Zusammenfassung der Ressource
A View from the Bridge
- Tragedy
- Based on Greek Tragedy
- The tragic hero (an Everyman
figure) commits an offence, often
unknowingly. He must then learn
his fault, suffer and perhaps die.
In this way, the gods are
vindicated and the moral order of
the universe restored.
- Eddie is the tragic hero.
- He is a very ordinary man, decent,
hard-working and charitable, a man no-one
could dislike. But he has a flaw or weakness.
- This, in turn, causes him to act
wrongly. The consequences, social
and psychological, of his wrong
action destroy him.
- Eddie's fortunes decline
throughout the play.
- Miller uses Eddie to suggest that we all have basic impulses,
which civilisation has taught us to control. We have
self-destructive urges, too, but normally we deny these.
- Structure
- The use of 2 acts marks a
division in Eddie's story.
- Act One
- Eddie tries to stop
Catherine from falling
in love with Rodolpho.
- Ends with a climax.
- First, Rodolpho dances with Catherine,
symbolically taking her from Eddie.
- Second, Eddie tells Rodolpho about boxing
matches and offers to teach him to box.
- Third, Marco lifts the chair, and raises it
"like a weapon over Eddie's head".
- Act Two
- Eddie realises that he
has failed and tries to
get rid of Rodolpho.
- Opens with shock.
- The kisses are used to
repel the audience.
- Ending is symbolic.
- Eddie literally dies by his own hand, which holds the knife, and
is killed by his own weapon; but Eddie also metaphorically
destroys himself, over the whole course of the play.
- Rodolpho is the catalyst which
speeds up Eddie's decline.
- Characters
- Eddie
- Eddie does not really understand
his improper desire, and is unable
to hide it from those around him.
- We are shown at first a
good man who seems
perfectly happy.
- He. will
seek to
discredit
any rival.
- His despair triumphs
over his conscience.
- He has a sense of duty
to his family and his
community.
- Alfieri
- A Chorus figure.
- He watches the action,
comments on it, and
addresses the audience
directly.
- He isn't totally detached.
- Represents the law.
- Alfieri's view is also the "view
from the bridge" of the title.
- Catherine
- Uncertain.
- She frees herself of her
dependence on Eddie.
- Intense relationships.
- Childlike but on the cusp of adulthood.
- Beatrice
- Mature.
- Generous.
- Domestic.
- Frustrated.
- Marco
- Dark and
powerfully built.
- Often silent.
- Misses his family.
- Strong sense of
community.
- Rodolpho
- Slender, graceful and blond-haired.
- Talks a lot.
- Wants to be an American.
- Considered to be effeminate.
- Action
- Ideas are often shown
in gesture and action.
- Sometimes this is
apparently minor
detail, but at times it
is highly symbolic.
- At moments of high drama or climaxes, we
often see some very striking action.
- Language
- Only Alfieri, is a properly articulate, educated
speaker of American English: for this reason
he can explain Eddie's actions to us, but not to
Eddie, who does not really speak his language.
- Eddie uses a naturalistic Brooklyn
slang and his speech is simple.
- Catherine's meekness is shown in the frequency
with which her speeches begin with "Yeah",
agreeing with, or qualifying, Eddie's comments.
- Rodolpho speaks with
unnatural exactness.
- Marco has to think before he can speak
in whole phrases or sentences; he is a
man of actions rather than words.
- Symbolism
- Dancing.
- Physical closeness.
- The chair.
- Male power
(phallic symbol).
- A weapon.
- Eddie's death.
- Self destruction.
- The setting.
- The apartment (home, where the family is).
- The street (the wider community, where he meets friends).
- Story of Vinny Bolzano.
- The need for
solidarity and
loyalty in the
community
- Eddie's own treachery.
- Lighting the cigar.
- Phallic symbol.
- The title.
- We are given a detached and
objective view from 'the bridge'.
- Plot
- Act One
- Prologue: (Spoken by Alfieri).
- Episode 1: Eddie, Catherine and Beatrice look
forward to the arrival of Beatrice's cousins.
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 2: Later the same evening the cousins arrive.
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 3: Some weeks later Catherine and Rodolpho have been to the cinema.
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 4: Eddie consults Alfieri.
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 5: A domestic scene; dancing, boxing, chair-lifting.
- Act Two
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 6: December 23rd; Catherine and Rodolpho; the two kisses.
- Interlude: (Alfieri).
- Episode 7: December 27th; Eddie visits Alfieri, warned against phoning.
- Episode 8: Same day; Eddie and Beatrice;
Marco and Rodolpho arrested; Eddie accused.
- Episode 9: Some days later (wedding day); Alfieri counsels Marco.
- Episode 10: Just before the wedding; Eddie confronts Marco, who kills him.
- Epilogue: (Spoken by Alfieri).