A View from the Bridge: Key Quotations (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature)

Key Quotations

The Assessment Objectives requires you to use textual references, including quotations. It is helpful to remember, then, that there are a number of ways that you can show your understanding of the play: you can provide quotations, but it is equally valid to summarise, paraphrase and reference plot events as well. The highest-mark responses will do a combination of these things by building answers around select key quotations and connecting them to ideas from the wider play. 

The best way to revise key quotations is by grouping them according to character and theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of a selection of helpful quotations, arranged by the following themes:

• Justice and the law

• Love and sexuality

• Masculinity

This is not an exhaustive list of key quotations from the play; it is simply a selection of some of the most useful examples. Once you know A View from the Bridge well enough, you will acquire favourite lines and stage directions of your own that allow you to show off your technical understanding.

Justice and the law

Paired quotations:

Meaning and context

• These lines come from Alfieri’s speeches that bookend the play 

Analysis

• These are the ideas that Miller introduces the play with, and that he wants audiences to think about

• By repeating the idea of settling “for half” at the beginning and end of the play, Miller highlights it as the most important message of the tragedy

• Alfieri seems to be suggesting that the law is incapable of satisfying everyone fully

• His use of the pronoun “we” suggests that he speaks on behalf of the Italian-American community:

  • The behaviour of Eddie and Marco during the play makes it clear that Alfieri does not represent everybody

• The idea that settling for half is “quite American” suggests that to do so is un-American:

  • This idea describes Eddie’s dilemma in a nutshell: he can either follow American laws, or obey the separate Italian-American code of community justice

• The shift from the definitive “Now we settle” to the less absolute “Most of the time now we settle” acknowledges the unpredictability of human emotions – as demonstrated by Eddie:

  • The slight change in tone also reflects Alfieri’s growing uncertainty about what course of action might be best

Meaning and context

• Eddie is describing to Catherine the fate of 14-year-old Vinny Bolzano, who “ratted” on his own uncle

Analysis

• In Eddie’s eyes (and in the eyes of the immigrant community), Vinny was guilty of an injustice and deserving of the punishment that was administered 

• Justice was done when he was physically assaulted and shunned by the neighbourhood

• Eddie sees “The whole neighbourhood” as the victims in this story: he recalls the tears of the community rather than the feelings of Bolzano

• The story shows the closeness of the Italian-American community, who come together to reject anyone who breaks their code of honour

• The story resonates throughout Act II and foreshadows Eddie’s fate: he will later repeat Bolzano’s mistake when he informs on Rodolpho and Marco:

  • His hypocritical actions mark an enormous change in his character, as he becomes what he hates

  • Eddie’s fate will later be sealed when Marco “spits into Eddie’s face” after being arrested, marking him as the informant

Paired quotations:

Meaning and context

• These lines are from Act II, when Alfieri speaks to Marco in prison after the raid by the Immigration Bureau

• Alfieri arranged to bail Marco out of prison on the condition that Marco vows to not seek vengeance against Eddie

• Marco struggles to understand why American law protects someone like Eddie

Analysis

• Marco makes clear that the American law is incompatible with his understanding of true justice

• To Marco, he has a responsibility to correct the wrong that has been done to him and his family

• As with the story of Vinny Bolzano, Eddie’s betrayal has affected a wider group of people: we know that Marco is seeking justice for his entire family

• Marco’s line is entirely monosyllabic, suggesting that he spits these words out, and can barely control his fury

• Alfieri’s response asks Marco, a religious man, to rely on God for ultimate justice:

  • Marco prays at the church before he hunts down Eddie, showing that his community’s understanding of God’s justice is different to Alfieri’s

• Alfieri’s helpless protest echoes his futile attempts to stop Eddie earlier in the Act:

  • Marco and Eddie mirror each other in their refusal to settle “for half” and their desire for justice that goes beyond the law

  • Marco’s search for complete justice is a direct consequence of Eddie’s, suggesting that Eddie planted the seeds of his own destruction and is responsible for his own downfall

Love and sexuality

Meaning and context

• In Act I, while Eddie waits for Rodolpho and Catherine to return from the movies, Beatrice confronts her husband about the problems in their marriage

