A View From The Bridge

A view from the bridge

According to Aristotle the term ‘tragic hero means someone who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous, moving from happiness to misery through some frailty or error in judgement.’ Arthur Miller was born on October 17th, 1915, in New York City. His parents were both immigrants in the United State. A View from the Bridge has an unusually complicated performance history. It was first published in 1955 but it was set several years before in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York City, It was originally a screenplay called The Hook, written by Miller with assistance from Elia Kazan, who had previously directed the playwright's All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. The script, dealing as it then did with "waterfront corruption and graft" was eventually withdrawn by Miller in response to the Hollywood studio's complaints that it was un-American (this was, of course, the age of McCarthy - the early 1950s). The Hook's basic themes would nonetheless resurface in Kazan's 1954 film.

Some of the stories he wrote was ‘The man who had all the luck’ (This was a failure) ‘the crucible’ (which was about the witch-hunt that was current in the United States) his play after that was called ‘A view from the bridge’. While writing it he divorced his first wife and married the actress and star Marilyn Monroe. The main characters in this play are Eddie, Catherine, Rodolpho, Marco, Beatrice and Alfieri.

A View from the Bridge has an unusually complicated performance history. It was originally a screenplay called The Hook, written by Miller with assistance from Elia Kazan, who had previously directed the playwright's All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. The script, dealing as it then did with "waterfront corruption and graft" was eventually withdrawn by Miller in response to the Hollywood studio's complaints that it was un-American (this was, of course, the age of McCarthy - the early 1950s). The Hook's basic themes would nonetheless resurface in Kazan's 1954 film.

Eddie’s character has changed throughout the ...

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Eddie’s character has changed throughout the play mainly because of his flaws. He has a different relationship with each character. In the beginning, he is seen as a kind man willing to help but has changed for the worst, being a cold heartless man. This happens when Catherine tells Eddie that she has a job as a stenographer. Eddie does not like it and tells her she cannot have the job. He says he is trying to protect her from other men ogling her. He also sees her as an attractive person and he doesn’t want to share her with others.” She’s goin’ to work; plumbers; they’ll chew her to pieces if she don’t watch out. Believe me, Katie, the less you trust, the less you will be sorry”. When Marco and Rodolpho arrived, Eddie shows his good side as he says; “you’re welcome, Marco, we got plenty of room here. Katie, give them supper, heh?” At the end of the play, Rodolpho spits on Eddie because Eddie told the immigration people that Marco and Rodolpho were imported from Italy on a boat. What Eddie did not know was that more immigrants had come from Italy and were already living inside the house.

After Eddie, Alfieri's is probably the most important rôle in the play. He is, of course, in some (not much) of the action, as Eddie consults him. This is essential, as it explains how he has come to know the story. Miller has said that he wanted to make this play a modern equivalent of classical Greek tragedy. In the ancient plays, an essential part was that of the chorus: a group of figures who would watch the action, comment on it, and address the audience directly. In A View from the Bridge, Alfieri is the equivalent of the chorus. He introduces the action as a retelling of events already in the (recent) past. By giving details of place, date or time, he enables the action to move swiftly from one episode to another, without the characters having to give this information. This is often skilfully mixed with brief comment: "He was as good a man as he had to be...he brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten o'clock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came". He is also a lawyer to Eddie carbone and his family. There is a shift in the mood and atmosphere between Eddie and Rodolpho because Eddie knows about Rodolpho and Catherine liking each other.

Eddie tells Alfieri of Rodolpho, "he ain't right", and that "you could kiss him, he was so sweet", but Alfieri advises him that there is nothing he can do. Alferi advises him to leave them alone and don’t cause any trouble. During the several visits to Alferi, Rodolpho and Catherine had been getting closer. On the second from last visit to Alferi Eddie came home drunk. Catherine came out of her bedroom half-naked with only a towel to cover her up. Then came out Rodolpho, nothing on apart from his underwear. Eddie was mad and to prove that Catherine was nobodies apart from his he went and kissed Catherine on the lips. Rudolph was mad and tried to push Eddie on the table. Eddie was to strong and pushed Rodolpho on the table instead. After pushing Rodolpho on the table, he goes and kisses him. This does not show that he is gay but to show that Rodolpho is unfathile to Catherine. Catherine does not believe him, so she leaves to live in the flat above him. He then trys other ways to get Catherine to think less of Rodolpho:

First, Rodolpho dances with Catherine, symbolically taking her from Eddie. Eddie's bitter response is three times to repeat the formula: "He sings, he cooks, and he could make dresses...I can't cook, I can't sing, I can't make dresses, so I'm on the water front. But if I could cook, if I could sing, if I could make dresses, I wouldn't be on the water front". The stage direction tells us that Eddie has been "unconsciously twisting the newspaper" and that he senses "he is exposing the issue".
In the second movement, Eddie tells Rodolpho about boxing matches and offers to teach him to box. After allowing Rodolpho to land some blows, Eddie strikes him harder: "It mildly staggers Rodolpho". The three onlookers all see what Eddie is trying to do, but his attempt to make Catherine think less of Rodolpho has failed.
The third and final movement comes from Marco, who invites Eddie to lift a chair by one of its legs. When Eddie fails, Marco lifts the chair, and raises it "like a weapon over Eddie's head". First, Rodolpho dances with Catherine, symbolically taking her from Eddie. Eddie's bitter response is three times to repeat the formula: "He sings, he cooks, and he could make dresses...I can't cook, I can't sing, I can't make dresses, so I'm on the water front. But if I could cook, if I could sing, if I could make dresses, I wouldn't be on the water front".

Eddie then sees what he has done and decides to bring in the immigration people to take them away. However, what Eddie does not know is that there are more immigrants in the house (that were also imported from Italy). The immigration people take them away but before they are taken away Rodolpho spits at Eddie and stabs him.

The End

By David Skinner 10H