In A View From The Bridge, Show How The Audience's Opinion Of Eddie Changes.

In A View From The Bridge, Show How The Audience’s Opinion Of Eddie Changes. Refer To The Dramatic Effects Of A Few Key Scenes

A View From The Bridge is a play by Arthur Miller. It was first produced as a one-act play in verse in 1955, and had the name of An Italian Tragedy. The play is rooted in the late 1940’s when Miller became interested in the works and lives of the communities of the longshoremen of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge where he had previously worked. He mentioned it in his autobiography Timebends as ‘waterfront was the Wild West, a desert beyond the law’, where was populated and worked by people who came to America seeking the ‘American Dream’, wealth, work and security which their own countries could not guarantee. This play was set in the 1950’s, and at that time America was seen as the land of opportunity for many people, to start a new life, escape their past or just for a change, people believed America held the key. However this was not the case, as immigrants often lived in the most run down parts of town and found themselves out of work and with little money to live on the or send their families at home. Miller was concerned with this living through the depression, which bankrupted his father, and he saw the effects on the ordinary people. It was during this time that Miller heard a story from one of his lawyer friend of ‘a longshoremen who had “ratted” to the immigration bureau on two brothers, his own relatives, who were living illegally in his very home, in order to break an engagement between one of them and his niece. ’ This story became the model of A View From The Bridge when he paid a visit to Sicily and saw the awkward situation of the Italians without work and food, combined with his own experiences of Italian immigrant workers in Brooklyn. Miller also wanted this play to be a modern version of a Greek Tragedy, in which a central character is led by fate towards an inevitable destiny; thus when the final version of A View From The Bridge was published in 1956, he retained much of the content of the verse but transformed it into prose. In this essay I shall discuss how the audience’s opinion of the central character of the play, Eddie Carbone, changes and the factors that influence them.

In the opening scene, when Eddie first appears on stage, the way he acts toward Catherine shows he is a responsible guardian, but a rather over-protective one.

‘I promised your mother on her deathbed. I’m responsible for you. You are a baby, you don’t understand these things.’

The audience would feel Eddie wants to apply strict rules to Catherine, he doesn’t want Catherine to meet any boys, and maybe not to meet the world at all. He’s not good at expressing himself either:

‘You been given’ me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it.’ ; ‘I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m tellin’ you you’re walking wavy.’

Later in the scene when Catherine told them that she’s getting a job, Eddie showed his worries and rejected the idea almost immediately, which ensured the audience about the ideas of Eddie is over-protective and wants to keep Catherine inside his house. He came up with all sorts of reasons just to stop Catherine from getting a job, ‘I don’t like the neighbourhood around there’; ‘Near the Navy Yard plenty can happen in a block and half! And a plumbin’ company!’ Even after Beatrice talked to him and he finally agreed to it, he still said to Catherine (smiling but hurt)

‘Why not? That’s life. And you’ll come visit on Sundays, then once a month, then Christmas and New Year’s, finally.’

From his speech the audience would still get the idea of Eddie doesn’t want to let Catherine go to work. Then Alfieri gives a speech about him:

‘He was as good a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived. ’

This would influence audience’s opinion of Eddie that he has lots of love for his family, he work hard to get the money to support his family, and if he’s a little bit too protective over his niece, Catherine, then that’s understandable because in this house he is the man who had met many other men, and he may think the world ...

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‘He was as good a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived. ’

Then Beatrice’s cousin came as illegal immigrants. Eddie was a little bit worried at that time, and told a story of a boy called Vinnie Bolzano and how his family and community for snitching to the immigration office on his uncle alienated him. Miller has used dramatic irony here, hinting the audience that the similar situation would happen and Eddie did what he taught his niece not to.

Afterwards the cousin came to stay, and Eddie got suspicious and worried when Rodolfo got all the attention from Catherine, especially when Rodolfo sings “Paper Doll”. ‘Look, kid; you don’t want to be picked up, do ya?’ He warns Rodolfo about ‘They got guys all over the place,’ but the audience would deduce that he doesn’t want Rodolfo to influence Catherine, and he’s aware Rodolfo might steal Catherine away from him.

