How does Arthur Miller use the play format to show that Eddie is protective and possessive of Catherine in a View from the Bridge?

Authors Avatar

Samia Rashid

10BBE

How does Arthur Miller use the play format to show that Eddie is protective and possessive of Catherine in a View from the Bridge?

      The play ‘a View from the Bridge’ was set in the 1950’s in the area of Red Hook in Brooklyn, New York. A lot of Italian and Sicilian immigrants lived in this area. As there weren’t as many jobs for people in Italy at that time the Italians had no other choice but to immigrate, and where better to immigrate but to America. In those times everyone wished to live the American dream. But most of the Italians were grateful just to settle for half. Alfieri says- Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better. 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 and yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain alarm. This shows that Eddie was his whole self during the play rather than being half for his community, Eddie's actions within the play are completely motivated by his own desires at the expense of others. Alfieri admires this but also is alarmed by it.

     The title of this play suggests we are looking down to this community from the Brooklyn Bridge. The significance of this is that Alfieri is symbolic of a person on the bridge looking down upon the Red Hook community or maybe he is the bridge himself, allowing the people to cross into Manhattan, American culture. We see that the community is very close knitted and look out for each other. Although they are poor they’re determined to earn money and so that their children can have a better life. Arthur Miller is the famous playwright who can relate to a lot of the play as he worked and lived in the same community the play was set in. Also his parents were immigrants who came to America and he can relate to the main character ‘Eddie’ as he also worked on the docks. Miller wanted this play to be a modern version of a Greek tragedy where there’s a central character who is led by fate towards a destiny that can’t be escaped. A character flaw will let them down even before events come to light. In this instance Eddie’s flaw is ‘too much love’.

As America had a lot of job opportunities, this led to two Italian immigrants coming into the Carbone household. They are Beatrice’s cousins who come looking for a better life and money to send back to Italy. Marco and Rodolpho settle in quite well. But we soon see how Eddie’s flaw affects everyone and how his protectiveness over Catherine (his niece in law) turns into possessiveness. This is exposed and causes Eddie to downfall and reach his fate; a drastic death.  We realize the play only has one ending and one path it is going to lead to, right from the beginning where Alfieri describes what he sees and sets the scene. In a Greek tragedy there is a chorus who is almost like a narrator and comments on the actions of the characters in the play. The chorus in ‘a View from the Bridge’ is the lawyer Alfieri. He is like the eyes and ears of the bridge and the only voice of sanity in this play. In the opening scene Alfieri says how he has a ‘timeless story to tell- one that ran a bloody course he was powerless to prevent’.

Join now!

      We first see Eddie coming back from working at the docks. We can see he is socialable and a hard worker when he says ‘yeah, there’s another day yet on that ship’ to his fellow colleague, Louis. This meant he is quite well respected in the Italian-American community. Even before Catherine and Eddie have any dialogue together we can see some sort of relationship between them. We see that Eddie values what Catherine thinks of him. This stage direction- ‘Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it,’ suggests that Eddie has feelings for Catherine and shy that ...

This is a preview of the whole essay