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

Themes

Exam responses that discuss the central ideas of the play in a nuanced way are more likely to reach the highest levels of the mark scheme. By discussing different perspectives on the themes of the text, specifically in relation to the question being asked, your response will demonstrate greater fluency and personal engagement – key elements of AO1.

Below are some ideas that could be explored in A View from the Bridge. This list is not exhaustive and you are encouraged to identify other ideas within the text.

• Justice and the law

• Love and sexuality

• Masculinity

Justice and the law

Throughout the play, Miller emphasises the difference between moral and statutory law. The play involves frequent clashes between the laws of the United States, embodied by Alfieri, and “natural justice”, represented in the codes of honour within the Italian-American community. Alfieri, as a lawyer, acts as a metaphorical “bridge” between the two positions and makes clear that the law must be upheld, but even he acknowledges in his opening monologue that the law does not always dispense total justice – and “justice is very important here”.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The tragedy begins with Alfieri explaining that the law is often incapable of satisfying everybody, and that most people will have to “settle for half”

• The rules of the immigrant Italian community in Red Hook are often shown to be at odds with the laws of the United States:

  • Eddie and Beatrice’s tale at the start of the play of Vinny Bolzano, a young boy who “snitched” on his uncle, portrays the Italian community’s values of honour, family and community as distinct from the US immigration laws

  • There is no sympathy for Vinny and the severe consequences of his actions:

    • Even though he was just 14 years old: “bouncin’ like a coconut. And they spit on him in the street, his own father and his brothers”

  • Eddie and Beatrice see the treatment of the “stool pigeon” as justice:

    • In their eyes, the victims of the story were the Italian community: “The whole neighbourhood was crying”

• While Eddie and his fellow longshoremen consider their Italian code of honour to be sacred, there are many examples of lawbreaking that are seen as acceptable:

  • This is because the rules being broken were American laws

  • Aside from hiding illegal immigrants, Eddie and his fellow workers are happy to steal from the cargo at the docks:

    • Eddie cheerfully promises to “bust a bag” of coffee for Beatrice

  • Even Alfieri wryly describes how “a case of Scotch whisky slipped from a net while being unloaded – as a case of Scotch whisky is inclined to do on the twenty-third of December”

• Towards the end of Act I, Eddie tries to force Alfieri to give him his kind of justice by preventing Rodolpho from marrying Catherine, and Alfieri replies that Eddie has “no recourse in the law”:

  • Despite being a lawyer whom the audience might expect to uphold the law, in Act II Alfieri encourages Eddie to act illegally by continuing to keep Marco and Rodolpho hidden: 

    • “You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie!”

  • Here, he emphasises that betraying the Italians would be unjust, even if reporting them to the authorities is the legally correct course of action

  • Alfieri is aware of the consequences of following statutory law if it means breaking the code of honour in the community: 

    • “Even the ones who feel the same will despise you!”

• In the final section of the play Marco demands justice for being betrayed by Eddie:

  • Alfieri cautions him against stepping outside of the law, but Marco tells Alfieri, “The law? All the law is not in a book”

• Importantly, Alfieri makes clear that natural justice and the law are not always incompatible – especially when somebody’s behaviour goes against both social codes:

  • In the case of Eddie refusing to bless Catherine’s marriage to Rodolpho, Alfieri tells Eddie that “Morally and legally, you have no rights”

What is Miller’s intention?

• As Miller’s mouthpiece, Alfieri opens and closes A View from the Bridge by explaining that it is not always possible to reconcile the law with one’s personal sense of justice:

  • Eddie’s death makes clear that there are consequences for those who seek full justice, which is why the majority are content to reach a compromise and “settle for half”

  • However, Miller ends his tragedy by asking the audience to question whether it is always right to “settle for half” and, notably, Alfieri does not condemn Eddie:

    • Instead, he admits to being impressed by how Eddie “allowed himself to be wholly known” – even if Alfieri’s admiration is accompanied by “a certain … alarm”

Love and sexuality

Miller primarily explores ideas of love and sexuality by contrasting Catherine’s relationships with Eddie and Rodolpho. While Eddie’s love for his niece is initially protective, it is ultimately revealed as restrictive and unhealthy for both (and perhaps even incestuous). Rodolpho’s romantic love for Catherine, on the other hand, liberates Catherine from social expectations and the controlling influence of Eddie. Elsewhere in the play, issues of love and sexuality are represented in Marco’s love for his wife and family, Eddie’s homophobic suspicion of Rodolpho, and Beatrice’s growing marital dissatisfaction.

