In many ways, 'AVFB' is a typical 20th Century tragedy because it involves acts of violence and death. There is also a tragic hero in the play, who causes most of the problems however we feel sympathy for him when he dies at the end

A View From the Bridge

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In many ways, ‘AVFB’ is a typical 20th Century tragedy because it involves acts of violence and death. There is also a tragic hero in the play, who causes most of the problems however we feel sympathy for him when he dies at the end.

At the start of the play, Arthur Miller creates audience sympathy for Eddie because he talks about the play, and his predictable ending by Alfieri. He talks about Eddies’ character as a hardworking, responsible and caring man towards his family. He has a strong sense of loyalty towards his community and feels it is ‘an honour’ to help the immigrants and to keep their secret. He also looks out for Catherine, his niece and protects her like a daughter and loves his wife. In the beginning we would judge Eddie as a typical Italian man who goes by the rules and has respect for his family.

From the start of the play we can tell that Eddie really cares about Catherine. However further into the play he becomes overprotective for her by controlling what she wears, where she goes and almost trying to stop her from growing up. He may not realise this but to the audience it looks like he is being too possessive over her. When Rodolpho enters in the play we start seeing more changes in Eddies behaviour. Catherine and Rodolpho get along very well and this makes Eddie feel uncomfortable. We notice that he is always trying to put Rodolphos hopes and dreams about becoming a rich American citizen down and tries to make him look pathetic and bad. ‘ Why don’t you just walk, or take a trolley or sump’m?’

In the beginning Beatrice and Eddie seem like a happy married couple. This is the case until Eddie’s feelings and protectiveness over Catherine are taken a step forward. He is more concerned about Catherine and Rodolpho’s relationship than his and Beatrice. His sexual relationship with her has also broken down and he refuses to discuss anything about their relationship with her. Beatrice notices there is something more to his feelings for Catherine than he would admit to. She tells Catherine to act differently now that she’s a grown woman in the same house as a grown man. By now we get an idea of how obsessed he is over Catherine but it seems like he is getting too wrapped up in her business and we can obviously tell it is making him jealous.

Eddies character starts to deteriorate at the end of Act 1. He talks to Alfieri and tells him all his thoughts and feelings about Catherine and Rodolpho. Eddie believes Rodolpho only wants Catherine so he can be a citizen. ‘He’s only bowin’ to his passport’. This seems like a good point and could be true but like Beatrice says, ‘He’ll say anything…is it was a prince came here for you it would be no different.’

When he is talking about Rodolpho he tries to make him look very low class like he is not a real man, possibly homosexual, although ...

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When he is talking about Rodolpho he tries to make him look very low class like he is not a real man, possibly homosexual, although he does not say this but the audience can figure it out. ‘…. They’re laughin’ at him on the piers…paper doll they call him’. It sounds like he is talking about a girl but he is referring to Rodolpho.

Although Eddie is getting frustrated and annoyed about Catherine and Rodolpho, he does not consider reporting them to the immigration office as an option, so by this we can see he still wants to stick to values of loyalty towards his people. ‘…I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that,’. We are more or less convinced that he will not be taking that step. This takes away some tension but he continues to talk about looking out for Catherine and even keeping her to himself. ‘She’s stealing her from me!’. Alfieri realises he is acting too possessively over Catherine and decides to confront him with this; ‘she can’t marry you, can she?’. Eddie refuses to listen to what Alfieri has to say. His reaction sounds unsettled possibly because he did not expect to hear this, ‘What’re you talkin’ about, Marry me! I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about!’.

At the end of act 1 Eddie wants to show Rodolpho how to fight. Instead of being gentle Eddie is physically violent towards him. Although he wants people to think it was not intentional, we know there was a reason for his violence, like a warning. At this point the audience will start to think Eddie is beginning to lose control over his feelings. ‘He senses he is exposing the issue and is driven on’. Already his character is showing some changes that have a predictable downhill outcome. However Marco challenges him with the chair, but Eddie fails to pick the chair up with one hand. Marco manages to do it without any problems. The audience will assume that the purpose of the challenge was to warn Eddie from doing anything stupid to Rodolpho, as the chair acts as a weapon to make him realise he is not as firm as he thinks he is.

The following Act shows some of Eddie’s foolishness, he does things that you would imagine to be his lowest points. Eddie realises he has no control over Catherine and therefore takes matters further. He makes a move on Catherine, kisses her, then turns to Rodolpho and does the same. At this instant most people would be very shocked and horrified about his actions. After kissing Rodolpho, he tells Alfieri that ‘he didn’t give me the right kind of fight, Mr Alfieri the guy aint right’. This suggests he thinks Rodolpho did not try to get him off and once again in some way he tries to convey that he may be homosexual.

