The play by Arthur Miller is a drama about an Italian-American neighborhood in the 1950s. The titular structure looms near the community. Alfieri, the lawyer and narrator, describes the setting as "unromantic," a "slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of the Brooklyn Bridge." Eddie starts out the story as a decent man, but after his masculinity and possession of Catherine is challenged, he sinks to increasingly significant lows. He betrays his family members, violating the values of the community. Events are given weight by the setting. A setting that can be viewed from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The title can also refer to Alfieri. He was born in Italy and works as an American lawyer. He bridges the divide between two cultures, just as he connects the gaps between sections of the play. Alfieri introduces the setting, comments on the story, and offers the final words. Alfieri surmises the tragedy and admits that he has empathy for Eddie.

I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients. And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain . . . alarm.

A View from the Bridge refers to the physical bridge, the Italian-American community, and Alfieri as a symbolic narrator.