A View From the Bridge

Only Arthur Miller.  With a complicated performance history, it was originally a screenplay called The Hook, written by Miller with assistance from Elia Kazan, who had previously directed the playwrite's All My Sons and Death of a Salesmen.  Inspired now by the true story of a Brooklyn dockworker who informed on two illegal immigrants, Miller reconceived The Hook as A View From the Bridge.

In this play Arthur Miller confronts the audience with a situation in which we know the outcome, sounds kind of like Greek drama. The important questions then arise. How? Why? Alfieri, the lawyer who participates in but also narrates the story, serves as the Greek chorus. Miller chooses as his hero a semiarticulate Brooklyn longshoreman involved in a personal domestic dilemma. Eddie Carbone is a good man, a family man who is respected in his community, who cannot fathom the unbearable affection and passionate feeling he has for his niece, Catherine, who he has raised as his daughter. Eddie is confronted with a situation for which he is unprepared. Rodolpho, a recent illegal emigrant Sicilian, is handsome, sings, spends his money on clothes and makes dresses for Catherine. The two have fallen in love and intend to marry. Eddie’s jealousy and repressed sexuality are feelings he can’t understand or control. He is bewildered and desperately tries to stop Catherine from marrying or leaving. Catherine struggles to leave, but she cares deeply and feels sorry for Eddie and does not want to hurt him. In an intense, shocking confrontation, a drunken Eddie kisses Catherine and, when challenged by Rodolpho, Eddie kisses him as well. By challenging Rodolpho’s masculinity and sexuality, Eddie hopes to destroy Catherine’s love for him. Eddie does not stop the wedding, so he betrays Rodolpho to the Immigration Bureau and looses his Sicilian honor in his community. Marco, Rodolpho’s brother, requires blood revenge and the play rushes on to its tragic death scenes. Such themes as love, honor, ethics, jealousy, betrayal, justice and identity are woven throughout the play. Once again, an ordinary and decent person cannot face his confusion or stop his corruption.