Ever since the cousins came, Eddie’s dislike for Rodolfo grew bigger day by day. He had talked to Beatrice; ‘Paper Doll they’re callin’ him, Canary. He’s like a weird.’ then to Catherine directly, ‘Katie, he’s only bowin’ to his passports.’ and to Alfieri as well when he sought help in law, but no one is with him.

When he asked Catherine if she likes Rodolfo, her answer was ‘yes’ – and his ‘smile goes’, and was astonished. He kept on thinking ‘the guy ain’t right’, which would hint the audience into thinking maybe the whole thing isn’t Rodolfo’s fault at all, maybe Eddie is just acting up because he felt ‘invaded’ – because before the cousins came, he had Catherine all to himself, and all of a sudden she puts all her attention onto Rodolfo, he would feel Rodolfo is ‘stealing’ from him.

During his conversation with Alfieri, Eddie got furious:

‘I take the blanket off my bed for him, and he takes and puts his filthy hands on her like a goddam thief!’

But Alfieri then pointed out a new possibility, which would very much likely to change the audience’s opinion for Eddie again:

‘She wants to get married, Eddie. She can’t marry you, can she?’

On one hand his speech pointed out that Eddie kept Catherine as a baby for too long, it is time to let go; on the other hand his speech also hinted that Eddie might have the wrong sort of feeling for Catherine, he is not seeing her as his niece but also as a woman – his woman. He may have sexual feelings for her but doesn’t want to admit it – just like Eddie’s reaction:

‘(furiously) What’re you talkin’ about, marry me! I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about!’

Actually Eddie, Alfieri and the audience know perfectly well what he meant, but because Eddie was ‘furious’, the audience would also get the idea that Eddie was afraid of admitting it because it wouldn’t be morally right to have sexual feelings for his niece, especially when he is already married.

After seeking help in law was unsuccessful, Eddie was desperate to show Catherine that Rodolfo ‘ain’t right’, by means he’s homosexual, he’s gay. Therefore when he heard Rodolfo also cooks and makes dresses, he was even more determined about his point, thus asked Rodolfo to box with him.

He acted friendly toward him at first, teaching him nicely, but then he hit Rodolfo and ‘mildly staggers’ him, but doesn’t apologise. ‘Why? I didn’t hurt him.’ Then he ‘rubs the back of his hand across his mouth’ in a sort of threatening way, and the audience can now deduce that the whole point of the boxing was to show the rest of the family (especially Catherine) that Rodolfo ‘ain’t right’; he is weak; he can’t do what a man ought to do; all he’s good at is singing, dancing, cooking and making dresses which in Eddie’s opinion would be feminine stuff, therefore he’s homosexual.

Eddie is trying to convince Catherine and Beatrice to see what he sees, however the audience may not agree with him, because the ability of singing, dancing, cooking and making dresses couldn’t prove that he’s homosexual; the audience would rather believe in that Eddie’s jealous of Rodolfo taking away Catherine’s attention but is afraid of admitting it, so he came up with ideas about ‘he’s a blond so he ain’t right’, and now he has really crossed line and hit Rodolfo.

Marco, who always had respect for Eddie, seemed to think he’s gone to far as well. Therefore he ‘takes a chair, places it in front of Eddie, and looks down at it’. Then he asked Eddie if he can lift the chair at the certain point, but Eddie fails. So Marco shows him –

‘He kneels, grasps, and with stain slowly raises the chair higher and higher.’

The dramatic tension built up instantly here as Miller used the stage direction to show:

‘(Marco) getting to his feet now, Rodolfo and Catherine have stopped dancing as Marco raises the chair over his head. Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head -’

They are clearly showing that Marco is challenging Eddie just like Eddie challenged Rodolfo,

‘And he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look.’

