Towards the end of Act One we hear from a character called Alfieri. He is the narrator of the play and yet also is a character that works as lawyer for Eddie. Whenever he speaks the audience always knows that something terrible is going to happen. Miller picked Alfieri to be a lawyer because lawyers have to deal with difficult situations every day and this way we are close to the action but as Alfieri has already seen what has happened it makes allows him to create tension when he hints at what is going to happen. Part way through his speech Alfieri tells us ‘I could see every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door’. When Alfieri speaks about Eddie as a ‘dark’ figure, it tells us that something awful is going to happen to him and that he will do something dreadful Alfieri is predicting what is going to happen before this section Eddie says to Alfieri that ''Rodolfo is trying to take my niece Catherine away from me''. Then Alfieri says to Eddie that he is too protective of niece. Alfieri emphasises that a tragedy could happen this makes the audience feel tension.
Catherine starts to have a conversation with Eddie and Marco about when they travelled to Africa on a fishing boat. When Rodolfo tried to enter the conversation and says ''once we went to Yugoslavia'' Eddie then changes the subject and blocks Rodolfo out of the conversation! This makes the audience feel that Eddie is angry with Rodolfo. When Eddie talks about oranges being green and Rodolfo replies with ''lemons are green'' Eddie gets angry with Rodolfo. He says ''I know lemons are green for Christ sake you see them in the store they're green sometimes''. Eddie feels angry at Rodolfo for correcting him and might get angry at him in the future.
In page 37 Beatrice trying to change the subject to Marco's wife so
that the tension between Eddie and Rodolfo will stop for now. Beatrice
is trying to warn Marco about that he should not send so much money back to his family in Sicily or Marco will not be able to get back to his children. When Marco talks about his wife he is proud of her. Saying she
has a clever family and is rich. When Eddie comments ''betcha there's plenty of surprises sometimes when those guys get back there, eh?'' Eddie is making Marco get angry Marco replies that their ''town is strict '' and it wouldn't happen like that.
At this point Eddie gets angry with Rodolfo when he comments, ''well I always have respect'' and when Eddie says ''just drag off some girls without permission'' and the stage direction (He turns) the stage direction tells us that Eddie is feeling angry about Rodolfo because he is trying to say that he has respect for everyone these but he doesn't have it for Eddie. When Eddie say ''just drag off some girls without permission Beatrice reacts to Eddies out bust and say ''well then be an uncle then (Eddie looks at her aware of her criticizing force) I mean''. Beatrice think Eddie was stupid to say that why she said ''well than be a uncle Marco say ''yes'' cautiously
Catherine asks Rodolfo to dance because she wants Eddie to get jealous. She is feeling angry with Eddie. Rodolfo refuses at first because he said he was tired but really he dose not want Eddie to get angry with him. Then Beatrice encourages Rodolfo to dance with Catherine and that's where Eddie starts to get angry trying to change the subject. Rodolfo is nervous because. Eddie has got his eyes on him. Eddie gets very angry with Rodolfo
When Marco explain to Beatrice that Rodolfo is a very good cook, Eddie is given the stage direction (lowers his newspaper ).this is because he is thinking that he is gay and he has three reason to give to Catherine .he says to Rodolfo ''its wonderful he sings to cooks, he could make dresses''. Eddie says it in a sarcastic way. Trying to say
Rodolfo is gay when Eddie starts talking about Rodolfo Catherine and
Rodolfo stops dancing and turns off the phonograph. And that they know that Rodolfo is now angry at Eddie so this is good for Eddie because then Rodolfo will want to fight him and that means Catherine will not be angry with Eddie. And that he will stop Rodolfo from getting his hands on Catherine because she will get angry with him and will think he is gay.
In my conclusion Arthur Miller's words and stage directions work together to change the dramatic affect of the play. Every characters in ‘A View from the Bridge' has their own part to make the end of act one dramatic and important to us. Eddie reacts to threatening situations where he has to have an argument with them which then could turn into violent behaviour. It is because of this that aggression is such an important part in the play. Beatrice is the one that stops the tension from breaking out which mostly happens between Eddie and Rodolfo. That is what makes ‘A view for the bridge’ a dramatic and important play.
