Masculinity is shown in various parts of the play, A View From The Bridge, which is set in an Italian community in New York. Masculinity is a main focus in the play because it has its origin in an Italian way of viewing life which has been transferred to the USA. The author of this play, Arthur Miller decided to write this play after watching a screen play in the early 1950’s called “The Hook”.This screenplay was about the corruption on the Brooklyn docks in New York. Miller was inspired by his own time working as a longshoreman.

Arthur Miller presents to the audience the character of Eddie as an overprotective father figure of Catherine, and we see this in his comment to her, “what’s the high heels for Garbo?”.Garbo is the 1950’s version of someone like Madonna. By saying this, Eddie is trying to tell Catherine that the heels give an impression of her that he does not approve of. This shows that Eddie is in control of what Catherine can and can’t do although she is 18 years old, who should be able to make her own decisions. By his open criticism, Eddie is also making it clear his manly dominance, by his attitude that he sets down the rules of what people living in his household can and can’t do.

In the beginning of the play, Eddie is keen to show that he is very manly,“You call that a spider?You oughta see what comes outa the bananas sometimes”.At this stage of the play Eddie sounds like a brave person by showing he is not scared of spiders. Being macho and manly is very much an Italian view of how a man should be and at no time would Eddie want to present any other characteristic. Another scenario where he tries to act like a man is when he teaches Rodolfo how to box. “Don’t pity me,come on. Throw it”. In this part of the play, Eddie demonstrates his skill and strength. He tries to prove to Catherine that Rodolfo is not manly. This suggest that to be branded weak and not manly is not an attractive quality in a man and therefore it is a great criticism of Rodolfo. However, under his criticism Eddie’s real motive was a way to hide his jealousy of Rodolfo. The audience is aware that Eddie is jealous of the relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo. The boxing match brings out the tension and conflict within the household between the men..

The theme of masculinity is again brought into focus when comments are made regarding Rodolfo’s sexuality. Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is a homosexual because of the fact the he can sing “Paper Doll”. Eddie thinks that singing is not very manly and also talks about Rodolfo having natural “blonde” hair since traditional Italians have black hair. Eddie does not like this because even though he lives in Red Hook in New York, he still likes sticking to the traditional Italian standards. Throughout the play Eddie uses nicknames to play on the lack of masculinity in Rodolfo when he calls him“danish”. This is clearly because of his blonde hair but more so because he uses the criticism to highlight how much he hates Rodolfo.

However, just when we are convinced that the two men are not going to live in harmony, we are confused by Eddie’s behaviour when he kisses Rodolfo. At this point, we question Eddie’s masculinity. This occurs when Eddie comes home drunk and kisses Catherine. Rodolfo tries to stop it but “Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him”.This quote can be seen in 3 ways from the director’s point of view. The first way the play could have been portrayed is that Eddie tries to convince Catherine that Rodolfo is a homosexual. By kissing Catherine he shows his affections for her and soon after kisses Rodolfo to try to bring out his homosexual feelings out in front of Catherine. The second way is that Eddie tries to show Catherine their affections towards each other. Thirdly, The kiss that Eddie had given to Rodolfo was very aggressive since they had hated each other and wanted to show Rodolfo that Catherine belongs to Eddie. Throughout the play there is more than what meets the eye.

Eddie’s masculinity is projected as stern, strong, dominant. However, Arthur Miller presents Eddie as a betrayal to the community when he snitches on Rodolfo and Marco as he calls immigration, “illegal immigrants. Two of them. That’s right.”,after this phone call he loses great respect from the Italian neighbourhood. Once Rodolfo and Marco get caught, the immigration officers also find another 2 illegal immigrants from the floor above involving another Italian community.

Marco who is quite strong and will do what ever he can to provide food for his family shows his masculinity after the boxing performance that Eddie has shown as he lifts up the chair “He kneels, grasps, and with strain slowly raises the chair higher and higher, getting to his feet now”Eddie tries to do this but fails even though he keeps trying. The audience knows that Eddie might be good at boxing but does not have enough strength to lift up a chair. This scene shows that Marco does not have to prove his strength but Eddie does. The chair represents a weapon as he raises it above Eddies head as a threat to show him that he is stronger than Eddie and that it isn’t good to argue or to cause trouble with Marco. Marco is being presented as more masculine than Eddie.

Here masculinity is presented as a proof of strength and also the fact that Marco is hard working. He will “work all day, all night”so that he can send money back to his family in Italy. This shows that he is willing to work hard to “provide food on the table”. This is manly because Italians say that a man’s job is to go to work to get money and provide food for the family while the women do the domestic work inside the house.

This is in contrast to the image of Rodolfo, who may not be seen as very masculine as he “helps set out the coffee things”which in the 1950’s it was traditional for the women to set up the table but in this case Rodolfo is. This may be considered as helpful but on the other hand Eddie thinks that he is strange since he is a man’s duty to provide food on the table and that its a women’s duty to be domestic and clean the house even though Rodolfo seems capable with doing both this shows that he is not really bothered about masculinity and what is manly and what is not.

Further more, there is comment from Alfieri who acts as a narrator in the play, as well as in the role of a lawyer. He would match what Eddie would say being a man is. Which would be strength and bravery. In one part of the play Alfieri tells Eddie to “let her go”,he is trying to show that justice will be dealt with in this small Italian community. Alfieri foreshadows events as he knows what is coming although he is powerless and can not do anything about it. This is how we find out that this story will end up in a tragedy. When he talks about his foreshadowing the lighting could be dim in that area to show that Eddie does not want other people to find out that he has a problem with Rodolfo and Catherine. His office should also be near the side of the stage to show that he tries to sort out peoples problems in privacy.

The tension between the two men shifts sympathy for each one in turn as when the audience sympathize with Rodolfo “reaches for Eddies hand,but then Eddie snaps it away from him”near the end of the play. By kissing Eddies hand he is trying to show respect and is trying to tell Eddie to apologise to Marco or something terrifying will occur later in the play. Eddie snaps his hand away to show that he does not want Rodolfo’s respect. In this case Rodolfo is being manly by apologising by giving Eddie respect also by telling Eddie that he is sorry for what he has done and that he did not know what was coming.

Masculinity has been show throughout the play as you have read here. There has been conflict under the household and even people dying all because of masculinity. Even though Rodolfo was seen as a feminine. In the end he was very manly for when he had tried to kiss Eddie’s hand to apologise to him and when he tries to stop the argument in the middle of the play when he starts dancing to Catherine to show that she is with him and to stop the conflict between Eddie and Marco about who is the strongest.