There are indications that Eddie loves Catherine too much in the play, when Eddie is worried about Rodolfo’s true reason for wanting to marry Catherine so he goes to Alfieri, a respected lawyer in the community, who notices Eddie’s overprotective love for Catherine ‘ Sometimes god mixes people up. We all love somebody … but sometimes…there’s too much … there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece.’ This is a warning for Eddie that he has too much love, in the wrong place. Although Catherine and Rodolfo love each other Eddie is worried that Rodolfo is just marrying her so he may become an American citizen, it may also be interpreted that Eddie uses this as an excuse when he is just being over protective. When Catherine asks Rodolfo he gets very angry ‘ I am furious! Do you think I am so desperate? …You think I would carry on my back the rest of my life a woman I didn’t love just to be an American. ’ This is implies that he does, in fact, love Catherine.
Because of eddies love and over protectiveness for Catherine, he does not approve of her relationship with Rodolfo. Eddie hates Rodolfo because he thinks that he maybe homosexual because he does things not considered ‘manly’ in their society ‘ The guy aint right’ ‘ He sings, see …but sometimes he hits a note…I mean – high’ ‘If you came in the house … you wouldn’t be looking for him you be looking for her’. Rodolfo has certain ‘feminine’ qualities he can make dresses, sing, cook and his appearance mainly hair because it’s platinum blonde, while Marco, his older brother, has such dark coloring - ‘ and with that wacky hair; he’s like a chorus girl’ ‘I just hope that’s his regular hair, that’s all I hope.’
Also, in a Greek tragedy, the events within the play are inevitable much like the events in 'A View from the Bridge'. From the Alfieri’s introductory speech what will happen is obvious, and the point is made that man is powerless to stop it ‘ in some Caesar’s year … another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint and sat their as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course’. This shows the audience that the problems that Eddie and the other main characters face are not unique, they have been occurring for generations. Alfieri saw a wise women and she told him that the only thing he could do was pray for him.
In Greek tragedies, the central figure is basically a good person, usually a king or someone of importance, who breaks the natural unwritten rules in some way. In 'A View from the Bridge', unlike a Greek tragedy, Eddie is not a king or anyone of importance, he is an average man, but he is a good man, we know this because he has accepted into his house, provided for, been a farther figure to and loved his wife’s niece, Catherine, on account of her mothers death.
The natural rules that Eddie breaks in the play are obvious. In his society, no matter what, you do not ‘snitch’, Within the play Beatrice tells the story of ‘Vinnie Bolsano’, A boy who ‘snitched’ on his own uncle, he was beaten and spat on by his own family, Eddie hints that he may have been murdered, this shows us how bad a social crime it is. When Eddie reports his wife’s cousins to the immigration bureau, he faces social rejection. Eddie also breaks another important rule of his community by kissing Rodolfo in front of Catherine; this is a vital turning point in Catherine’s view of Eddie.
In most Greek tragedies, if not all, there is a chorus informing the audience and guiding their responses to events in the play. In 'A View from the Bridge' Alfieri acts as the chorus. He informs the audience of a passing of time, ‘on the twenty-third of that December’ and ‘On December the twenty-seventh I saw him next’. Alfieri’s comments and opinions about the events in the play shape and guide the audience’s views on the current situation. He may also give an alternative view from how the audience’s interpretations. Alfieri give a view from a different perspective, being an immigrant himself, but one of certain stature in the community he can relate to the situation yet still be ‘ looking in ’.
A Greek tragedy is supposed to invoke pity and fear in the audience, 'A View from the Bridge' does this in many places; the audience is constantly reacting and empathizing with the characters. When Eddie is contemplating the idea of ‘ snitching ‘ to the immigration bureau a phone box light up drawing attention and almost inviting him to it. All the time the audience is hoping Eddie wont call, and fears the consequences of his actions. Earlier in the play , when Eddie hits Rodolfo, Marco, The elder of the two brothers, challenges him to lift a chair above his head, Eddie tries to do this to no avail. After he has tried several time and still cannot lift the chair, Marco lifts the chair above eddies head. By doing this Marco show Eddie that he will stand up for Rodolfo and protect him, the audience is gripped by this event, which shows Marco very differently compared to how he has seen until now in the play, invoking both pity and fear.
The mood at the end of the play leaves the audience feeling immense pity for Eddie.
'A View from the Bridge' was written on one time scale, with one plot and in one place, this is another similarity between the play and a Greek tragedy. All the play is set either inside the flat, or just outside, but not spread of a wide location. It is all on a linier time scale, never going backwards, there are not flashbacks.
In a typical Greek Tragedy the theme goes back to ancient tradition and is tied in with Justice, family and honour, these main themes are evident in 'A View from the Bridge'. Alfieri addresses the point of justice in his talk with Marco towards the end ‘this is not god, Marco. You hear? Only God makes justice.’ Family and honour are included throughout the play, honour particularly in the last act, where Eddie makes the choice to jeopardize his respect by reporting Marco and Rodolfo to the immigration agency, his honour is taken from him when Marco spits I his face and insults him in the street. Eddie knows that his life would not be worth living in this community without his honour, ‘ wiping the neighbourhood with my name like a dirty rag! I want my name, Marco. Now gimme my name’
In conclusion, I think that ‘A View from the Bridge’ is a Modern Greek tragedy. ‘A View from the Bridge’ has all the basic elements of a Greek tragedy including a chorus. All the emotions invoked by the play are typically characteristic to that experienced by the audience of an original Greek tragedy. ‘A View from the Bridge’ was originally intended to be a modern version if a Greek tragedy when miller wrote it. In the play, the mystery is never what will happen, but how it will happen, from Alfieri’s first speech the audience knows that the events will be ‘bloody’ in their conclusion.
