Explore the ways in which Arthur Miller presents the relationship between Eddie and Catherine in ‘ A View From The Bridge’. How does it create dramatic tension for the audience?
‘A View from the Bridge’ is set in 1950s America in an Italian-American neighbourhood under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Brooklyn is a very poor area. It is a corrupt society in which laws are not obeyed and many people have a low social status. The vast majority of Brooklyn’s population was Sicilian. Brooklyn is described by Alfieri, the narrator, as the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge. To the audience, the bridge not only shows the poor separated from the rich but a symbol of hope for the people living in Brooklyn as the city of New York is a place of dreams because there was work, security and accommodation but most importantly wealth. During the 1950s, much of Europe was completely destroyed due to the Second World War. Italy, with its corrupt ruler, had been one of the worst hit countries during the war, as they suffered huge amounts of damage in Northern towns and villages by the Germans who took revenge after they had become allies with the British. The economy had rapidly gone down and so this left many Sicilian Italians with no choice but to leave and migrate to the dream city of New York. They were called ‘submarines’ by many Americans as they moved from one place to another just to get American citizenship. In this case, the audience see that Eddie will do whatever it takes to break Catherine and Rodolfo’s relationship as he says that he only loves Catherine to get an America passport. Many were also tempted by American Longshoreman and dockyard workers but it wasn’t to be as good as they thought it would as they were exploited and kept as slaves by their bosses in return for little money to send back home. Arthur Miller, the playwright, was born on October 17th 1915 in New York. His parents too were immigrants to the United States as he also came to study in America. While studying in America, he worked on the Brooklyn shipyards for two years and heard stories of them being betrayed and exploited by their workers. He became interested in a story that was told to him by his friend, which influenced him to write the play, about a longshoreman who had grassed to the immigration bureau on two of his own relatives who entered illegally to the country so that he could break an engagement between his niece and one of the relatives. From this, the audience know that it is based on a true story. Miller died on February 10th 2005.
Eddie and Catherine’s relationship changes throughout the play. Eddie, who is the husband of Beatrice, is very protective over his niece. The audience sees this when Eddie refuses to let Catherine work for the big plumbing company near the navy yard at the start of the play. When Eddie tells Catherine that she cannot work for the company, Beatrice becomes very annoyed at him because he had promised Catherine previously about getting a job; “Well, I don’t understand when it ends. First it was gonna be when she graduated high school. Then it was gonna be when she learned the stenographer, so she learned stenographer.” This shows the audience that he does not approve of Catherine taking the job because he can’t stand how it would feel if Catherine were to go away. The audience first meets Eddie when he is on his way back from work on the dockyard. When he enters the house, Catherine greets him. “Hi, Eddie!” (Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it). From this line it shows the audience that Eddie is thought to be a quiet and a calm character. We assume that Eddie and Catherine are together by the way that she greets him and how he reacts to this in a shy manner. The audience also sees Catherine as the seductive type as she runs her hands over her skirt in front of Eddie. Catherine is signalling her love to Eddie who we think is quite vulnerable at this stage however when he asks Catherine to turn around so he could see in the back, it changes the views of the audience dramatically. Surprisingly, she does what Eddie has asked her to do and this says something about Catherine and how open she is to Eddie. This creates dramatic tension because the audience think that someone may find out, especially Beatrice. We, the audience would expect her not to do that as she is old enough to know and at the cost of her family. In the beginning of the play Eddie is very concerned about Catherine’s behaviour. We see this when Eddie tells Catherine that she is “Walkin Wavy”. This suggests that Eddie disapproves of her behaviour and shows that not only is he a fatherly figure but a responsible guardian as he promised Catherine’s mother on her deathbed. As she gets closer to Eddie, he realizes what she trying to do and so he becomes more interested in his niece rather than his own wife Beatrice. At this point in the play, the audience sees what each of the characters needs are; Beatrice wants Eddie to treat her like a wife again because as soon as his relationship with Catherine got closer, the chemistry between Beatrice and Eddie had gone. Eddie’s obsession with Catherine pretty much lasts until the end of the play but one thing that the audience struggles to find out is what Catherine’s feelings for Eddie really are. Eddie accepted his wife’s cousins to stay in his house but this quickly sparks tension as Catherine instantly falls in love with Rodolfo. When Beatrice’s cousins arrive, Marco and Rodolfo, they all seemed to get on well but when Catherine and Rodolfo had feelings for each other, Eddie decided to take action and throw them both out. This creates dramatic tension because if Eddie throws them both out, we will not know how Catherine will react to this which could end her relationship with Eddie. As she drifts further away from Eddie to Rodolfo his jealousy becomes too much for him to handle which sees him commit an unforgivable crime against the whole community.
