfo clearly have a good brotherly relationship and Marco seems to have some control over Rodolfo as he seems able to tell him what to do. From this we can see that if there was ever a problem for Rodolfo, Marco would help him and look out for him.
The scene where Rodolfo and Marco arrive is a very important scene because these two people who are virtually strangers to Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine have arrived and are going to change the way the family live their life. At the start of the scene nobody really knows what to say and Beatrice who is the only person who knows everyone is clearly very nervous, she introduces everyone and then starts making coffee, once she has settles down a bit she tries to get everyone talking by asking lots of questions like ‘so what kind of work did yiz do?’ In this scene she is in the middle of the Americans and the Italians. She is quite like this is the rest of the play, and she likes to look out for everyone. Marco and Eddie are very similar because they do not say much and when they do it is only about the important stuff it is not just idle chit chat. By the end of the scene Eddie and Marco are talking more and more just to each other we can see this from the stage direction ‘he is coming more and more to address Marco’. From this we can see that Eddie like Marco better than he likes Rodolfo and this carries out throughout the play. Eddie always prefers Marco because Marco is more like him and Eddie does not like it when Rodolfo sings on the ships and people laugh at Rodolfo because people know that Eddie is related to Rodolfo and Eddie does not want them to think he is not serious like Rodolfo. As Catherine and Rodolfo grow closer Eddie grows to hate Rodolfo more and more and comes up with reasons why Catherine should not marry him and although from this scene we see that Eddie and Marco get on very well Eddie’s problems with Rodolfo cause problems for Marco which result in Marco killing Eddie.
Catherine and Rodolfo also get on extremely well as they are both quite chatty, excitable and passionate. As the scene goes on Catherine becomes more and more smitten with Rodolfo and Eddie notices this also and is not happy. This leads him to talk more to Marco and ignores Rodolfo more. From this scene we can see the attraction between Catherine and Rodolfo and this prepares us for what is going to happen. We also see Eddie’s dislike of Rodolfo and we can see that there is going to be trouble between Rodolfo and Eddie. Towards the end of the scene Beatrice backs out more and stops talking so much and leaves the others to it and is quite quiet.
At the end of the scene Alfieri speaks to the audience as the narrator and the way he talks makes it sound like he knows what is going to happen in the story but he does not want to say what. He also talks about how Eddie never expected anything to happen in his life. ‘Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny’. But now these two Italians have come into his life it is going to change his life and his destiny. He does not say much but it makes the scene very dramatic.
There are three main themes in ‘A view from a bridge’ law and justice crossing cultures, respect and honour. All of them are important to the storyline. Law and justice are very important because Eddie goes to Alfieri, a lawyer, for help when Catherine and Rodolfo announce they are getting married. He wants to find some way for the law to be able to stop their marriage going ahead but Alfieri tells him there is no law for that. When Eddie finds out the Alfieri cannot help him he decides to take matters into his own hands by telling the authorities that Rodolfo and Marco are living illegally in America. This is very shocking because respect, honour and family ties has always been important to Eddie and people handing others (especially their own family) over to the authorities was always something Eddie was very against. It was also very shocking because Eddie had always got on very well with Marco, so it was shocking that he would hand him over to the authorities when he had done nothing wrong himself.