Analysis

• To Beatrice, her sexual dissatisfaction seems to reflect a broader emotional neglect in their relationship:

  • Eddie’s responses give the impression that this is a conversation with which he has refused to engage on previous occasions:

    • Eddie clearly feels uncomfortable with having his masculinity questioned

    • This is ironic given that he spends so much energy questioning Rodolpho’s

  • By stating that she no longer feels like a wife, she is also saying that Eddie does not feel like her husband:

    • Not only does she question Eddie’s masculinity, her words imply that an emotional distance has opened up between them as well as a physical one

• It is significant that Beatrice confronts Eddie with their marital problems while he is focused on Catherine’s return:

  • The timing of Beatrice’s line implies that Eddie’s fixation on Catherine may be to blame for his marital neglect

Meaning and context

• The night that Rodolpho and Marco arrive at the Carbones’ apartment, Rodolpho sings “Paper Doll”, which delights all except Eddie

• Eddie interrupts the performance by threatening Rodolpho with the consequences of being overheard by the wrong person

Analysis

• Miller’s use of “enthralled” indicates the almost magical effect that Rodolpho’s presence has had on Catherine

• This marks the first occasion of many that Catherine is inspired by Rodolpho to argue against Eddie’s wishes:

  • Eddie’s interruption upsets Catherine more than it does Rodolpho:

    • Miller foreshadows the ways that Eddie’s later attacks on Rodolpho will cause unintended upset to Eddie’s beloved niece

• Her description of his singing as “beautiful” is echoed moments later by Rodolpho, who calls her “beautiful”:

  • The mirroring of their language highlights the immediate connection between the two, and suggests love at first sight
    

Meaning and context

• In the closing moments of Act II, Beatrice confronts Eddie about his true motivations for preventing Catherine’s marriage to Rodolpho

• The conversation occurs in the presence of Catherine and Rodolpho, just moments before Marco enters to take revenge on Eddie

Analysis

• Beatrice accuses Eddie of having sexual desire for Catherine:

  • The moment feels like a natural development of their conversation from Act I in which Beatrice complained that she was no longer “a wife”

  • It is implied that Beatrice may have suspected Eddie’s incestuous desires for some time

• As this terrible revelation is spoken moments before Marco enters the scene, the situation is never fully resolved:

  • Eddie denies the accusation outright, and his “horrified” reaction and “agony” suggest that Eddie had not been aware of his deep-seated emotions

  • Eddie is released from having to address Beatrice’s accusation any further by Marco’s interruption:

    • Eddie may even welcome his death at Marco’s hands: it frees him from the awful truth of his feelings for Catherine

  • The scene leaves no time for Catherine to fully respond; the audience can only imagine how she must feel at this juncture:

    • Miller’s script gives the actor playing Catherine the freedom to embody her emotions physically in many different ways

  • Catherine’s single response (“in horror: B!”) suggests that Catherine may never have suspected that Eddie desired her sexually:

    • On the other hand, her horror may simply come from the shock of Beatrice openly speaking the unspeakable

• Importantly, Beatrice does not seem to love Eddie any less – even after making this accusation:

  • Still loyal and loving, after Eddie’s death Beatrice “covers him with her body”:

    • It is bittersweet that only after Eddie’s death can the couple finally reconnect physically

Meaning and context

• At the start of Act II, Beatrice and Rodolpho are alone together for the first time in the play

• Rodolpho encourages Catherine to free herself from Eddie’s controlling influence

Analysis

• Although Catherine’s words may appear to be submissive at first glance, they actually represent her growing independence and confidence:

  • Her words take the form of imperative commands

  • Also her repetition of “me” shows that, for the first time in the play, she is putting her own needs first

  • Rodolpho has clearly inspired Catherine to consider her own desires rather than those of Eddie

  • “Hold me” shows her initiating physical contact, and eventually (implied) sexual intimacy, with Rodolpho

• The genuine intimacy between Rodolpho and Catherine is made to feel more natural and authentic in contrast to Eddie’s behaviour towards Catherine moments later:

