This essay will focus on a particular scene in "A View From The Bridge" where there is an argument and subsequent fight between Eddie Carbone and Rodolpho, an Italian illegal immigrant, nephew of Eddie's wife Beatrice.

This essay will focus on a particular scene in “A View From The Bridge” where there is an argument and subsequent fight between Eddie Carbone and Rodolpho, an Italian illegal immigrant, nephew of Eddie’s wife Beatrice. A view from the bridge by Arthur Miller is about the lives of the Carbone family who live in a slum in New York and how they help

A View From a Bridge is about a working class Italian immigrant community in the .Red Hook section of New York, and how they help hide illegal immigrants, to settle into America. The story focuses on the Carbone family, Eddie, Beatrice and their niece Catherine. They help Beatrice’s cousins Marco and Rodolpho who have illegally emigrated to America earn a living in order to send money home to their poverty stricken families in Sicily.

The central theme of the play is honour. I say this because Marco accuses Eddie of “ Killing my children”, this obviously dirties Eddie Carbone’s name. Eddie consequently then challenges Marco to a fight to clear his name. This results in Marco fatally stabbing Eddie in the concluding brawl at the end of the play. This scene comes at an important part of the play; this is because it sparks off the eventual fight between Eddie and Marco.

When studying a play clearly one of the most important areas of focus must be the dramatic technique used. Italian immigrant Marco subtly uses picking up a chair to prove that he is physically stronger than Eddie. It is also a warning t Eddie to stop bullying Rodolpho.

The end of Act One is a turning point for Miller’s play “A View from the Bridge”. This is because Eddie raises some highly controversial questions about Rodolpho’s sexuality when he says, “he sings, he cooks and he makes dresses” implying that he behaves like a traditional wife in an Italian American home. This is obviously a blatant dig at Rodolpho calling him feminine qualities, Rodolpho doesn’t understand. As a result of this scene the vendetta between Eddie, Rodolpho and Marco grows more serious leading up to a tragic finish at the end of the play.

The characters in this scene are Eddie, Catherine, Beatrice and two southern Italian immigrants called Marco and Rodolpho. Eddie and Beatrice are husband and wife who look after their young, seventeen year old, and impressionable niece Catherine. (Louis and Mike are long shoremen like Eddie who don’t come into the story often.). The scene reveals the characters’ personalities such as Eddie’s moaning, self-questioning and bitter attributes and Rodolpho’s camp and effeminate personality. Beatrice is Eddie’s loving, loyal wife who helped look after her niece Catherine all her life. She is a housewife and lives on Eddie’s wages. Catherine comes ...

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Marco is strong with a tough build. In a modern description he would be described as very much his own man where he doesn’t let others make his decisions. Eddie mentions that “ Nobody questions Marco,” suggesting that Marco is more than capable of defending himself. Marco shows us that he is quiet, reserved and tough. I can justify this because on page 58 he warns Eddie that he is a potential danger to him by raising a chair that Eddie fails to lift. Before we have seen Marco behaving in a reserved fashion because he seemed to have been keeping himself to himself.

In this part of the play Eddie behaves like a protective father, putting a curfew on the time that Catherine returns home. He also has the nerve to choose what men Catherine dates and what she wears. He wants to control her life even though she is old enough to get married. Eddie could advise Catherine on the people she goes out with but Eddie says on page 14 that he didn’t “like the looks” that she had been getting in the “candy store” furthermore he shows his disapproval about her waving to his friend Louis commenting “I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldn’t wave to him no more”. This suggests that Eddie at this point of the story is having trouble accepting that his niece has grown up and is becoming interested in men.

Marco’s behaviour suggests to the audience that he is getting sick and tired of Eddie’s antics. This is evident when Marco intervenes in the heated sparring match between Eddie and Rodolpho. Another example of the rivalry between Marco, Rodolpho and Eddie is when Marco lifts a chair that Eddie fails to; Marco greets this with a “Triumphant smile”. Rodolpho dances with Catherine after the sparring match with Eddie to show Eddie that he loves her and is not just after American Citizenship. This is a message to Eddie that he isn’t scared of him and will carry on his relationship with Catherine.

Rodolpho suggests that he was only “Surprised” when punched by Eddie, not physically hurt. This is an obvious cover up of his feelings; he is only being polite to Eddie because he is staying in his house. He might also not want to cause friction between Eddie and Beatrice.

Catherine’s behaviour suggests to us that she is in love with Rodolpho and is getting tired of Eddie’s resistance towards their relationship. Beatrice seems to be trying to break the tension in this scene, when she tries to restrain Eddie in the sparring match with Rodolpho when she tells him “ that’s enough, Eddie “ another example of this was on page 55 previously Rodolpho’s untypical man skills such as singing and cooking as “ Well its good, he could always make a living”.

The scene is set in the living room of Eddie and Beatrice’s apartment. We are told in the stage directions that the main acting area is the “living-room-dining-room of Eddie’s apartment and that it is a worker’s flat, clean, sparse and homely”. This setting is important because it gives the reader/audience an idea of where the action is happening.

Other stage directions show us that Miller is trying to create dramatic tension. For example on page 57 & 58 when Marco challenges Eddie to lift a chair saying “ Can you lift this chair?” Marco effortlessly lifting the chair holding it over Eddie’s head like a weapon follows this.

The main events in this section are Rodolpho and Eddie’s sparring match, Eddie questioning Rodolpho’s sexuality and Marco lifting the chair over Eddie’s head. In my opinion this is because it stirs up the eventual trouble between Eddie and Marco. I think Miller wants the audience to think that Marco is loyal and protective of his family. This is evident when he steps in to end the “sparring match” between Eddie and Rodolpho after his brother is punched on page 57. Another example of this was Marco settling the score with Eddie on page 58; he lifts a chair to taunt him that he is stronger than Eddie.

The role of the family is one of the main ones to be addressed in this section. This is particularly apparent when we see Eddie and Beatrice looking after their niece Catherine whose mother died.

The words and actions between Eddie and Rodolpho highlight the theme of masculinity which is important in Sicilian society. Eddie has a dig at Rodolpho’s unmanly streak commenting, “he sings, he cooks, he could make dresses”. A further example of this is on page 56 when Eddie challenges Rodolpho to a sparring match hinting to Rodolpho that he is camp and can’t defend himself.

Love is also an important theme in this scene because of the love triangle involving Catherine and Rodolpho who are in love with each other and Eddie who is secretly in love with Catherine. We know this because of the way Eddie prevents Catherine

The role of men and women in this scene can be linked to the traditional roles of the sexes at the time the play was set where men were expected to go out and earn money for the family whilst women stayed at home as housewives.

All of the elements I have above make this scene dramatically powerful and tense. Miller may have wanted this because this would capture the audience.

This scene is important because the feud between Rodolpho, Marco and Eddie matures into a vendetta. My favourite part of the scene is when Marco raises a chair to prove that he is stronger than Eddie.

Miller uses a variety of dramatic techniques. An example of this is the tension between Marco and Eddie, Rodolpho and Eddie and Eddie’s jealousy over Catherine’s love for Rodolpho. He does this to create tension and anticipation for the audience.

EMMET MURPHY

GCSE ENGLISH 2002