In what ways are the scene where Eddie kisses Rodolpho and Catherine and the final scene of Arthur Miller's 'A view from a bridge' particularly dramatic? Explain what effect these scenes might have on an audience.

In what ways are the scene where Eddie kisses Rodolpho and Catherine and the final scene of Arthur Miller’s ‘A view from a bridge’ particularly dramatic? Explain what effect these scenes might have on an audience

  In this essay I hope to show how the drama in the two scenes mentioned in the title might effect an audience. These scenes are from Arthur Miller’s ‘A view from a Bridge’. Arthur Miller wrote ‘A view from a Bridge’ in 1955.

  Arthur Miller was born on 17th October 1915 in Manhattan, New York. His father was a manufacturer of ladies coats. This meant that Arthur Miller had a privileged upbringing. But in 1929 the Great Depression affected most of America and the Miller family couldn’t afford to live in Manhattan so moved to Brooklyn. In his lifetime Arthur Miller has written a variety of plays, short stories and screenplays. Four of his most famous plays are ‘The man who had all the luck’, ‘All my sons’, ‘The Crucible’, and ‘Death of a Salesman’.  

 ‘A view from a Bridge’ is about two Italian immigrants. It was written in a time when there was the largest movement of people to the USA in human history. Between 1820 and 1920 over 4 million Italians moved to America. The Italians went to America because it offered them jobs and opportunities. They were used for cheap labour and were often cheated and exploited. Most Americans thought Italians were all violent and dangerous, therefore were wary of them.

  The plot in ‘AVFTB’ is about two Italian brothers, Rodolpho and Marco, who move to America to work. They live with their cousin Beatrice, her husband Eddie and their niece Catherine. Eddie quite fancies Catherine but won’t admit it and gets jealous when Rodolpho and Catherine start going out. He is so jealous he calls immigration, When Rodolpho and Marco go back to the apartment where Eddie, Catherine and Beatrice live Eddie tries to stab Marco, but Marco turns the knife and stabs Eddie.

  There is a lot of jealousy in this scene as Eddie comes in and finds Catherine and Rodolpho coming out of the bedroom. Catherine adjusts her dress while in front of Eddie to make a point that he doesn’t control her and that she is a grown woman now. Eddie pretends to not notice and sneers ‘Rodolpho makin’ you a dress?’ He is trying to wind up Catherine and is insulting Rodolpho. When Rodolpho comes to the bedroom door Eddies arm jerks and the audience can tell he is furious and upset. Eddie tells Rodolpho to pack his things and Catherine goes to get her stuff. Eddie grabs her arm and she is ‘trembling with fright’. This is the start of all the trouble. The audience can sense that there is going to be trouble with Rodolpho and Eddie as they clash over Catherine. Catherine says to Eddie ‘I think I can’t stay here no more…..Oh, Eddie, don’t be like that!’ All through this she is speaking in short sentences and she clasps her hands to show how desperate she is. This is a very dramatic speech and as she sobs the audience feel sorry for her and start to dislike Eddie. The tension is added to when Eddie breaks Catherine off mid sentence and pulls her into a kiss. She struggles to free herself and this is dramatic as the audience automatically compare it to earlier in the scene when she was kissing Rodolpho. The stage directions in this section of the play are very frantic and there are a lot of desperate movements, for example when Rodolpho pulls on Eddie arm to get him away from Catherine or when Rodolpho flies at Eddie in attack. There is a lot of punctuation in the speech here to show how the words are being spoken. For example there are a lot explanation marks to show that the words are being spoken energetically. When Eddie pulls Rodolpho into a kiss Catherine shouts things at him that she normally wouldn’t and that are so out of character for her to let the audience see how shocked, upset and disgusted she is at Eddie. ‘Let go, ya hear me! I’ll kill you! Leggo of him!’ She then tears at Eddie’s face. The stage directions are very detailed at this point and the audience can tell how much hatred is being aimed at Eddie.  ‘They are like animals that have torn at one another and broken up without a decision, each waiting for the others mood’’ The way Eddie says a short sentence to Catherine then to turns to Rodolpho and speaks a short sentence to him shows he is anxious. Eddie moves to the door backwards so he can always see Rodolpho. This shows he is still nervous and wary. He is keeping his eye on Rodolpho so he can anticipate his actions and see if he is going to attack him again. The characterisation in this scene makes the audience feel sorry for Catherine, she only wants to be happy and Eddie is stopping her be with the man she loves. The audience feel hatred and dislike towards Eddie as he is preventing Catherine and Rodolpho from being together and is casting doubts into Catherine’s mind about Rodolpho. They also feel sympathy towards Rodolpho because he is being made our as a liar and a user. Eddie is still saying that he only wants to marry Catherine because he wants an American passport as he did in previous scenes. ‘Katie, he’s only bowin’ to his passport… he marries you he’s got his right to be an American citizen.’