A View From the Bridge

We see Eddie as a tragic character because when we meet him, we want to like him and root for him. He is our protagonist, as evidenced by Miller giving him many lines and keeping him on stage...

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...

This quotation, made by the lawyer Alfieri at the end of the play, means that in order to live in a community with other people, we have to meet them halfway, not behaving like Eddie Carbone and...

Loyalty is everything to the Italian American community depicted in A View from the Bridge. Even if people don't necessarily know or like each other they still put on a front of solidarity,...

An exploration of honor in Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge could lead to some rather troublesome and unsettling discoveries. Before considering the importance of honor in Miller’s play,...

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is defined in part as a person who has a tragic flaw which precipitates his or her own downfall. Eddie Carbone's tragic flaw is his jealousy. He is jealous of...

It is difficult to describe Eddie Carbone as a sympathetic character. For one thing, he is an extraordinarily self-centered man who expects the whole world to revolve around him. Everything he does...

Alfieri functions as the chorus of the play, commenting on the action and the characters carrying out the action, but ultimately set apart and serving as a medium between the audience and the...

It has to be said, right from the outset, that Beatrice isn't a particularly well-drawn character in the play. That said, she does play an important role all the same. Warm, caring, and unfailingly...

To a large extent, Eddie's feelings for Catherine, or Katie as he always calls her, are directly responsible for his downfall. For one thing, he's overprotective towards her. He puts Catherine on a...

Language informs the theme of conflict in Arthur Miller’s play A View From the Bridge because the way Eddie speaks mirrors his actions in the play. Eddie’s first lines are, “Well, I’ll see ya,...

Jealousy is shown throughout the play as something that can so easily get out of control; and when it does, it can destroy lives. It is Eddie's insane jealousy over Catherine and Rodolpho's budding...

A View from the Bridge is largely concerned with the American immigrant experience. Arthur Miller, however, isn't simply making a point about immigration; he's also proffering wider reflections on...

Eddie, Marco and Rodolpho each exhibit distinctly different types of masculinity in this play. Eddie is presented as an emotional (over-emotional perhaps) patriarch. He makes commands in his...

Both plays take place in an immigrant and working class enclaves in American cities, thus contrasting the old-world values of the immigrants and the American aspirations of social mobility. A View...

It is clear from the play that Eddie is constantly engaged in creating and protecting his own personal world of illusion where he can remain blind from the significance of his actions and his own...

One of the ways in which Miller creates tragedy in this play is through the conflict between the self and the community. Throughout the play, Miller makes it clear that there is a difference of...

Interestingly, this play had at its basis the germ of a real story very similar to the plot of the play. In 1947, Miller was researching a story about a Longshoreman who had been executed by the...

Arthur Miller structured A View from the Bridge with many similarities to a classical Greek tragedy. Structural and formal elements, often employing the attorney Alfieri, support the idea that the...

The first time we meet Catherine, she is presented as an object of Eddie's desire, and Miller presents her to us as if from Eddie's perspective. Catherine is wearing a skirt that she has just...

Catherine matures considerably throughout the course of the play. When we're first introduced to her, she is more of an older child than a young adult. This is largely because of Eddie, her...

Eddie Carbone's complexity grows out of his lack of ability to see himself clearly. Eddie has developed a romantic love for his niece. Eddie has unarticulated and perhaps unconscious desires to...

Alfieri is one of the strangest characters in all of Miller's works. He acts like a Greek chorus in the play, and his viewpoint is the "view from the bridge" between the US legal system...

I think one of the biggest themes that this play points towards is the recognition of a different code of laws in separate communities that often stands in conflict with the national law. Miller...

In general, of course he is right. But on the other hand, if you never trust, you lose out in a big way as well. The idea here is that if you trust someone, you make yourself vulnerable to them....

In Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge, Marco and Rodolpho are as Italian as they come, and their Italian heritage is a major part of their pride, their hard-working nature, and their value...

Eddie Carbone is deeply conflicted and confused. He is unable to be honest about his feelings for his niece, though others can see clearly that Eddie's fatherly affections for Catherine have at...

In these three men, Eddie, Rodolpho and Marco, we are presented with three distinctly different modes of masculinity. Eddie is a man out of touch with his emotions who is, therefore, dominated by...

This is a very important theme in the play, perhaps the most important. Loyalty to one's family and community is considered almost sacrosanct among the Italian Americans who live in this part of...

In A View From the Bridge, Arthur Miller presents the struggles that social class brings through Alfieri. A lawyer, Alfieri is not a member of the social class of Eddie, Beatrice, and Catherine....

The opening scene sets the stage for the play by introducing the main acting area, which is the combination living and dining room of Eddie's apartment. Eddie is a working man and his flat is...

Alfieri's quite stoical about everything that's just happened. A man lies dead and though Alfieri deeply regrets what's happened to Eddie, he doesn't hesitate to blame him for contributing to his...

A compelling argument can be made for any of these contrasting pairs of themes, depending on which characters and stories are emphasized. The unhealthy love of Eddie for Catherine is contrasted to...

In A View From the Bridge Arthur Miller shows Eddie Carbone as being very much the architect of his own downfall. His obsessive, unhealthy feelings toward his niece Catherine drive him toward...

The Italian-American community in A View from the Bridge is depicted as having its own rules, way of doing things, and code of honor. Like many immigrant communities, Italian-Americans in Red Hook...

There are many elements of this play unrelated to immigration. In fact, the central drama is not directly related to the circumstances of Marco and Rodolpho as illegal immigrants. Rather, the...