Marco: only in moving pictures.
Eddie: you ever do any boxing?
Rodolpho: No
Eddie: well come on, ill teach you
Rodolpho: well I don’t know how to
Eddie: ……..dont pity me, come on, throw it.”
Rodolpho punches, Eddie takes it in, but then its Eddie’s turn, “Eddie: I’m going to hit you now, so you block me, see? [He feints with his with his left and lands with his right]” His punch hits Rodolpho, not enough to do damage, but enough to stagger and make him feel dizzy. This was Eddie’s plan, to get back at Rodolpho for dancing and liking his niece Catherine. This is where the action shows much more of a dramatic effect and force, Marco doesn’t really say much but “Marco: can you lift this chair?
Eddie: what do you mean?
Marco: from here” Marco bends down on one knee with one hand behind is back and picks up a chair from the bottom of one leg. This is posed as a threat at Eddie, he didn’t say anything, nothing harmless, but the action was very meaningful. Eddie has a go and can barely lift it, only by an inch and then it falls over to the floor. Marco has a go, slowly lifting higher and higher, until it gets on top of Eddie’s head. This is a big threat even though it seems fun and nothing much to pick up on. Eddie’s grin vanishes and Marco puts on a smile of triumph but of warming too. This symbolises a fight yet to come. But this first fight is started because of when Rodolpho’s discussions were taking place that he had talents of cooking and could make dresses, Eddie in anger screwed up his newspaper and then ripped it, further more showing his increasing suspicions about Rodolpho. This is the gradual tension building up and comes to a head at the end of the act with all on stage along with the audience watching Marco threaten Eddie with holding a chair above his head with one hand. The end scene, in which Eddie takes his own life with his own knife, is symbolic of the self-destructive nature that led to such an ending. This is the perfect explain of action is louder than language, the amount of pressure on Eddie after that big impact threat is huge. As his love for his niece gets stronger and stronger he is getting even more desperate to get her even though it is his own niece.
Eddie Carbone is a representative of his class, background and society. This does not mean that Miller thinks that all middle-aged uncles fall in love with their nieces. Instead, he is suggesting that we all have basic impulses and instincts that civilization and the rules of society make us keep hidden. Eddie is not able to hide his impulses or he either doesn’t want to or cant and this causes problems for his family and community.
The whole of this play involves symbolism, on many different levels. Rodolpho danced with Catherine when she had previously been attending to Eddie, symbolic of him taking her from Eddie’s life. This is another reason that drives Eddie to change and get obsessed and possessive with Catherine. He love is different, not family love but relationship love and it grows throughout the play.
Another case where action is just as important language is when Eddie gets even more desperate, he becomes obsessed with Rodolpho’s sexuality and unsuitability for Catherine and repeatedly refers to what he regards as proof of this, for example his 'blond hair´, the laughter of his friends, and his singing. He truly believes that Rodolpho is gay, and states it almost outright several times, 'that guy ain’t right´ and he’s 'so pretty you could kiss him´! But because of his language he cannot express fully how he wants to, he has to say he “ain’t right”, but this meeting where he is telling Alfieri all this, Alfieri knows that there is no law about this and is telling Eddie to just leave it. Eddie cannot believe it and turns to even more desperate measures and kisses Catherine, which is meant to humiliate Rodolpho showing that Catherine is his, and no-one is going to take her away from him. He then kisses Rodolpho to embarrass him showing he is gay and to show Catherine he thinks he is gay. However this doest not work and stuns the audience because they cannot believe Eddie has done it, and even though he has, it hasn’t worked to split Rodolpho and Catherine up.
What makes this play very symbolic is that how Eddie warned and told his family about the story of Vinne Bolzano and how he ‘grassed’ up his uncle for staying illegally in the country, well Eddie does the same onto Marco and Rodolpho. Eddie turns very desperate and then does this, then later realises what he has done. Marco then spits on his face knowing that it was him who told the immigration officers. By then the whole community is out, and when hearing this off Marco, they look stunned at Eddie, they didn’t say anything but their actions showed what they thought of Eddie. Eddie had known this community for many years, and they just look at him and walk away, disgusted, even his best friends, Louis and Mike just look at him and walk away, nobody says anything, but the action of them just walking away what they think of Eddie completely changes. Eddie feels that Marco has taken his name, his good name, and he wants it back, but Marco wants revenge, revenge for Eddie telling the immigration officers. This end scene is very symbolic; Eddie is killed with his own knife. He hasn’t commited suicide but in ways he made it happen as he told the immigration office about Marco and Rodolpho. Alfieri is there watching, and knows it is best to “settle for half.” Much of the play explorers the contrast between old Sicilian justice and modern American law. Macro thinks he is doing justice by killing Eddie, however is this right and should it be done? Should matters like this be settled with law like Alferi’s was trying to do and advise Eddie to leave things alone.
Therefore it seems natural to reason that Miller intended the title of the play to have some significance other than the geography of the location. The most obvious interpretation is of the audience sharing with Alfieri an unbiased overview of the unfolding of events. It is like being able to see from a bridge over a river, our vision uncluttered by opinions as it would be by the side of the river, or perhaps even as part of the river. Though, even Alfieri is not completely removed from the happenings of the play, he takes an active part in the play as well as providing the 'chorus´ character of the Greek format that Miller used. He is part of the American culture, but also part of the Italian culture, he also knew the family "I had represented his father in an accident case some years before, and I was acquainted with the family in a casual way." This is why he is able to give a balanced opinion and to counsel Eddie (though his advice is not understood or not taken in by Eddie). On the bridge we have time to form opinions, to judge other people, to 'settle for half´. There are other journeys between extremes that could be the 'bridge´ of the play, e.g. Eddie’s transformation into a character like the Vinnie Bolzano he described previously. Eddie’s unavoidable crossing from a happy family circumstance into the situation that Alfieri predicted "You won't have a friend in the world...Put it out of your mind". As Eddie changes in character and his desperation increases his view of the events unfolding is warped. However, I personally feel that the most likely reason for Arthur Miller’s naming of the play as "A View from the Bridge" is the obvious metaphor of the audience’s perspective. How the audience see what is happening, even though it is just the actions happening, not language, sometimes nothing is said, just the action and the way people react and the audience is in on it all the time.
