A View from the Bridge

1. A View from the Bridge Context

2. Italian Immigration • Between 1876 to 1924, over 4.5 million Italians arrived in the US, out of a population of only approximately 14 million in Italy. • Unable to earn a livelihood in their home country, they became migratory labourers. • The majority of Italian immigrants were men in their teens and twenties, who planned to work, save money and eventually return home to Italy. • 20 to 30 percent of these Italian immigrants returned to Italy permanently.

3. Italian Immigration • After WW2, the Italian economy was slow to grow (especially in the South) • With no jobs and no prospects, it was not surprising that many people decided to try their luck in 'rich' America. There was a thriving trade in illegal immigration, encouraged by the dockyard owners, who knew that they could get cheap labour from immigrants until they had paid for their passage over. Once they had paid their fare, the immigrants were left to make their own way.

4. Treatment of Sicilians • Many were arrested and detained under the ‘Alien Registration Act’ • Accused of introducing criminal element to America (the Mafia)

5. Sicilian/American Culture • "La Familiga" (the family) was at the core of Italian immigrant life, and often seen as the root of survival. • Patriarchal • American values clashed with traditional Italian values

6. A View from the Bridge Plot

7. How the play opens • Lawyer Alfieri sets the scene: talks about justice and the law; he then introduces Eddie • Eddie arrives home with the news that his wives cousins from Italy (Marco and Rodolpho) have reached New York – it is clear that this has been arranged • His niece, Catherine, enters and explains that she has been offered employment – this distresses Eddie

8. The Arrival of the Cousins • When the cousins arrive they are warmly welcomed. • Catherine shows interest in the younger cousin, Rodolpho, and this seems to upset Eddie • Catherine and Rodolpho soon fall in love and Eddie becomes more hostile towards Rodolpho, it is becoming clear to the audience that Eddie has feelings towards his niece

9. Catherine falls for Rodolpho • As Eddie becomes increasingly hostile towards Rodolpho, Beatrice questions the state of their own marriage. Eddie dismisses this and continues to obsess over Catherine’s relationship • Eddie finally confronts Catherine and tells her that Rodolpho is using her. • Beatrice tries to make Catherine stand up for herself, and warns her to be less intmate with Eddie

10. End of Act One • Eddie goes to Alfieri for help and is amazed to find out that Rodolpho is not breaking the law by marrying Catherine • Alfieri warns that Eddie loves his niece too much • The act ends in tension: Eddie pretends to teach Rodolpho how to box, but it is Marco who ends the scene by displaying his brute strength as if to warn Eddie

11. Act Two • Catherine and Rodolpho are alone in the department, after discussing marriage (as well as Eddie’s fears over Rodolpho’s hidden agenda), Catherine and Rodolpho go into the bedroom. • Eddie returns home drunk to find the pair leaving the bedroom. • Aghast, Eddie reacts by kissing Catherine – he then fights Rodolpho and kisses him too

12. Immigration Bureau • Eddie pleads with Alfieri for help. Alfieri tries to warn him of the consequences of his actions but Eddie doesn’t listen. • Eddie phones the immigration bureau • Beatrice breaks the news that Catherine and Rodolpho are getting married to Eddie • Rodolpho and Marco have moved upstairs to lodge with other illegal immigrants

13. Too Late • By the time Eddie regrets his decision, it is too late, and the authorities arrive • When Catherine realises what has happened, she turns on Eddie • When taken away, Marco spits on Eddie’s face and accuses him of stealing food from his children • The honour of Eddie and Marco is now at stake

14. The climax • After a reluctant Marco agrees not to kill Eddie, Alfieri bails him out of jail to watch his brother marry Catherine • On the day of the wedding Eddie refuses to let Beatrice go. He then hears of Marco praying in the church – this, and B’s accusation of his feelings towards his niece, fuels his anger, and he tries to find Marco • The two men fight, Eddie draws a knife, but Marco turns it onto him.

15. How the play ends • Eddie dies in Beatrice's arms. • Alfieri closes the play, commenting on how useless Eddie's death was, and on how much he admired him for allowing himself to be "wholly known."

