What biographical details about Miller are relevant to our understanding of the play? A view from the bridge.

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE: THE PLAY IN CONTEXT

What biographical details about Miller are relevant to our understanding of the play?

Arthur Miller, the son of illegal immigrants to America from Poland, was born in 1915 in New York City. Like many people, his father lost his business in the Depression and the family was forced to move to a smaller home in Brooklyn. After graduating from high school Miller began writing plays as a student at the University of Michigan, joining the Federal Theatre Project in New York City after he received his degree. He therefore understood the social status of illegal immigrants and the proletarian area of Brooklyn.

He spent some years working in the Brooklyn Naval shipyard as a longshoreman, which gave him direct sources for his play. The majority of the shipyard workers were underpaid immigrants to America, many of them from Italy and Sicily in particular, where the Mafia dominated society. This experience enabled Miller to describe realistically the society, politics and culture of the Italian immigrant community. Arthur Miller's experience of working in the Brooklyn docks as a longshoreman allows for the possibility that he based the play on personal accounts and accounts of people he knew in the local area. He would also have been able to see the control the Italian Mafia exercised over the unions.

Arthur Miller was a well-known socialist and was summoned before the House of Representatives UnAmerican Activities Committee as a communist sympathiser. This witch hunt led by Senator McCarthy inspired his play, The Crucible, which is another example of Miller writing a play from his own experience. A View from the Bridge is a political play written from a socialist point of view.

What is the historical context of the play?

A View from the Bridge is set in New York in the 1950s amongst the Italian immigrant community, many of whom are illegal and called 'submarines'. In the fifties immigrants ...

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What is the historical context of the play?

A View from the Bridge is set in New York in the 1950s amongst the Italian immigrant community, many of whom are illegal and called 'submarines'. In the fifties immigrants to America came from Ireland during the period of Protectionism that led to mass emigration, Spain and Italy, where there was great poverty and unemployment. The immigrants in this play come from Sicily, which was one of the poorest areas of Europe after the War. This was because of the power invested in the Mafia at the time.

What is the political context of the play?

The immigrants travelled to America to escape the extreme circumstances in their home countries. They went in search of the American Dream, which was denied them because of the discrimination they suffered under the right wing Government established in America at the time.

The policies of the American Government forced the immigrants to live in densely populated slums on the outskirts of the cities. They were wage slaves and were forced to seek day labour, especially in the docks, as is shown in A View from the Bridge. Anyone who became known as a left-wing political activist - usually within a trade union - was blacked and denied work.

What is the social context of the play?

The play A View from the Bridge was set in the proletarian slums of Brooklyn harbour, New York during the nineteen-fifties.

At this point in time, life for immigrants and other people of the working class was very tough as men received the minimum wage for hard labour in the Brooklyn docks. The immigrants tried to save some of their poor earnings to send home to their impoverished families, which is what Marco sets out to do in the play. However, the conflict between the characters in the play results in the destruction of this goal.

What is the cultural context of the play?

The play is based on the idea of the laws of the street, which revolved mainly around honour. This creates an alternative society with its own concept of justice, which differs from the constitutional law of America. Eddie upholds the law of the land when he informs the immigration authorities that Marco and Rodolfo are illegal immigrants, however, by doing this, he breaks the social and moral laws of his community.

The macho male dominant figure within the family demonstrated in the play by Eddie reflects the culture of Sicilian society and the power of the mores of the Mafia. In his society 'name' is everything and Eddie is destroyed by the loss of his reputation, and he cries out, "I want my name! ...Marco's got my name -..." (page 62)

The tragic outcome of the play is caused by the conflict between trying to maintain traditional Italian values within a very different society, where individuals are driven by desire to achieve the American Dream. Rodolfo and Catherine start to live the American dream, whilst Eddie and Marco cling to their Italian roots. Rodolfo buys American records and clothes as he prepares to settle in America, whilst Marco sends his money home to his family in Italy as is expected of a good Italian father. When Marco wants a traditionally Sicilian blood revenge against Eddie, Rodolfo argues with him for the first time and wants him to compromise so that he can have a future in America:

"MARCO - In my country he would be dead now. He would not live this long.

ALFIERI - All right, Rodolfo - you come with me now

RODOLFO - …Marco - promise the man. Please, I want you to watch the wedding. How can I be married and you're in here? Please, you're not going to do anything; you know you're not." (page 58)

This last speech by Rodolfo shows how powerless the immigrants are in a society where they are forced to compromise with a culture that is alien to them and to live by rules that go against their concept of justice and honour.