Marco and Rodolpho are Beatrice’s cousins, they come to America to stay with Catherine, Eddie and Beatrice. Marco has a wife and three children, one of which is sick”I have three children” the older one is sick in his chest”. Rodolpho has no wife and soon Catherine has an infatuation for him. They both come to America to earn some money. They both have contradictory ideas for the money that they are going to earn. Marco wants to send all of the money he attains, to his wife.
“My wife I want to send right away may twenty”
Rodolpho on the other hand wants to disburse it on himself and buy a motor cycle,”I will buy a morotcycle”. The agitation starts when Marco and Rodolpho arrive.
The calamity is the most powerful theme in this play. There are other themes like family loyalty, relationships and the law. Alfiere tells you about the play at the beginning of the acts, he is the commentator as well as a character in this play. It was originally only one act but has now become two acts, with Alfieri linking the lapse in time between the acts.
Catherine and Eddie are very close. Catherine in the beginning of this play always wants Eddie’s approval over everything. She always wants to try an please him, “You like it”, “I’ll get you a beer”. Eddie is a longshorman, who works in the docks from Brooklyn Bridge. He is fourty years old and speaks slang “gotta”. He is overprotective towards Catherine and is invariably aware of her sexual attractions, from the beginning, “I think its too short”. You been givin me the willies the way you walk (act one)
Eddie does not let Catherine grow up even though she is seventeen years old “kid”, he still thinks she is a baby. In this play Eddie is thought to be the tragic hero who has flaw. But I think that when Marco and Rodolpho comes his behaviour towards them makes him loose his heroic qualities.
He starts to loose his heroic fascination when Catherine and Rodolpho begin to be engrossed in each other. He starts to dislike Rodolpho and starts to be pleasant to Marco =. But Eddie soon betrays Marco as well as the entire family.
This play is mainly set in the apartment. This play has a composite set which includes a telephone kiosk, Alfiere’s office and the street outside as well as the apartment. One of the most tragic incidents in the setting is that arrest of Marco and Rodolpho. This was what Eddie did when his jealousy over Catherine and Rodolpho’s relationship, turned hostile against them. It is tragic because Eddie has told immigration about his family, they are his wife’s family and he has betrayed them. I think that betraying his family was one of the biggest mistakes Eddie made after having more than just fatherly love for Catherine, “Think of that guy layin his ……..”. Betraying his family shows that Eddie does not have that mush Italian blood in him as an Italian would never betray his family the way he did, just because jealousy got the better of him. Family loyalty is very important to Italians.
The stage direction plays a big part. It tells you how the characters felt at that particular moment.
“Eddie breaks into a smile, but it almost seems that tears will fall in his eyes” Act one)
A tragic section in the stage direction was when Marco spits on Eddies face. “Marco spits on Eddie’s face”. It was tragic because you knew from the spit that Marco felt hurt, anger and betrayal from Eddie.
Eddie has flaw in his character. We know this because he accuses Rodolpho of something he has not done and then he wants to bring the law into it. He goes to Alfiere but his plan backfires because Rodolpho has not broken any laws, “Because there is no law”. The only law is being an illegal immigrant in America. At first Eddie is reluctant about telling immigration that he comes to a decision and decides that the only thing left for him to do is to inform immigration. “I wouldn’t do notin, about that”. In Alfiere chorus you know that Eddie is going to do something inadequate and that there will be a tragic ending.
“I could see every step coming step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door”.
In act 2 Alfiere sets the scene which also leads you to thinking that there is going to be a tragic ending like the date of the scene. “Twenty third of that December”. There is a time lapse between the two secne as act 1 is set early in the year.
There is a great deal of imagery used in this play. Especially the bridge
Because you associate bridges with links to certain things. Like in this play there is a link between families. The bridge is used in the title and in the paly itself, as it is set in the shadows of Brooklyn Bridge. Also” The Bridge” is where Eddie works. s