16. A View from the Bridge Themes

17. Honour • Honour is extremely important to all the characters, and this is first apparent when Eddie and Beatrice describe the fate of a young boy who broke his code of honour: • (B) “Oh, it was terrible. He had five brothers and the old father. And they grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him down the stairs – three flights his head was bouncin’ like a coconut.” • (E) “Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word you gave away.” • Patriarchal Honour: • “He’s stealing from me!”

18. Honour • Marco’s value of honour: • Marco has been turned into the authorities by Eddie, his sense of honour is clear here: • “In my country he would be dead now. He would not live this long.” • Eddie also has a strong sense of honour: • “I want my name!”

19. Love • Throughout the play, Eddie displays an uncomfortable, and at times inappropriate love for his niece. This is revealed early on, when Eddie is confronted with the sight of his niece in a short skirt, explaining that she has been offered a job. • “Now don’t aggravate me, Katie, you are walkin’ wavy! I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you in the candy store. And with them high heels on the sidewalk – clack, clack, clack. The heads are turnin’ like windmills.”

20. Love • Eddie and Beatrice's marriage is obviously not as strong as it used to be: Beatrice asks, "When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?" They have not slept together for months. • Catherine and Rodolpho quickly fall deeply in love, but even this love provides insight to the inappropriate love that Eddie has for Catherine. • “Oh, Catherine – oh, little girl. • I love you, Rodolpho, I love you. • Then why are you afraid? That he’ll spank you?”

21. Love • Beatrice is a wife devoted to her husband, however there are problems within the marriage, and she is torn between her love for her husband and her love and protection for her niece. • “It’s wonderful for a whole family to love each other, but you’re a grown woman and you’re in the same house with a grown man. So you’ll act different now, heh?” • Beatrice’s remarks over Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine make it clear to the audience that his behaviour has been noticed by those around him. • (B) (to C): I don’t understand this. He’s not your father, Catherine. I don’t understand what’s going on here.”

22. Justice and the Law • At the beginning of the play, Alfieri explains the Italian-American perceptions of the law, and provides the idea that this is viewed as a negative thing by the characters within the play • “A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily, from where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten” • Later, Alfieri relies on the American law to try to deter Eddie from going to desperate measures: • “You have no recourse in the law, Eddie” • Marco’s dismay at the American justice system highlights the clash in values between America and Sicily • “The law? All the law is not in a book.” • “

23. The Law Cont... • (M): He degraded my brother. My blood. He robbed my children, he mocks my work. I work to come here, mister! • (A): I know, Marco – • (M): There is no law for that? Where is the law for that? • (A): There is none.

24. A View from the Bridge Characters

25. Eddie • Eddie and inner conflict: • You’re the madonna type” • Eddie and conflict with Rodolpho: • “Watch your step, submarine. By rights they oughta throw you back in the water.” • Eddie and Marco: • “You lied about me, Marco. Now say it. Come on now, say it!” • “Anima-a-a-l!” • Eddie and Beatrice: • “I want my respect. Didn’t you hear of that? From my wife?” • “My B.!”

26. Alfieri • Similar to the chorus in Greek tragedy, Alfieri acts as narrator, explaining events as if they have already occurred – this creates a sense of dramatic irony – we, the audience, already know which character will suffer a terrible fate. And, like Alfieri, all we can do is watch the events unfold. • “Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny. A man works, raises his family, goes bowling, eats, gets old, and then he dies. Now, as the weeks passed, there was a future, there was trouble that would not go away.”

27. Alfieri • At the end of the episode, as the light goes up on Alfieri, we are challenged to make a judgement. If Eddie, as we see him, appeals to our hearts, Alfieri makes sure we also judge with our heads • Alfieri continues to warn the audience of Eddie’s fate, this adds to the tension • “I knew where he was heading for, I knew where he was going to end. And I sat here many afternoons asking myself why, being an intelligent man, I was so powerless to stop it.” • “I could see every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall toward a certain door. I knew where he was heading for, I knew where he was going to end.”

28. Marco and Rodolpho • Rodolpho is more prominent in the first act and at the start of the second, while Marco becomes more important towards the end of the play. • Where Rodolpho speaks almost incessantly, Marco is often silent. He has some difficulty speaking English, but this is not his only reason. He is very attentive to what is going on and being said, he thinks and then speaks, and he clearly believes actions speak louder than words.