Some may understand the purpose of the kiss to be a test to prove Rodolpho is not a real man. Others may think he is just taking the situation too far and cant control his feelings towards Catherine. What he does makes Catherine feel disgusted and makes the audience start to anticipate what will happen next.

He then turns to Alfieri for further advice on what to do but Alfieri tells him he has ‘no rights’ and ‘she is a free agent’ Eddie feels there is only one more way to turn. He takes matter to the immigration office and reports Rodolpho as an immigrant. At this stage Eddie looks like a hypocrite as he is going back on his word earlier in the play when he says he would never call the immigration. So could this be his lowest point?

After doing this the audience will have lost sympathy for him as he has done almost everything to ruin their happiness and going to this extent to protect his niece is unnecessary really. It is quite obvious now that he wants Catherine to himself and he is not doing all this for her safety; this makes us think of him as a selfish person as he does not want to let go although she is happy.

The relationship between Catherine and Eddie changes after the kiss. Catherine invites Eddie to the wedding but does not seem really bothered, ‘if you wanna come, the wedding be on Saturday’. Further on in the act, Eddie is talking to Beatrice about the chances of Rodolpho and Marco getting caught being in the apartment. This is strange because now he sounds like he is concerned and worried for them. However it may just be an act to make it look like he cares about the two so he does not get suspected of anything.

As Catherine and Beatrice watch Marco and Rodolpho being taken away they are devastated. Marco accuses Eddie in front of everyone and spits into his face before leaving. ‘He killed my children! That one stole the food from my children.’ Marcos reaction was very spiteful and shows the town how much damage Eddie has caused for the family. The whole neighbourhood has been let down by Eddie including his friends and family. His character as a typical Italian has been brought down.

Eddie now realises that he has a bad reputation in the town and is desperate to get his ‘name’ back. ‘I want my name...Marco’s got my name’. Only Marco can clear things up and can give him back his respect if he apologises. The audience will be very surprised by the way he is denying it and insisting for his ‘name’ even though he knows well he is guilty. The problem is he wont admit to this, which makes things more complicated. I think the audience couldn’t care less about what happens to him at this stage because they would so irritated at his childish behaviour that he is seen as an enemy to the others.

Further on the wedding day arrives. Beatrice and Catherine are prepared but Eddie refuses to let Beatrice go and makes her chose between the wedding and him. He is still unable to face the truth and will only agree to the wedding if Marco gives his ‘name’ back in front of the neighbourhood. The audience will acknowledge him as a stubborn character. Beatrice also confronts him with his feelings again, ‘you can never have her’. This shocks Eddie, as he seems to want to hide his true feelings throughout the play and finds it offensive when he is told.

The play ends soon after this as Marco and Rodolpho appear. Eddie and Marco are now face to face with Marco still furious over Eddie and Eddie asking for his apology. The two are not able to compromise and therefore leads into physical action from Eddie. The knife he aims at Marco is turned around back to himself and leaves him dying in the arms of Beatrice with the last words being, ‘My B.’ The way Eddie dies and his last words make the play tragic and although he did wrong, we end up feeling sympathy for him. The audience will find it sad that he had to leave his beloved wife in that condition over such a meaningless issue. Pathetic

At the end of the play Arthur Miller creates audience sympathy for Eddie by the way in which he dies. As the tragic hero, most of the audience will now feel sorry for Eddie even though he caused the problems. His final words also make us realise after all he did love Beatrice a lot and it was not worth taking his life for. Alfieri’s speech also creates a sad atmosphere as he describes what he thought of Eddies ‘wholly known’ character. ‘I think I will love him more than my sensible clients.’ This suggests he was a good person at heart and has gained a good place in ones heart even though the direction he was heading in was predictable to Alfieri.

Throughout the play, Alfieri makes speeches about his views of the family and state of affairs. He has a similar role of playing the chorus and describing the situation from his point of view. This goes back to the name of the title. As an Italian lawyer, Alfieri has come across similar cases like Eddies and in each one has seen a similar ending. In the play he tells us that he could see every step coming. He describes Eddie’s eyes as ‘tunnels’ like darkness to him. My interpretation to this would be that he is trying to say Eddie had an almost chilling look that made it more clear to Alfieri how this would end. He tells his speeches like he can see all the things that will happen and that will happen similar to the meaning of ‘A view from the bridge’, in both cases there is a clear outlook of all the aspects. He talks about times when he felt ‘powerless’ over the ‘bloody course’ as if there was a sense of destiny about it that couldn’t be stopped. No matter who Alfieri asked for help or how much he tried to keep Eddie from doing the wrong thing he would not listen. Once Eddie had lost control over his thoughts and feelings, there was no going back, which is a typical feature of a tragedy as the downfall of the ‘hero’ is often inevitable.

By Hasina