Consider the end of Millers play A View from the Bridge. How effectively does the final scene conclude the drama?

Respect was an important factor in an Italian community, we see this when Eddie demands for Marco to ‘give him his name back’, the fact that Marco has disgraced Eddie in front of the whole community by spitting in his face, causes him to lash out and  ‘stand his ground’ as the man of the house.  At the beginning of the play Eddie was a well respected gentleman in the neighborhood, this respect was instantly lost when he appeared to have snitched on his own family, despite being warned by Alfieri not long before, this urged him to appear innocent and became defensive but remained confident trying not to be taken for a ‘patsy’.  Eddie appears cold hearted as he eagerly calls the immigration Bureau despite having been told by Marco that ‘he has stolen the bread out of his babies mouths’, the audience will sense that this will stir things between the two and will be expecting it to end tragically. But overall the law conflicts with their cultural beliefs of right and wrong.

Although he appears the ‘nice guy,’ when Rodolfo and Marco appear Eddie believes that Rodolfo does not give him the amount of respect that is expected, this causes an immediate indication for the audience, showing that the relationship between the two may cause a problem in the upcoming future. Also the way he treats Catherine shows that his feelings towards her are changing, this is proven when he puts her on a pedestal and says ‘you look like the Madonna type; you know with your hair like that’ this would be important in the catholic faith. Eddie also gets jealous when Rodolfo dances with Catherine, and symbolically taking her away from Eddie he then appears to ‘unconsciously twist the newspaper’. Catherine’s naivety allows her to block this out of her mind and thinks it’s just Eddie being over protective. When comparing this to his lack of compassion and romance towards Beatrice, he suddenly feels he is ‘exposing the issue’ and doesn’t want to arouse suspicion. On the other hand, at the end of the play Beatrice cradles her dying husband, somewhat like the Pieta in which Mary is cradling Christ, this causes Beatrice to become the ‘Madonna type’ and back with her husband for his last few moments. Alfieri tried to prevent this, arguing that Eddie should have allowed Catherine and Rodolfo to wed and saying to Eddie that ‘When the law is wrong it's because it's unnatural, but in this case it is natural and a river will drown you if you buck it no’ he is suggesting that it was Eddie’s feeling towards Catherine that were ‘unnatural’ and goes on to tell him ‘only god makes justice’, therefore Eddie shouldn’t have took things into his own hands and maybe the conclusion may not have been so drastic on him.

Eddie was very narrow minded, which makes things difficult for him in the forever changing and open minded world surrounding him. He feels strongly towards men being very masculine and stereotypical and women being domestic housewives, therefore when Rodolfo comes onto the scene, he appears not to ‘fit in’, and Eddie automatically questions his sexual orientation: ‘He’s like a chorus girl’ and instantly feeling superior. This all changes suddenly when Rodolfo claims he has strong feelings toward Catherine, and she exchanges these emotions, causing Eddie to switch roles with Rodolfo, and feeling somewhat inferior. Eddie looks for as many excuses and opportunities to break Catherine and Rodolfo up, claiming that he’s only using her as a ‘passport’ to become an American citizen. At one point Eddie becomes so desperate he visits Alfieri to see if there was any law against this but in return Eddie was told to ‘let it go.’ His hatred is so strong for Rodolfo that he is forced to call the immigration despite being warned by Alfieri, who knew throughout that it would result badly.  

Throughout the drama Eddie has been portrayed as a man of passion and violence, who can hardly contain himself at the thought of some other man ‘stealing’ Catherine from him. Towards the end scene the audience will begin to see that it is Eddie’s greediness that will result in his death; he not only wants his ‘name’ back but also wants Catherine and the thought of neither of these happening pushes him to his limit as he pulls a knife out on what was a fair fight.

 In the final scene Eddie is persistent on nursing his grievances and having failed to stop Catherine’s wedding now turns to stop Beatrice, and as Rodolfo attempts to apologize, Eddie throws it back at him, thus causing an increase in tension between the two which consequently evolves into a street fight between them. As the fight climax’s Eddie pulls out a knife aiming to kill Marco but, ironically, it is his own knife that kills him, this satisfies the audience’s expectances and concludes the irony of the play. All along Eddie was setting up his own death and only Alfieri and the audience could see this.

Although Eddies death was inevitable and fits in well with the Greek tragedy genre, the slight twist of irony when the audience and Alfieri both know and realize that what happened to Vinny, may just happen to Eddie but on a larger scale, and eventually results in a ‘bloody’ death of greediness. The tragic ending leaves the audience questioning whether Eddie would have lived if he had ‘settled for half’, or if he was just genuinely unable to compromise. Alfieri shows some admiration towards Eddie reminding us that his death was useless and that he mourns for him with ‘a certain…alarm, here he may be warning the community to become more self aware. He also says that settling for half may not be a bad thing but may just be a brave quality to have, but overall Alfieri feels that the conclusion to Eddie’s journey was right and appropriate.