Essay on A View From The Bridge - Tension and Conflict

Catherine might have also done that on purpose so she could annoy Eddie because of what he has done to Rodolpho. From here we can see that Catherine’s view towards Eddie is deteriorating as she acts more rebellious around him while Beatrice still thinks there is hope for Eddie and is still on his side.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare incorporates the theme of conflict through many different characters and situations. The definition of conflict is “a fight, battle, or struggle; especially a prolonged struggle; strife” The play mainly focuses on the tragic lives of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet; the two characters belong to the Montague and Capulet households respectively, which have held ongoing grudges against each other for years. The play ends with both main characters committing suicide, to be together in heaven. As with many of Shakespeare’s works, the theme of conflict is a strong one. For a start, there is the ongoing conflict between the two families; the Montagues and the Capulets. The audience is unsure how this

The structure of A View From the Bridge is linear in showing a progression of time. The exposition introduces the still-relevant topics of cross cultural conflicts, justice and the law as well as class through the construction of setting through staging, dialogue and characterisation. Class is introduced through the setting, the Italian-American neighbourhood of Red Hook, in “a worker’s flat, clean, sparse and homely” which conveys a working class household. It is also communicated through the characterisation of Eddie achieved through dialogue and costume. His dialogue is quite rough and casual, perhaps signifying lower levels of education, for example “Where you goin’?” and “Ain’t”. Eddie is then juxtaposed with the character of

Eddie holds an old fashioned, limited view of masculinity. His opinions of what it means to be masculine involve fairly stereotypical features, such as strength and ability. Characteristics that people generally associate with a male figure are strength, silent. The time that they play is set in doesn’t help to widen Eddie’s view of masculinity. The area, Redhook, is described by the lawyer Alfieri. But this is Redhook, not Sicily. This is the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge…the gullet of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world’. It accommodated some of the worst people of the time, and though there were laws the country was controlled by gangsters. ‘In those days, Al Capone, the greatest Carthaginian of all, was learning his trade on these pavements, and Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine-gun on the corner of Union Street, two blocks away’. This would maybe inspire Eddie to act tough and strong. He understands that these gangsters are undeniably very masculine figures and that may affect him. All the immigrants came to this area, that’s why the community was so close-knit. It is also why it was so devastating to betray family or friends by reporting immigrants. When Eddie warns Catherine not to say anything about the illegal immigrants coming to stay with them he tells the story of a boy who reported his uncle. ‘The whole neighbourhood was cryin’.’ The worst thing you could do was betray

The play opens with a family scene, showing the love between Eddie, his wife Beatrice, and Catherine. Eddie is the proud head of the household and is determined to keep the vow he ‘promised [Catherine’s] mother on her death bed’; to keep Catherine safe, even though at times the others can see that they may be ‘too much love for the niece’. This original family dynamic shows the happy life that could have been lead, and Miller deliberately wrote this scene to let his audience see what has been lost by the end of the play; a tragic end is only tragic if there was something to lose. This family love is vital to the way of life that the people of Brooklyn lead, and it comes from the strong Italian family values and the ways they shape the justice system, and in America this form of justice mixes with the state law as the residents ‘settle for half’. It is this family love that brings Marco to America, as he is desperately searching for a way for his family to escape the incredible poverty back in Sicily that leaves them to ‘eat the sunshine’. Marco also brings his brother Rodolfo, who is ‘crazy about New York’. The brothers have an incredibly strong bond, and Marco is willing to defend his brother to the death.

’’His eyes were like tunnels; my first thought was that he had committed a crime, but soon I saw it was only a passion that had moved into his body, like a stranger.’’ This quote is how Alfieri describes Eddie for the first time, Eddie is in Alfieri’s office because he is trying to find something that can be used against Rodolpho. In this quote, Alfieri compares Eddie/Eddie’s characteristics with the word ‘like’. Eddie has developed this distrust/jealousy towards Rodolpho because of Eddie’s inappropriate attraction to Catherine, this has caused him to act irrationally and impulsively on multiple occasions. Eddie had then taken it upon himself to do everything in his power to get people to agree with him on his opinion that Rodolpho is a ”weird”, it just further aggravates Eddie when people, especially Catherine, seem to be taking a liking to Rodolpho. This is possibly tied to the events that led up to Eddie’s death due to the fact that Eddie had taken these negative emotions for Rodolpho so far that he ended up reporting Marco and Rodolpho to the