Miller uses pieces of Greek convention in ‘A View from the Bridge’. The influence for using the Greek tragedy was that he wanted to examine how human suffering took place in the Brooklyn community and how the audience got pleasure out of this. In ‘A View From The Bridge’, he sees Eddie as the representative type (tragic hero) because he is from the Sicilian background and he came from there to work here in New York. Also, he was one of the first immigrants to get there which means he represents the people in this Italian based neighbourhood. He is also known as the ‘tragic hero’ by Miller as he tries to stop Catherine from marrying Rodolfo but he fails to do this and results in his death. The audience think of Eddie as a kind and respected character because he is one of the main characters in the play and a hero for his family and for the Italian-American neighbourhood. In the beginning and middle of the play the audience all spot his flaw (weakness) for his niece Catherine which is excessive love for her. The chorus is Alfieri who provides the audience with detail on date, time and place. Alfieri has a very important role in the play because he tells the audience background information on Brooklyn and gives us an insight in other characters. His narration in the play helps us to understand more about the community and provides the audience with extra information. Marco and Rodolfo play the catalyst which speeds things up in the play. The audience notice this because as soon as they arrive in Eddie’s home, she is instantly attracted to Rodolfo. It also leads up to the climax as Marco and Eddie end up having a huge bust up. The resolution is the events at the end of the play where Eddie and Marco have a fight in public. Eddie has got a knife but before he tries to come towards Marco, Marco thrusts the knife in his heart. After the death of Eddie, the audience are shocked and stunned because the audience think that he didn’t deserve to die and his death was a tragedy. Eddie and Catherine’s relationship towards the end drastically changes. She wants Eddie’s approval of marrying Rodolfo but his answer is no and so from then on they don’t get along. When Eddie is in Beatrice’s arms on the brink of dying, he tells Beatrice the truth about who he really loved (Beatrice) and that she still is his wife. The audience think that confessing to Beatrice was the correct thing to do by Eddie as he did confess to her and the truth came out. Before the incident, Beatrice finds out about his love affair with Catherine but fails to admit to Beatrice. Their relationship breaks down in the end because he tries everything to stop the wedding between Catherine and Rodolfo but they end up doing it without either Beatrice or Eddie there. At the end of the play, Miller shows us that Eddie is very self-conscience about his love life and betraying his cousins. His apology to Beatrice at the end shows us that human nature has changed massively and that the people of the Brooklyn community think “it is better to settle for half, it must be.” This shows that the people of the community feel safer and happier with what they have got and seem to be living happily even though in poverty. At the end of Act 1, Marco sees what Eddie is trying to do with Rodolfo and so he sends Eddie a warning that if he does anything else to trouble his brother, he will take action. This creates dramatic tension for the audience because we think that there might be a violent or a bloody scene as Marco lifts the chair with one hand above Eddie’s head. The audience also see dramatic tension when Eddie gives Rodolfo the ‘Kiss of Death’. This symbolizes Eddie’s anger towards him and potentially Rodolfo’s death.
At the end of the play, Miller is showing the audience that human nature has changed and that some people will go to any length’s to get what they want. He also shows us that we cannot always help our desires in life and life is not that straightforward for the people of Brooklyn. When Alfieri says that it’s better to settle for half, we see that after Eddie’s death the Brooklyn community realize that they should be happy with what they already have and not always think about themselves but also others. I think that Miller is sending out the right message because he talks about human nature and how it has changed especially in Brooklyn. The two most important factors in the play were when Catherine and Rodolfo were together and when Catherine was desperate about getting a job. Without these there would not have been too much love, hate and most importantly the death of Eddie.