  • Eddie forces himself onto Catherine and kisses her on the mouth in an act of unreciprocated sexual aggression:

    • Miller contrasts Eddie’s behaviour with the genuine love between Rodolpho and Catherine to emphasise how unnatural Eddie’s desires have become

• Catherine is not “weeping” here because she is sad; her weeping is an emotional release:

  • The audience get the impression that this is the first time that she has felt truly understood by somebody else

• Miller invites us to compare this relationship with that between Beatrice and Eddie:

  • Catherine and Rodolpho show strong, mutual physical desire in contrast to the sexually unsatisfactory marriage described by Beatrice in Act I

Masculinity

Meaning and context

• Towards the end of Act I, Eddie visits Alfieri to ask for advice on how to legally prevent a relationship between Catherine and Rodolpho

Analysis

• Eddie’s emotive language demonstrates the intensity of his anger:

  • His overreaction suggests his emotional instability, and creates the impression that he is blinded by his fear of losing Catherine

• Eddie sees Rodolpho’s actions as an insult to his masculinity: his generosity has been taken advantage of: 

  • Referring to Rodolpho as a “thief” indicates that, as the man of his house, Eddie sees Catherine as his property 

• Eddie’s reference to Rodolpho putting his “hands on her” suggests that on some level, Eddie is imagining Catherine as the object of sexual desire:

  • The implication is that Eddie believes that only he has the right to touch Catherine

  • Whether Eddie realises it or not, his masculine pride means that he has started to see Rodolpho as a sexual rival

Meaning and context

• This stage direction comes at the very end of Act I, as Marco lifts the chair over Eddie’s head

• Moments earlier, Eddie was unable to lift the same chair

Analysis

• Significantly, the chair that Marco lifts belongs to Eddie, and has likely been on stage for the entire scene:

  • The chair could be seen to represent Eddie’s household as a whole, and Eddie’s failure to lift the chair reflects him losing control over his own family

  • Marco’s display of strength in comparison suggests that Eddie’s own household is turning against him

• When Marco lifts the chair, this simple object resembles “a weapon over Eddie’s head”:

  • The word “weapon” represents the physical danger that Marco poses to Eddie

• Marco’s “glare of warning” transforms “into a smile of triumph”, revealing through body language far more than the stoic Marco tends to reveal through words:

  • His “glare of warning” is a silent threat that brings Eddie’s familial dominance into question by making it clear that Eddie will be in trouble if he harms Rodolpho

  • The threat, however, is replaced by a “smile of triumph”, suggesting that Marco is satisfied to have made his point to Eddie

• The image of Marco holding the chair aloft is the thing that the audience sees before the curtain closes:

  • The audience is left with the image of Marco’s physical dominance over Eddie:

    • This foreshadows the climax of Act II, which again sees Marco standing victorious over Eddie 

Meaning and context

• This line comes from the end of Act II, just before the final fight between Marco and Eddie

Analysis

• Eddie believes that if Marco apologises in front of his neighbours for spitting at him, he will be a man again:

  • Eddie conflates the ideas of manliness, honour and respect with his “name”:

    • Eddie believed that when Marco accused him of betrayal, Marco stripped Eddie’s identity away from him

    • Eddie’s reaction is hyperbolic, but also reflects how Eddie betrayed his own core values when he informed on Rodolpho and Marco

• Before fighting Marco, Eddie repeats his name, “Eddie Carbone”, several times:

  • The emphasis on Eddie’s full name highlights that not only Eddie but the wife and niece who share his surname, Carbone, have been tarnished by Marco’s accusation

• Eddie knows, in truth, that Marco’s accusation is justified: he wants his “name” back, but does not deserve it:

  • His masculine grievance with Marco is based upon deception

  • Eddie has transformed from one who believes in the codes of justice and honour among the Italian-American community to somebody desperately lying to escape those same codes

• It is ironic that Eddie, in losing his identity, became somebody who Alfieri considers unforgettable as a cautionary tale against seeking uncompromising masculine honour:

  • It is also ironic that Eddie lost his “name” by making himself “wholly known”, as Alfieri puts it

Sources 

Miller, A. (2010). A View From the Bridge. Penguin.