| A View From The Bridge |
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A View from the Bridge is a play by Arthur Miller originally produced as a Verse Drama on Broadway in 1955. It was based upon an unproduced screenplay that Miller developed with Elia Kazan entitled The Hook, dealing with corruption on the docks of a port. (Though the movie was never made, Kazan's 1954 film '' On The Waterfront '' developed similar ideas.) Though the 1955 production was not successful, it was revised in 1956 to become a more traditional prose play, and it is through this version that audiences are most familiar with the work today. (Interestingly, the play was adapted into an opera in 1999 by William Bolcom , thus bringing the story back into verse.) The main character in the story is Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman, who lives with his wife Beatrice and niece Catherine. His feelings for Catherine however, develop into something more than filial as we see through out the play. These feelings are brought into perspective by the arrival of Beatrice's two cousins Marco and Rodolfo. They have come from Italy hoping to leave behind hunger and unemployment for a better life in America. Rodolfo is young, good-looking and charming and Catherine instantly falls for him. Predictably Eddie sets about pointing out all of Rodolfo's flaws and persistently complains that Rodolfo is "weird" (Gay). He uses Rodolfo's feminine qualities, such as dress-making, cooking and singing, to back up his argument. In the end Catherine decides to marry Rodolfo and Eddie sees he has no choice but to confess to The Immigration Bureau that he is harbouring two illegal immigrants. This in turn makes Eddie lose the respect of his neighbours, his friends and his family. In the final pages of the play the sense of crisis climaxes with a fight between Eddie and Marco which results in Eddie’s death. Eddie brandishes a knife which goes against his ideals of honor. He attacks Marco but Marco turns the blade unto Eddie. This could be a projection of Eddie's self-destructive tendencies. In the final pages of the play Miller uses stage directions more often to convey the sense of crisis and drama. Miller uses stage directions when it would be difficult to interpret what emotions should be shown. An example of this is when Eddie concedes to let Catherine work. The stage directions were with a sense of her childhood, her babyhood and the years. Miller also uses his stage directions as a vehicle for symbolism. Location The play is set in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Red Hook is a homogeneous community of American-Italian immigrants. Most of the people in Red Hook originate from Sicily and the Sicilian code of honour is a running motif in the play. Italy represents homeland, origin and culture to the citizens of Red Hook. But, Italy represents different things to the main characters in the play. For example, Catherine associates Italy with mystery, romance and beauty. Rodolpho, on the other hand, is actually from Italy, and thinks it is a place with little opportunity that he would like to escape from. All of the characters appreciate the benefit of living in the U.S but still strongly hold to Italian traditions and identify it as home. Italy is the basis of the cultural traditions in Red and unites the community with their own laws and customs. Suppression of characters' true feelings There are homo-erotic tensions between Eddie and Rodolpho. This is made obvious when Eddie kisses Rodolpho. He claims to have done this to prove that Rodolpho is homosexual, or “not right” as he put it. He did this to prove that Rodolpho could have no sexual desires for Catherine and was only marrying her to live in America. This action could be interpreted in three ways, Eddie could be telling the truth and his explanations for his actions are the real reasons why he did them. Or, he himself has oppressed homo-sexual tendencies but it could be a bestial sign of dominance. Eddie yearns for control of every situation and everyone around him and all the conflicts in the play escalate when Eddie looses control. It is common for several animals to do several things which humans would deem homosexual but are in fact signs that one animal is dominant over the other. This hypothesis is supported in the final pages when Marco repeatedly calls Eddie an “animal”. There are several issues which at first the characters suppressed but during the course of the play were forced into the open. An example of this is that Beatrice’s loyalty is divided between Eddie and Catherine. Beatrice desperately wants to be closer to Eddie because she has sensed a rift forming between them and the only way she feels she can break this is if Catherine matures and leaves. She tries to execute this herself by telling Catherine by telling her that she needs to act more like a woman and to stop acting like a child around Eddie. She also defends her getting married to Rodolpho in order to get her away from the house. She might be doing this because she is jealous of Catherine becoming so close to Eddie and is blaming her for all of her and Eddie’s marital problems. Tragic heroic? The play is a tragic one, as Miller himself said that Eddie possessed all the qualities of a tragic hero:
But one normally sympathises with a tragic hero, from a Greek myth for example, but not everyone sympathises with Eddie when reading the play. Some of his actions do not make it easy to sympathise with him. CAST OF CHARACTERS
IN POPULAR CULTURE As mentioned above, On The Waterfront by Elia Kazan tells a story similar to Miller's "A View from the Bridge". In fact, On The Waterfront is believed to be Kazan's response to Miller's implicit commentary on those who assisted with the efforts of the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). Eddie Carbone is degraded from a respectable man to a shameful animal because of his wild mistrust of Rodlfo (leading to his turning in of Rodolfo and Marco to the Immigration Bureau). On The Waterfront tells a similar story, but the analogous protagonist (Terry Malloy) is portrayed as a hero who does his duty for the greater good. Miller's The Crucible is considered the third play in this exchange. Some people even go as far as to say that the first line in the play "ill see ya fellas" shows that he is ultimately saying farewall to all his friends before his life is changed for ever. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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