At this point the audience (and Eddie) would find out that Marco is using his body language saying ‘you degraded my brother. My blood. Rodolfo might not be stronger than you, but I am.’ Just like the way Eddie has been hinting the family that Rodolfo is not a real man. Marco apparently found that very offensive, degrading his family, his bloodline, therefore he did the same thing to Eddie to prove he’s the man so ‘don’t mess with us’.

The audience would now sympathise with Marco because the way Eddie was humiliating Rodolfo was too harsh, therefore he should be warned before things get worse...

Thus the plot comes to Alfieri, the lawyer, also the narrator of the play. Because Miller wanted this play to be a modern version of a Greek Tragedy, Alfieri takes the part of a chorus, where he spoke mostly direct to the audience, told them what happened offstage, commenting on the characters and told them what to think and what is going to happen. Miller had used Alfieri wisely to solve his problem of making the play continuous over the wide time scale (months), when the traditional Greek Tragedy only have a short time scale, at worst, 24 hours.

In this case when Alfieri had another conversation with Eddie, he was quite alarmed about him doing the worst thing therefore warned him:

‘You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even the ones who feel the same will turn against you, event he ones who feel the same will despise you!’

Alfieri knew all the way what is going to happen, ever since he told Eddie that the law cannot stop the marriage even if Rodolfo is homosexual, the only thing that Rodolfo did against the law is that he entered the country illegally. Although Eddie claimed ‘Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that’, Alfieri knew all along it is going to happen, ‘as a dark figure walking down the hall towards a certain door’, and he knew if Eddie had done it, he would have broke the social ‘code’ of his community – not to snitch on illegal immigrants, especially not on his relatives – and be alienated, everyone will see him as a dishonourable man who snitched on his niece’s fiancé.

Apart from Alfieri’s speech which made the audience think and guess what is to happen; Miller had once again used the stage direction and lights to show the dramatic effort of this event.

When Alfieri first sensed what he feared is to come, ‘a phone booth begins to glow on the opposite side of the stage’. Miller had effectively used the colour of the light – ‘a faint, lonely blue’ – to show the inevitable ending is going to be tragic, full of sadness and loneliness as the desperate Eddie will be alienated.

Inevitably, Eddie called the immigration bureau. But when they questioned him, he said ‘with greater difficulty’ of he’s ‘just around the neighbourhood’, and when ‘he is being questioned further, he slowly hung up.’ The audience would feel that Eddie does not wish to call the immigration office at all, as he knew the story of Vinnie Bolzano before, he told Catherine

‘A guy doing things like that? How’s he gonna show his face? Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stolen than a word that you gave away.’

Eddie knew what is to come when he does call the immigration, he knew his community will alienate him but he had to do it; because he’s desperate because of the engagement between Catherine and Rodolfo, he had done everything else he could. The audience would know that if there is another way, calling the immigration would be the last thing he wants to do.

And so is his family, when they had realised what Eddie had done. Beatrice was the first to realise after the immigration officers came, she ‘turned her head away’ when Eddie pretend to be innocent, and he went all ‘pugnaciously, furious’, and accused her ‘what’s the matter with you?’ Then Beatrice was ‘weakened with fear’, ‘pressing her palms against her face’, and repeated several time ‘oh my God, my God’. Finally ‘her final thrust is to turn toward him instead of running from him’ and said ‘my God, what did you do?’

Marco, who was taken away with Rodolfo, ‘suddenly breaks from the group and dashes into the room and faces Eddie; Beatrice and First Officer rush in as Marco spits into Eddie’s face’. The audience would know that at this point Marco is clearly hating Eddie of him taking away his chance of working.

Catherine, who was fighting with the officers unsuccessfully, had watched Rodolfo being taken away and returned ‘blank-eyed’. Apparently she was very shocked.

The rest of the community, who were watching the whole process, had also turned away from Eddie. Lipari and his wife exits ignoring him as their relatives have been taken away with Marco and Rodolfo; Louis, Eddie’s buddy ‘barely turns, then walks off’, leaving Eddie shouting frantically ‘I give them the blanket off my bed!’