Unlike typical tragedies, Miller focuses the play on the working class to express their common attributes to their society as were the Greek tragedies that focused on royalty and the society in the play left women feeling subjugated by the men. For instance, when Beatrice asks Eddie whether - ‘you gonna keep in the house all her life?’ The assertive tone of the rhetorical question shows the support that Catherine has from Beatrice and reflects her struggle to be free from Eddie’s grip. The usage of the pathos evokes pity towards the audience as they would be pitiful towards Catherine. Furthermore, Catherine is another female in A View from the Bridge who is subjugated by Eddie. In the beginning of act one, Eddie mentions Catherine’s new dress, saying that – ‘heads are turnin’ like windmills.’ The systolic device enables the playwright to create the epitome of sexual attraction to the audience members and shows the dominance in Eddie’s office.

This can be seen once again when Miller uses a fractures syntax to show that Eddie cut Catherine off mid-sentence. This not only tells us readers Eddies status in the conversation, but also that he doesn’t think he needs to hear Catherine’s justification. This shows that he believes her to be inferior and that he should always have the final word. Eddie also in unpleasant to Rudolpho.

After this argument Eddie is “Holding back a voice fill of anger.” This is another sign that he is easily angered.

upon himself to be a father to Catherine and to give her the very best

'Just get outta here and don't lay a finger on her unless you wanna go

One of the main purposes of Tragedy is to teach audiences the right way of living in the world; it could be argued that Miller constructs ‘A View from the Bridge’ as a social critique to be viewed by the everyday man, as referenced by Eddie’s husky slightly overweight appearance. Although there is much debate about whether or not tragedy is there to fulfil this purpose – for example, the Tragic form inevitably leads to a [predetermined] and unalterable outcome anyhow - throughout the play Miller uses various literary devices including his characterisation of Alfieri and use of Brechtian and Freudian reference in order to help him influence the audience’s opinion on the right way of living in the world.

In the first scene we meet Eddie and Catherine together. This is when we start to understand the relationship between the two by the language they use with each other, the dialogue, and actions they use with each other. "Hi Eddie!" "(Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it)" the first instinct is that they are going out with each other. Catherine has a new skirt. When Catherine runs her hands over her skirt the point is even more obvious. By doing this it is like she is flirting with Eddie.

His feelings for Catherine are subtextual for most of the play, but are voiced by Alfieri during their first conversation and Beatrice in the final scene. Alfieri asks “[Catherine] can’t marry you, can she?” which causes Eddie to “(furiously)” as per stage directions refute this claim. Alfieri’s rhetorical question and ironic humour stoke Eddie’s rage, which appears again when Beatrice accuses him of being attracted to Catherine, portraying him as stubborn since his infuriated reaction to Alfieri’s comment makes it clear to audiences that he’s deluding himself. However, Alfieri strikes a chord and from this audiences are made aware of Eddie’s motivation for demeaning Rodolpho – namely jealousy – which leads to Eddie reporting him and Marco to immigration, resulting in a fight that causes Eddie’s death. He reacts similarly when Beatrice laments “(crying out, weeping) You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!”, the accusatory direct address of the repeated pronoun “you” voicing her anguish over Eddie’s attraction to Catherine but still not putting it in explicit terms. These situations exemplify the allusion typical of Miller when approaching social taboos in the play, which has a contrasting effect on audiences: they are exposed to the taboo, but Miller

Here, Alfieri drives the nail home, so to speak, telling Eddie there’s nothing he can do to prevent the marriage. At this moment, Eddie’s intentions are clear – both to the audience and to Alfieri. “You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie!....Put it out of your mind!” Desperate to stop the marriage, Eddie plans to ‘grass’ to the Immigration Bureau about Marco and Rodolpho. Alfieri is an Italian who’s lived in America for many years, meaning that he has a ‘foot’ in both cultures. As such, he understands the consequences of such an action. The audience themselves comprehend what the action entails too, since the story of Vinny Bolzano (a kid who snitched on his own family) is told early in the story. The Italian neighborhood is not forgiving of any who betrays his own family. Despite this, Eddie is fixed on this last course of action. “I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them.” There is still some hesitation, but Eddie cannot see another course of action. He’s in too deep to stop