Marco’s character appears passive for a large amount of the play but we can see that he is neutral as long as Eddie does not interfere with his family or their in America. Only at these occasions does Marco stand up against Eddie, we see an explosion of Marco’s stress towards Eddie when they are taken by the immigration officers. This is because his family is involved making the background of the characters build up the tension of the play, ‘that one he killed my children! That one he killed my children! He stole the food from my children!’ shows his anger towards Eddie because Eddie’s unjustified anger towards Rodolpho has caused his family to suffer.
The presence of minor characters such as Lipari and Louis, although they don’t say much or anything add to the tension by their uninvited presence in the dramatic scene, for example when the officers take Marco and Rodolpho away and Marco spits in Eddie’s face we witness the disgracing of Eddie by the neighborhood, At this point all good views for Eddie are lost, this is a decision made by Arthur Miller to add to the tension just by the presence of characters, and when the people leave Eddie on his own, it is like the whole world is against him. This is exactly the same thing that happened to Vinny Bolzano who did the same thing as Eddie and snitched. ‘… Like Vinny Bolzano, remember Vinny? Beatrice: Oh, yeah. God forbid.’ This mention of Vinny at the beginning of the play pretenses what is going to happen to Eddie.
In the first Act we see the tension brought on by the argument between Beatrice and Eddie about Catherine working, showing Eddie’s over protection and Beatrice’s encouragement of Catherine. This makes the audience’s tension rise because of the suspense of the arrival of the submarines, how will the submarines affect the current situation? On their arrival the differences between the two of them are clear; the looks of Rodolpho give Eddie reason to criticize him and one of his views for his resentment of him being with Catherine. When seeing Catherine’s attraction to him he immediately is against him and complains about his singing and asks him to stop saying that it will attract attention to them. Although this true his reason for it is to stop him almost luring Catherine away from him.
We later see Beatrice’s and Eddie’s argument over Catherine and her choices, Eddie states his resentment towards Rodolpho clearly and his self righteousness of his views. This argument between them builds tension on their relationship and there’s between Catherine and also Catherine’s between Rodolpho. He questions where she has gone and what she does when she comes back from an evening with Rodolpho. He is obviously paranoid and over suspicious of Rodolpho’s and her actions. Rodolpho obviously tries his best to be on Eddie’s best side but as is revealed later this would be impossible because of Eddie’s love for Catherine.
We see the spurious companionship between Eddie and the Group in the end of act one, at one point Rodolpho corrects him about a fact and acts like he knows the answers, building tension in the atmosphere and the characters. Eddie’s tension is made clear through the whole of the play and especially in this scene, the rocking chair is where his tension can be heard the noise of the chair would get louder and faster the tenser Eddie gets. He also grabs a newspaper at one point and clenches it, also showing tension in him. In the scene Eddie teaches Rodolpho how to box, treating it as a kind invitation and is really an excuse to show his superiority and just to punch him, This tension can only be seen by the audience, the atmosphere is clearly uneasy at this point. His use of sarcasm at this stage provides tension as the Americans and the audience are the only ones who can pick out this tone of voice seen in Eddie. After this boxing bout between the characters we see Marco standing up to his family as explained before and has a chair lifting contest with Eddie, this builds the before non existent tension between the two characters, this shows Marco’s physical superiority towards Eddie.
Instead of like in most plays where the tension would rebuild to a second climax Arthur Miller continues the tension by starting off with an intimate scene with Catherine and Rodolpho, this is showing Catherine’s decision is made up between Rodolpho and Eddie and leaves the audience wondering what Eddie’s reaction will be. Eddie comes back drunk, seeing that they have been together demands Rodolpho to leave and tells Catherine to stay. He is now trying to manually split them apart. He then kisses Catherine proving his love for her but not telling it, and then kisses Rodolpho; this action is Eddies attempt to prove Rodolpho’s homosexuality. This attempt to split the two apart fails and he now resorts to a legal way and so turns to Alfieri which so far has been an over seer of the events, the storyteller. His involvement in the play brings his character to a much deeper level and makes his title as narrator more significant.
When he meets Alfieri he shows that he has no Justification over his hatred for Rodolpho, this action of saying this to Alfieri is revealing his intentions and emotions for Catherine which Alfieri states but Eddie evidently resents. He asks him if there is any law against Rodolpho that he could use. Alfieri reminds Eddie that Rodolpho is an illegal immigrant allowing the audience to predict the events that will take place, Eddie’s snitching on Marco and Rodolpho.
After leaving Alfieri’s office, the phone booth shows up on the stage, Eddie then phones the immigration bureau, this action causes tension by the anticipation of what will happen next. On his arrival back at his house Eddie sees that all is much better between them all, but the others do not know what is about to happen. Eddie is rushed to get the immigrants out of sight as Lipari has his relations there too and does not want to become disgraced by him as well. His tension is clearly visible to the audience and when the immigration officers come, Beatrice immediately realizes what Eddie has done and is in a state of shock, The officers are Italian themselves making their actions seem like betrayal of there country but yet are in a immigration job. When Marco and Rodolpho come down, tension is seen immediately between Eddie and Marco. Marco has of course also realized Eddie is to blame for the events and is accusing him of the starving of his family. This anger is adjacent with the connection between Catherine and Rodolpho who are forcing each other together while the immigration officers are dragging them away. At the point where Marco spits in Eddies face, Eddie is obviously aware that he has done something wrong but is so self righteous that he does not admit it and he starts to shout at Marco, and defending himself by saying he did the right thing to them and kept them sheltered when it is clear that he snitched on them. He is disgraced by the neighburhood.
Marco’s anger is seen clearly in the jail cell with Rodolpho, he has to promise not to harm Eddie if he is to go out on bail, the audience can predict the events that will follow and eddies death seems lightly even though not mentioned.
Eddie is telling Catherine not to get married back at there home; this is met with Beatrice’s challenge against him, Catherine for the first time insults Eddie and disgraces him completely, at this moment Eddie is distraught and is obviously ready for revenge because Marco’s spitting. Marco then enters appears in the doorway, a fight is almost inevitable. The brink of their tension has been reached. As they fight Eddie pulls out a knife but Marco has superior strength and turns the knife onto Eddie, Eddie in a way committing suicide, this symbolizes that Eddie has brought all the events onto him and is a fault of his own death.
A view from a Bridge in its way of creating tension, in most dramatic pieces the tension will build up until a certain point and then build up again and then released at a certain point, this is usually repeated throughout a production, but what Arthur Miller has done in A view from a Bridge is raise the tension throughout the play until a final climax where at Eddie Dies.
