A View From the Bridge Flashcards
Who is the Playwright
Arthur Miller
When/Where was it published/performed
1956, USA
Where is it set?
Brooklyn, NY
Show that Eddie is a good guy (QUOTES)
Pg 15
Alfieri:
“He was a good man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived.”
- this shows the noble and high position of Eddie (on morality, not status)
Eddie’s anger for Catherine (QUOTES)
Pg 23
Catherine offers Rodolpho sugar:
[EDDIE is downstage, watching as she pours a spoonful of sugar into his cup, his face puffed with trouble, and the room dies.]
- demonstrates Eddie’s strong feelings for Catherine
- Dislike of her relationship with Rodolpho
Ending (where Eddie dies) (QUOTES)
Pg 72
[Eddie lunges with a knife. Marco grabs his arm, turning the blade in word and pressing it home… Eddie, the knife still in his hand, falls to his knees before Marco.]
- Eddie dies.
- Beatrice is released
Beatrice stays. (QUOTES)
Act 2
Eddie offers Beatrice an ultimatum
“You be on my side or on their side, that’s all”
Beatrice to Catherine:
“Now go, go to your wedding, Katie, I’ll stay home.”
*Beatrice chooses to stay with Eddie. She chooses to stay trapped.
Inevitability, fate (QUOTES)
Act 1
when Eddie first tells Alfieri about his issues with Rodolpho`
Alfieri:
“I knew then and there - I could have finished the whole story that afternoon. It wasn’t as though there was a mystery to unravel. I could see every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall toward a certain door. I knew where he was heading for, I knew where he was going to end.”
*His fate is sealed. everyone knows how this will end
Eddie’s vow for Catherine (QUOTES)
Act 1
Eddie
“Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed. I’m responsible for you. You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things”
- Honorable Eddie, upholding promises
- Perception of Catherine as a baby?
Eddie threatens, so Marco threatens back (QUOTES)
Act 1
End of act one. Eddie teaches Rodolpho boxing, and he punches him
“He could be very good Marco. I’ll teach him again”
[MARCO nods at him dubiously.]
- Eddie threatens Rodolpho
FINAL End of Act one:
Marco then challenges Eddie to lift a chair with one hand. Eddie can’t do it. Marco does:
[MARCO is face to face with EDDIE, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over EDDIE’s head - and he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and EDDIE’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look.]
Eddie has no legal right (QUOTES)
Act 2
Eddie talks to Alfieri about how Rodolpho marrying Catherine is wrong
Alfieri:
“Morally and Legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it; she is a free agent”
The consequence of pursuing desire (QUOTES)
Act 2
Alfieri tells Eddie to stop trying to condemn Rodolpho
“A river will drown you if you buck it now. Let her go.”
“You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you!
The law doesn’t work for Marco (QUOTES)
Act 2
Marco is taken to prison b/c Eddie rats him out.
Marco: He degraded my brother. My blood. He robbed my children, he mocks my work. I work to come here, mister!
Alfieri: I know, Marco-
Marco: There is no law for that? Where is the law for that?
Alfieri: There is none.
*
Description of Rodolpho
Act 1
description of Rodolpho, by the longshoreman
Eddie to Beatrice:
“You know what they’re callin’ him now? Paper doll they’re callin’ him, Canary. He’s like a weird.”
“And with that wacky hair; he’s like a chorus girl or sump’m.”
