Catherine A View From The Bridge

This sample of an academic paper on Catherine A View From The Bridge reveals arguments and important aspects of this topic. Read this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion below.

The relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo also creates tension throughout the characters, and this is easily picked up on by the audience. In Eddie’s view they almost taunt him with it by flaunting it in front of him, and the audience can see that it is Eddie’s inability to control himself when faced with these situations that will lead to his downfall.

This is particularly poignant right after Eddie’s confrontation with Rodolfo about them coming home late. Rodolfo is shown to turn down an invitation to dance with Catherine in “deference to Eddie.” However this is to great avail as both Catherine and Beatrice, who also wants to show Eddie up at this moment, pressure him into it.

Catherine is shown to say, “Come on,” and Beatrice: “Go ahead, dance,” in approval.

These create tension because it demonstrates that no one agrees with Eddie, or just doesn’t care what he thinks, and the audience knows that with Eddie’s personality this will greatly upset him and he will probably do something rash, especially as it is his own wife who has turned against him. When Catherine and Rodolfo start dancing against Eddie’s wishes, he feels threatened and that his authority has been destroyed: “(Eddie Freezes),” this shows that Eddie has been almost rooted to the spot by Catherine’s suggestion that she and Rodolfo should dance.

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Catherine And Eddie’s Relationship A View From The Bridge

The word freeze has connotations with being motionless and shocked, this could indicate that Eddie feels he has been undermined and is too taken aback to do anything, the fact that he is ‘frozen to the spot,’ implies that this may be the first time he has been deliberately disobeyed, and that he may decide to blame it on Rodolfo as Eddie thinks he is the cause of all his problems. This creates tension because the audience can see that Eddie is slowly losing control and may finally lose it. After they have finished dancing the stage directions say that Eddie: “has been unconsciously twisting the newspaper into a tight roll…and it suddenly tears in two.”

This is a very important part in the scene as on the one hand, the newspaper represents Eddie’s state of mind and when it tears it shows that Eddie has finally ‘snapped,’ and is about to do something. But on the other hand it could be used to represent one of Rodolfo’s limbs, and the fact that Eddie may want to ‘rip him to pieces’ for defying him. This creates tension for the audience as they have never really seen Eddie lose it before so they know that it does not happen very often an as a result will probably be violent, and also for the fact that he is becoming more and more aggressive, and so whatever is going to happen will probably be soon.

This is shown in the next thing Eddie does when he ‘teaches’ Rodolfo to fight. Eddie says, “put sump’m behind it, you cant’ hurt me,” The phrase “you can’t hurt me,” could be Eddie taunting Rodolfo saying that he is weak and that whatever he does Eddie will still be in control and have his authority. This would create tension because Eddie, although supposedly in jest, is fighting Rodolfo, which is something we know that he has wanted to do because he doesn’t like him. The tension may also be related with Marco, who is Rodolfo’s brother and so will stick by him, as he is much stronger than Rodolfo and maybe even Eddie.

Up till this point it has been shown that Marco is a neutral character and does not want to either defend Rodolfo or attack him, Eddie sees this as an excuse to use him as a weapon against him. Upon seeing that Rodolfo listens to, respects, and to some degree obeys Marco, Eddie utilises him in order to have more power and influence over Rodolfo. When the conversation about it, “ain’t so free here (in America) either,” becomes directed at Rodolfo, the stage directions show Eddie turning towards Marco and asking if he “knows what I (Eddie) means,” This may be because if Rodolfo thinks that Marco agrees with Eddie then he may as well. It may also mean that Eddie is trying to get approval for his indirect attack on Rodolfo, or even for Marco to back him up and talk to Rodolfo for Eddie, as if he were in fact a parent figure to Rodolfo.

Marco says to everyone in the room: “if he does wrong you must tell him. [To Eddie] What does he do wrong?” and he repeats twice to Rodolfo that he must, “come home early now.” This emphasizes Marco’s parental role over Rodolfo, which creates tension because it firstly shows that Marco is listening to Eddie, and to some degree is doing what he says, but also that Eddie and Marco share some similarities in that they both have family members who are they are not the parents of, yet both feel the need to act as a father figure towards that family member, and to some extent, more in Eddie than Marco, to tell them how to live their lives. This would make the audience feel uneasy, as they do not know what will happen to the relationships in the play if Marco starts agreeing with Eddie.

Eddies deteriorating relationship with Marco do not improve this situation, and so helps to create tension. The last scene we see in Act 1 creates enormous amounts of tension for Act 2 by furthering the exploration of masculinity, and Eddie’s need to control, and feel like he is still in charge. Marco demonstrates this at the end of the scene through challenging Eddie to lift the chair from the leg. Eddie is shown to feel that his masculinity is put into question when he fails to lift the chair, and then his authority and leadership removed when Marco can. We can see from the stage directions that Eddie feels threatened by this, and his ego badly wounded. Eddie tries to shrug this off by saying: “it’s on an angle, that’s why, heh?”

This cover up may be an attempt to lighten the mood, and if Eddie treats it as a joke then the rest of the family will as well, and it will take their minds off the fact that his strength has failed him. However, Eddie’s “grin,” which is most likely the remains of the attempted explanation, is soon removed as Miller shows his “grin vanishes as he absorbs his (Marcos) look,” this is a direct result of Marco being able to lift the chair and when he does the stage directions say: “and he (Marco) transforms what may appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph,” On one hand this may suggest sadness on Eddies part, as his ego has just been greatly dented.

However, it may also be a result of Marcos “glare of warning” and is in fact Eddie trying to control his anger at Marco’s blatant hostility. This creates tension for the audience because up till now they have always believed Marco to be the one neutral character in the play, just over there to send money home, but now it seems like he is taking an active part, and defending Rodolfo against Eddies slanderous onslaught.

In conclusion, I feel that Arthur Miller creates tension in the climax to Act 1 in “A View From The Bridge,” in many different ways. These include the exploration and presentation of many of the key themes that Miller has sewn throughout the play, comprising mainly of: masculinity, incest, Greek tragedy, jealousy, pride and obsession. He uses surprise, and a ‘factor of the unknown’ to keep the audience in suspense as to when Eddie will lose control, but never in doubt to the fact that he will. All in all Miller uses a variety of techniques and themes to create tension for the audience and keep them in suspense for the whole play, and successfully draws on this to build huge climaxes at many points.