But the worse is still to come, Catherine hated Eddie. And the audience knew that Eddie went through all this just for Catherine, but he hasn’t got what he wanted and had lost Catherine as well. He was very much hurt when Catherine cried ‘He bites people when they sleep! He comes when nobody’s lookin’ and poisons decent people. In the garbage he belongs!’ as he ‘seems about to pick up the table and fling it at her.’ The audience may pity Eddie a little at this point as Eddie didn’t think he had sacrificed so much to trade for this.

After Rodolfo, Catherine came, and Eddie claimed ‘I want my name!’ Beatrice finally spits out what she wanted to say for long, ‘You want somethin’ else Eddie, and you can never have her!’ The effect on this phrase was dramatic, as Catherine cried ‘B.!’ ‘in horror’, and Eddie ‘(crying out in agony) that’s what you think of me – that I would have such a thoughts? ’and ‘His fists clench his head as though it will burst.’ Clearly even at this point, Eddie still does not want to admit he has got sexual feelings for Catherine, he still think of it as dirty, unmoral thoughts.

It is nearly the end of the play when Marco came to Eddie’s house, calling ‘Eddie Carbone!’ Eddie acted ‘as though flinging his challenge’, and answered ‘Yeah, Marco! Eddie Carbone. Eddie Carbone. Eddie Carbone.’ This built up a dramatic tension here as Eddie repeated his name three times in a threatening way, and both the audience and Eddie knew that Marco is seeking for revenge.

But it is even more dramatic when Eddie is ‘incensing himself and little bits of laughter even escape him as his eyes are murderous and he cracks his knuckles in his hands with a strange sort of relaxation’. Miller has yet again used the stage direction successfully to build up an dramatic tension as two enemies met together.

At the end Eddie ‘springs a knife into his hand’, ‘lunges with the knife’ and tried to stab Marco. But Marco is stronger than him, he ‘grabs his arm, turning the blade inward and pressing it home’. Even though it is an inevitability, to the audience’s huge astonishment, Marco had killed Eddie.

The audience now would pity Eddie a little but not so sympathise with Marco, because from inside Eddie is a decent man, who took a step wrong towards his tragic ending, but for whatever he did, he does not deserve death. Although Marco had several reasons to hate Eddie, to want revenge, he still had not the right to kill him.

The whole play ends when ‘the light have gone down, leaving him (Alfieri) in a glow’ and he gives a speech about Eddie:

‘Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better... And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be!’

This speech can connect back to the start of Act 2 when Catherine suggested Rodolfo to live back in Italy because Eddie doesn’t want them to be married; so it will be a ‘half-half’ for all of them and may settle for a better ending. However the end in inevitable, thus Alfieri commented:

‘...and even as I know how wrong he was, and his death useless, I tremble, for I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory – not purely good, but himself purely, for he allowed himself to be wholly known...’

Again he had commented on Eddie is a decent man, he did not snitch to the immigration for nothing, he only did this when he had no other choice. Alfieri is pitying Eddie, thus the audience would pity them as well. Although he is rather a folly, but people can’t blame him fully, for that he has already lost his life as a severe punishment.

As a conclusion, A View From The Bridge dealt with the struggle of a man, who wants to keep his family together. The audience’s opinion of that man, Eddie, changes throughout the play, and was often influenced by character’s speech, their actions, and more importantly, by the ‘chorus’, Alfieri. This is because the language of the characters is also a key part in the play, since the characters are Italian-Americans, Miller uses ‘bad’ English and a lot of slang language. Only Alfieri speaks with poise and sophistication, he is a well-educated lawyer from middle class and he was not really involved in the play. Therefore it will be more convincing to believe what he said is unbiased rather than all other main characters on stage.

On the other hand Miller had also successfully used stage direction and stage lights to build the dramatic effort of the play, and helps the reader/audience to understand more, and made A View From The Bridge full of drama and suspense.

By Victoria Miao

10M

English GCSE

Mr. Stubbings