29. Marco and Rodolpho • Both Rodolpho and Marco are proud, but Marco has a stronger sense of the traditional values of the community. When Eddie attempts a joke about the "surprises" awaiting men who return from working in the U.S.A. for several years, Marco corrects him, while appearing not to see anything funny in the suggestion. It is Marco who tells Alfieri that at home Eddie would already be dead for his betrayal: he feels even more strongly than Eddie does the values which Eddie expresses in telling the story of Vinnie Bolzano. Rodolpho, on the other hand, tries to calm his brother, and offers Eddie a chance to make peace, a chance which Eddie spurns.

30. Catherine’s Views of Eddie • “Here! I’ll light it for you! She strikes a match and holds it to his cigar. He puffs. Quietly: Don’t worry about me, Eddie, heh?” • “I mean I know him and now I’m supposed to turn around and make a stranger out of him? I don’t know why I have to do that” • (E): Go, go. Hurry up! She stands a moment staring at him in a realized horror. • “He bites people when they sleep! He comes when nobody’s lookin’ and poisons decent people. In the garbage he belongs!” • “Eddie I never meant to do nothin’ bad to you.”

31. Beatrice • Beatrice confronts Eddie in Act one over their relationship. This reveals the extent of their marriage problems to the audience and adds more reason for the tension • “When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?” • “You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!” • She also tries to encourage Catherine to separate herself from Eddie, as if she, like Alfieri, can sense what is going to happen: • “I don’t understand this. He’s not your father, Catherine. I don’t understand what’s going on here.” • “you’re a grown woman and you’re in the same house with a grown man”

32. A View from the Bridge Key Scenes

33. The Chair • The climax of Act One • Rodolpho teaches Catherine to dance, the action allowing physical closeness; • Eddie, to "win back" his beloved, humiliates Rodolpho in a boxing "lesson" • The final action trumps Eddie's, as Marco, who has silently watched what is happening, shows Eddie the danger he invites by threatening Rodolpho. Politeness does not permit Marco to say anything, and the gesture is far more effective as the audience sees the chair "raised like a weapon" over Eddie's head

34. The Chair • Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head – and he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look.

35. The Kiss • The two kisses at the start of Act Two are equally effective on stage: one with its suggestion of incest and the other illustrating Eddie's mistaken belief in Rodolpho's homosexuality. • (C): Eddie, I’m not gonna be a baby any more! • She is staring at him in horror. Rodolpho is rigid. They are like animals that have torn at one another and broken up without a decision, each waiting for the other’s mood.

36. The Final Scene • In the final scene Alfieri’s warnings have finally come true, Eddie dies as a result of his confrontation with Marco. Both Catherine and Beatrice are present when he dies • (C): Eddie I never meant to do nothing bad to you. • (E): Then why – Oh, B.! • (B): Yes, Yes! • (E): My B.! • The final action of the play is where Eddie dies by his own hand and his own weapon – this could represent his own self-destruction

37. A View from the Bridge Other Dramatic Techniques

38. Stage Directions • The stage directions give the reader an insight into Eddie’s feelings towards Rodolpho: • “he is sizing up Rodolpho, and there is a concealed suspicion.” • “He moves from her, halts. She realizes there is a campaign solidified in him” • They also reveal his feelings towards his niece; • “he can’t help smiling at her”

39. Symbolism • Symbolism is most often found in the action, and has been discussed above (the dancing, the chair-as-weapon, Eddie's dying by his own hand). The set as well as accommodating the action is symbolic of Eddie's world and values: the apartment (home, where the family is) and the street (the wider community, where he meets friends).

40. Symbolism • The story of Vinny Bolzano is a parable about the need for solidarity and loyalty in the community (this ranks even above family ties, it seems), but also is prophetically symbolic of Eddie's own act of treachery.

41. Symbolism • Finally, there is symbolism in the play's title. After we see have seen the play, we wonder why the play is so named. We are made to think of the more panoramic view, which sees things, from afar, in relation to each other. It is not the view from ground level or the "water front", but a detached and objective view. This is the view we should have of Eddie, the view of Alfieri, the view that is "civilised" and will "settle for half".