After reading the first part of Arthur Miller's play "A view from the bridge," I am convinced that the most striking character is Marco. He is an Italian immigrant that moved illegally to the United States with his brother Rodolpho to work as longshoremen, since at the time (the play was written in 1955) his country of origin, Italy, was going through a major economic depression because of the outcome of World War II. In the play, we are told that Marco's plan is to make enough money to survive and be able to send some of that money to his wife and his three kids back in Italy, who are starving. Marco physically resembles the Sicilian stereotype, with dark skin and dark hair.
In this play, the author uses plot, dialog, actions and symbolism to emphasise Marco's honour, which, in my opinion, is his prominent characteristic. Throughout the play, we can clearly see that the plot helps us develop Marco's character in our imagination. For example, he is an illegal alien, and this might give the reader a less honourable view of him, and it might justify Eddie’s action. But the fact that Marco left his family to give them support and to save his oldest which makes the reader forget about his illegal stay and makes his status rise to the one of a hero. In this play, Marco's actions lead us to the discovery of a violent side, which he uses to defend his honour in a number of occasions. For example, when he challenges Eddie to lift the chair at the end of the first act, we understand that he did it to save his brother's face and his family's honour.
Eddie is a very strong father figure even though he is not Catherine’s real father, though he is the man of the house. The immigrant community is very much a patriarchal society, parallel to in Italy. The father and male is an authority figure. Eddie is very protective of Catherine in both positive and negative ways. "I took out of my own mouth to give to her, I took out of my wife's mouth", Eddie really loves and cares for Catherine, and will do anything to protect and look after her, but his love for her is obsessive and possessive. "You can't take no job. Why didn't you ask me before you take a job?" Eddie does not want to let Catherine have a job. As Catherine's father figure, Eddie feels he should choose her husband, as was the done thing in Italy, but Eddie cannot let go of Catherine. Beatrice suggests that he would not approve of any young man for her. "Was there ever any fella he liked for you? There wasn't was there." Eddie rules the house and expects that what he says goes, his wife and daughter figure should be subservient and obedient, which was the Italian system.
At the beginning of the play there are problems from the word go, though, with the situation in the flat. Eddie starts picking on Rodolfo from the first night. He is jealous of Catherine’s attraction to Rodolfo, and this is taking her attention away from himself. Eddie uses Rodolfo´s illegal status against him and exercises his authority over him. He makes Rodolfo stop singing under the pretence that the singing is drawing attention to him and he may get discovered and picked up, to mask his feelings of jealousy and dislike towards him. Eddies hatred for Rodolfo grows and he is acting on his emotions when he tells Catherine, after they have come back from the cinema that Rodolfo is only using her to get his papers so he can stay in America. “Katie, he’s only bowin´ to his passport.” Catherine reacts badly to this and the tension between everyone in the flat grows.
It is because of Marco and Rodolfo´s illegal status and their dependence on Eddie for his hospitality that they are unable to stand up for themselves and react normally to the situation and are trapped in the flat with nowhere else to go. Marco is aware of Eddies aggression towards Rodolfo and as his older protective brother feels it is his duty to defend Rodolfo, especially after Eddie uses the pretence of a friendly boxing match to lay a punch on Rodolfo. Marco, because of the situation is unable to speak out, but uses a very effective way of tacitly challenging Eddie and establishes his superior strength. He issued Eddie with what seemed a friendly challenge, as Eddie did with Rodolfo, to lifting a chair one handed by one leg, which takes immense strength although this is not immediately apparent. There are definite parallels between Eddie and Marco; they are both strong ‘peasant like´ men with similar family and cultural beliefs, set in Italian tradition. Both Eddie and Marco are men of their word, whether they are right or wrong, which is destined to cause trouble. Especially in an already troubled family setting, the flat is now like a pressure cooker and it is just a matter of time before the situation explodes. Through all this Beatrice is the voice of reason and offers Eddie support and tries to diffuse the situation and prevent the inevitable, however because of the patriarchal background and hierarchy within the family, Eddie asserts his masculine authority and Beatrice has to do her duty to obey her husband.
Symbolism is used to good effect in the beginning of the play. An example of this is when Rudolpho danced with Catherine when she had previously been attending to Eddie, symbolic of him taking her from Eddie’s life. Another example of symbolism is the reference to oranges, the argument between Eddie and Marco, which symbolises sweetness, symbol of relationship between them growing to something different. Also with the mention of lemons the symbolism of bitterness is then added to the situation. With the argument also bringing up the colour green, symbolises jealousy and envy that Eddie has for Marco.
It seems natural to reason that Miller intended the title of the play to have some significance other than the geography of the location. The most obvious interpretation is of the audience sharing with Alfieri an unbiased overview of the unfolding of events. It is like being able to see from a bridge over a river, our vision uncluttered by opinions as it would be by the side of the river, or perhaps even as part of the river. The spray and swirling of currents of a river could represent the uncertain nature of life that clouds our perceptions and the flow of water the rush of emotions that carry us from birth to death. Though, even Alfieri is not completely removed from the happenings of the play, he takes an active part in the play as well as providing the ‘chorus’ character of the Greek format that Miller used. He is part of the American culture, but also part of the Italian culture, he also knew the family “I had represented his father in an accident case some years before, and I was acquainted with the family in a casual way.” Perhaps this is why he is able to give a balanced opinion and to counsel Eddie (though his advice is unheeded). On the bridge we have time to form opinions, to judge other people, to ‘settle for half’. It was his American audience that Miller addressed through Alfieri:
“Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better. But the truth is holy, and even as I know how wrong he was and his death useless, I tremble for, I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory--not purely good, but himself, purely, for he allowed himself to be wholly known and for that I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients.”
This dilutes the feeling of superiority and detachment that we are permitted from the beginning of the play. The title ‘A View from the Bridge’ no longer seems to imply the safety of distance from events, but the need to realise, and perhaps revise, our morals and opinions in our judgement of others. What qualifies one set of values above another?
Alternatively the bridge could be viewed as spanning the two cultures – American and Sicilian. This could be viewed as positive; for example it could be said that Catherine and Rudolpho’s love seems able to overcome extreme cultural barriers. On the other hand, the bridge could be seen as the merging of these cultures, the stronger American one dissolving the passions and identities of all its inhabitants. There could be further symbolism here, the metaphorical bridge between Catherine’s childhood and adulthood that can only be crossed once and leads her further into the constraints and limitations of her surroundings, is comparable to the way that the ardent naivety and ferocious simplicity of the Italian culture of her origins is absorbed into the impersonate American bureaucracy. However, I personally feel that the most likely reason for Arthur Miller’s naming of the play as “A View from the Bridge” is the obvious metaphor of the audience’s perspective.
Injustice plays a major part in the play in the fact that Eddie has his strongest feeling of injustice when Rodopho arrives. Eddie has been a father to Catherine all her life and "gave her the food out of his mouth". He paid money to her so that she would meet a better class of people and there are subtle hints that he is attracted to her as well. He is justified to feel jealous and spiteful towards Rudolph when he comes over from Italy and wins Catherine’s heart. He feels betrayed by Catherine that she has suddenly run off and lives her own life (this also could be attributed to his fear of Catherine growing up, and that she is not his little baby anymore.
The beginning scenes of the play are very important, which set the scene of what is to happen at the end. Anger and aggression has already set in and confrontations are eminent. We can already sense a feeling of tragedy towards some of the characters, Eddie being the most obvious. Also with Miller’s use of complicated language taken from the simplest of language we can discover different meanings of the language and hidden symbolism.
