A View From A Bridge Flashcards
Eddie to Catherine - “you’re walkin’…
…wavy”
Eddie to Catherine - “you’re a…
…baby”
Marco (talking about wife) - “I want to send…
…right away maybe twenty dollars”
Rodolpho (about Marco) - “he trusts…
…his wife”
Eddie to Catherine - “Katie, you’re walkin’ wavy! I don’t…
…like the looks they’re givin you…the heads are turnin like windmills”
Eddie about Rodolpho - “the guy…
…ain’t right”
Eddie to Rodolpho - “Come on show me!…
…what’re you gonna be? Show me!”
Alfieri - “I kept wanting to…
…call the police, but…nothing at all had really happened”
Marco - “In my country…
…he would be dead now”
Marco - “All the law…
…is not in a book”
Marco - “he degraded my brother…
…my blood. He robbed my children. Where is the law for that?
ALFIERI: There is none”
Eddie - “I can’t talk about it”
Eddie can’t talk to Alfieri about his unnatural feeling for Catherine, acknowledges that it is wrong but he can’t change his feelings
Eddie to Alfieri - “you mean to tell me that there’s no law…
…that a guy which he ain’t right can go to work and marry a girl and…?”
Eddie to Beatrice - “What’re you talking about…
…marry me! I don’t know what the he’ll you’re talkin about!”
Beatrice - “When am I gonna…
…be a wife again, Eddie?”
Beatrice to Eddie - “you gonna keep her…
…in the house all her life?”
Beatrice to Catherine - “you’re not a…
…baby anymore”
Rodolpho to Catherine - “you think I would carry…
…on my back the rest of my life the woman I didn’t love just to be an American?”
Catherine to Eddie - “I’ll kill you!”
Finally realises what Eddie is doing is wrong, sticks up for Rodolpho. Now Rodolpho is more important to her than Eddie
Alfieri - “his eyes were…
…like tunnels”
Alfieri to Eddie - “morally and legally…
…you have no rights”
Alfieri - “you won’t have a…
…friend in the world, Eddie!”
Catherine to Eddie - “he’s a rat!…
…he belongs in the sewer!”
Beatrice to Eddie - “You want something else…
…and you can never have her”
Eddie - “My B!.”
Final call for Beatrice
Eddie about Rodolpho - “he sings…
..,he cooks, he could make dresses”
Eddie - “he had bent…
…the rolled paper and it suddenly tears in two”
Marco to Eddie (stage directions) - “glare of warning” “raised like a weapon above Eddie’s head”
Asserting himself to Eddie, Marco is the stronger one and Eddie should look out for him. Warning to stop picking on Rodolpho or Marco will get involved
Stage direction. - “a phone booth…
…begins to glow”
Stage direction - “CATHERINE stands…
…motionless, uncomprehending”
Eddie - “a slightly overweight…
…longshoreman”
Stage direction (Catherine) - “staring at him…
…in a realised horror”
Beatrice - “the truth is…
…not as bad as blood, Eddie! I’m tellin you the truth - tell her goodby forever!”
Themes
Love Family Honour Justice and betrayal Conflict
Why is the Vinnie case mentioned
It foreshadows what Eddie will do - betray his family and friends
Symbolism (4 points)
The Brooklyn bridge - Alfieri makes a good narrator because his view is symbolically the view from the bridge
The dagger - jealousy and betrayal
Sexuality - Catherine’s increasing awareness of her sexuality is symbolised through the play
The song ‘paper doll’ is symbolic of Eddie as it it about loving someone who can’t be yours
Turning points
Boxing match
Eddie calls the immigration officers
Intro
A view from the bridge is a 1955 play by Arthur Miller, set in the Italian-American community of Brooklyn, New York. The play centres on the clash of values between the Italian and American ways of life, and the tensions that result from this. The play focuses on the life of Eddie Carbone and his family, and particularly the inappropriate feelings Eddie has towards his niece, Catherine. The key catalyst comes with the arrival of two distant relatives from Sicily, which leads to tragic consequences
Key scenes
- Boxing match
- Eddie coming home drunk
- Eddie calling immigration officers
- Death of Eddie
“Only God…
…makes justice”