Knowledge and evidence:

• At the beginning of the play there is a lively, intimate relationship between Catherine and Eddie and there is much love and reciprocity in this relationship:

  • However, the audience see early on that the lack of barriers between the two is potentially harmful:

    • Eddie takes clear pride in, and enjoyment from, Catherine’s appearance when she models her new clothes: “Beautiful. Turn round, lemme see in the back”

    • Beatrice shows an instinct for detecting problems beneath the surface when she warns Catherine that “if you act like a baby … he be treatin’ you like a baby. Like when you throw yourself at him like when you was twelve years old”

    • As he appreciates her beauty, Eddie also fears what other men will see when she goes out to work

• The relationship between Catherine and Rodolpho gives rise to Eddie’s jealousy:

  • When Catherine and Rodolpho go out together, Eddie begins to reveal how dangerously obsessive he can be: 

    • “They must’ve seen every picture in Brooklyn by now/He’s supposed to stay in the house when he ain’t working”

  • Eddie’s reveals how possessive he is of Catherine when he describes Rodolpho’s actions as akin to property theft: “He’s stealing from me!”

  • Rodolpho awakens Catherine’s independence:

    • She demonstrates this powerfully at the end of Act I when, “flushed with revolt”, she instigates dancing with him in front of Eddie: “You wanna dance, Rodolpho? (Eddie freezes)”

  • In contrast to Eddie’s overprotectiveness, Rodolpho attempts to liberate Catherine:

    • At the start of Act II he compares her to a bird who “grows and wishes to fly” while Eddie “will not let her out”

  • Rodolpho’s compassion frees Catherine emotionally and sexually in Act II:

    • “Teach me. (She is weeping) I don’t know anything, teach me, Rodolpho, hold me”

• As Catherine’s relationship with Rodolpho deepens, her relationship with Eddie deteriorates:

  • Empowered by Rodolpho, Catherine seeks to break away from Eddie in Act II:

    •  “I think I can’t stay here no more. (She frees her arm)”

  • Rodolpho’s compassion and sensitivity are placed into stark contrast against Eddie’s forceful coercion when Eddie kisses both Rodolpho and Catherine:

    • This is an attempt to prove Rodolpho’s homosexuality

• Eddie becomes overwhelmed with anger as the tragedy reaches its denouement:

  • The imagery of “his eyes were like tunnels” suggests that Eddie is unable to control his possibly incestuous feelings towards Catherine

• The audience can never be certain that Eddie understands what his feelings are for Catherine, outside of his legitimate affection for her as her uncle:

  • By the end of the play, Beatrice evidently realises the sad truth when she says: “You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her”:

• Her accusation gives voice to something that she might have suspected for some time

• It is suggested, for example, when she asks her husband “When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?”), but which has only become more evident since Rodolpho’s arrival 

What is Miller’s intention?

• Miller makes clear, especially from the relationship between Eddie and Catherine, that genuine love can sometimes develop into an unhealthy attachment, and the two may not always be easy to distinguish until it is too late

• Miller suggests that true love, be it familial or romantic, also involves a degree of personal sacrifice:

  • In the same way that the uneasy balance between justice and the law requires people to make moral compromises, love sometimes requires that people “settle for half” of what they want

  • For example, Marco willingly works thousands of miles away from his loved ones in order to support them, while Beatrice refuses to attend Catherine’s wedding because Eddie forbids it

• Eddie’s greatest flaw (his hamartia, in the terms of a classical tragic hero) is that he is unable to put Catherine’s need for freedom before his own selfish desire to emotionally (and perhaps even physically) possess her:

  • Although he loves her, he cannot bring himself to make the emotional sacrifice required to let Catherine go:

    • Only at the moment of his death does he appear to recognise his mistake as he stops making demands of Catherine and turns instead to his wife: “Then why – Oh, B.!”

