How does Arthur Miller Capture and Sustain the Audience's Attention Through the Relationships Portrayed in 'A View from the Bridge.'

Essay by Lailee87High School, 11th grade April 2004

download word file, 3 pages 2.3

Downloaded 40 times

'A View from the Bridge' is about the relationship between the Carbone family. Hey live in Redhook, Brooklyn, New York, but it is still not as poor as where Rodolfo and Marco come from. One of the main characters is Catherine, who is 17 and lives with her aunt and uncle, Beatrice and Eddie. Rodolfo and Marco are Beatrice's cousins' who have come over from Italy as illegal immigrants to make some money. Alfieri is the lawyer and an important character in this play. He narrates and helps to move the play along by being a 'catalyst'. A catalyst is a person in a play or story that links two scenes or storylines together, e.g.

Catherine -"You like sugar?"

Rodolfo -"Sugar? Yes! I like sugar very much!"

EDDIE is downstage, watching as she pours a spoonful of sugar into his cup, his face puffed with trouble, and the room dies.

Lights rise on ALFIERI.

Alfieri -"Who can ever know what will be discovered? Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny. A man works, raises his family, goes bowling, eats, gets old, and then he dies. Now, as the weeks passed, there was a future, there was a trouble that would not go away."

The lights fade on ALFIERI, then rise on EDDIE standing at the doorway of the house. BEATRICE enters on the street. She sees EDDIE, smiles at him.

He looks away.

Eddie -"It's after eight."

Beatrice -"Well, it's a long show at the Paramount."

Before the arrival of Rodolfo, Catherine and Eddie had a relationship like any father and daughter do because Eddie brought her up from being a child. Eddie is worried about the way she dresses because all the boys will look at her.

Eddie -"Now don't aggravate me, Katie, you...