Masculinity 

Eddie, on the surface, at least, embodies traditional masculinity in the play. He is fiercely territorial, and he values conventional masculine traits such as physical strength and boxing prowess. Rodolpho represents a different form of masculinity that challenges Eddie’s ideas of manliness. The same qualities that make Eddie increasingly uncomfortable – Rodolpho’s emotional responsiveness, his musical and domestic talents, and his lively sense of humour – make him immediately attractive to Catherine.

 Knowledge and evidence:

• In general terms, Eddie is a simple man who becomes uncomfortable when he feels that his manliness is threatened:

  • It is implied that Eddie’s concern for Catherine is affecting his sexual relationship with Beatrice, who longs to “be a wife again”:

    • He is offended by the attack on his role as a husband and responds bluntly: “I got nothin’ to say about it!”

  • He does not regard Rodolpho as a real man because the younger man sings, cooks, makes dresses and has platinum hair:

    • He refers to Rodolpho as an “angel” and “a weird”

  • In the final section of Act I, Eddie speaks to Rodolpho as if he is praising him by listing Rodolpho’s talents on three separate occasions:

    • Although Eddie’s intention seems to be to emphasise how effeminate Rodolpho is in comparison to himself, his repetition gives the impression of jealousy

• Eddie sees Rodolpho’s interest in Catherine as, at least in part, an attack on Eddie’s masculinity and status:

  • He complains to Alfieri that: “I take the blankets off my bed for him, and he takes and puts his filthy hands on her like a goddam thief”

• At the end of Act I, Eddie attempts to assert dominance over Rodolpho by teaching the younger man to box:

  • His behaviour backfires, though, when he strikes Rodolpho, prompting Marco to defeat Eddie in a test of strength

• By showing Marco to be the stronger of the two men, Miller foreshadows the final scene of the tragedy, in which Marco again overpowers Eddie in a battle for justice and respect:

  • To Eddie, his male pride is tied directly to his name:

    • When Marco publicly accuses Eddie of betrayal, Eddie feels his name has been taken from him

    • “Marco’s got my name”, he tells Rodolpho, “and you can run tell him, kid, that he’s gonna give it back to me”

• When Eddie kisses Rodolpho in an effort to prove that Rodolpho is homosexual, his act breaks the immigrant community’s rules:

  • It also breaks the wider rules on masculinity of this era in the United States

• Perhaps the biggest difference between Rodolpho and Eddie is revealed in the play’s final moments:

  • While Eddie is blinded by rage and jealousy, Rodolpho is prepared to make peace, even if it means selflessly accepting responsibility for a situation not of his making:

    • “It is my fault, Eddie. Everything. I wish to apologise.”

 What is Miller’s intention?

• Although Eddie immediately takes against Rodolpho, it is important to note that nobody else sees Rodolpho’s flamboyance as incompatible with traditional conceptions of masculinity:

  • Indeed, other men in the play seem to appreciate, and even embrace, Rodolpho’s talents and his positivity:

    • Marco loves Rodolpho and is unafraid to stand up to Eddie in defence of his younger brother, as demonstrated in the climax of Act I

    • Marco uses his superior strength, a traditionally masculine quality, to threaten Eddie’s dominance and support Rodolpho

  • Eddie reveals to Alfieri in Act I that the other longshoremen on the piers enjoy Rodolpho’s jokes and singing, and have taken to giving him nicknames such as “Blondie” and “Paper Doll”:

    • Eddie wants to believe that his colleagues are laughing at Rodolpho, but Marco recognises that the other workers enjoy Rodolpho’s “sense of humour”

  Sources 

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