The play “A View form the Bridge” is by Arthur Miller and was written in the late 1940’s. He got his ideas for the play from the dockworkers and longshoremen in New York’s Brooklyn Harbour. When he was younger he had previously worked here and there for got a first hand experience of what happened there. The themes for the play involve; Mistrust of the law, Justice, Injustice, Poverty, and Deprivation, Troubles of working class, Immigration, and Tragedy.

In this play Miller has only used two acts. Even though there are only two acts Miller uses a lot of stage directions he uses these to create the atmosphere. The atmospheres all builds up and creates a lot of tension in the last scene of act one.

Eddie Carbone: Eddie is an Italian-American longshoreman who provides food on the table for his family, a roof over their heads, and an education for his adopted niece, Catherine. Even though Eddie is married to his wife it seems that in the play he is emotionally involved with Catherine and will do anything he can to protect her from any other men especially Rodolfo. Eddie believes that he has tricked Catherine into believing that he loves her and wishes to marry her thinks he has done this so he can become an American Citizen. He also thinks that Rodolfo is a homosexual which he shows later on in the play.

When Eddie is speaking in the room and he hears of what Rodolfo he says “It’s wonderful. He sings, he cooks, and he can make dresses” he says this in a sort of sarcastic manner showing what he thinks of this. From this point onwards the mood changes in the room and its up to the women to try and stop it from progressing anymore. This also is also him trying again to make fun of Rodolfo.

Catherine: Catherine is just out of high school and relatively new to the world. She loves Eddie as if he was her true father. Even though at first she does not realize that her dating Rodolfo is tearing Eddie up inside, she still dates him as her love grows stronger and it seems the more Eddie says about Rodolfo the more she loves him. She is very naive and doesn’t fully understand the situation.

Even when she is trying to calm the situations she sometimes makes them worse for example when she says “They get some high pay, them guys. The head chefs in all the big hotels are men. You read about them”. Here she almost makes Eddie feel small and stupid as he replies with if he could do that then he wouldn’t be working as a long shore man. Here she is enraging him even more. Eddie feels he is the biggest and provider or the house. He doesn’t like the idea of a homosexual man out doing him.

Rodolfo: Rodolfo seems to be a homosexual through out the play. He is continually around Catherine and always seems to be angering Eddie. Rodolfo always seems good looking and talented. He seems to be everything Eddie is not. In some ways Rodolfo is trying to anger Eddie even more

Marco: In the last scene, Marco is the peace keeper at first, keeping a very close eye on Eddie and how he is treating Rodolfo. He is more looked up to by Eddie because he is quite a lot more masculine than Rodolfo; Eddies type of person. He also doesn’t talk much and is very serious which also makes him more likeable to Eddie. He creates a huge thundering atmosphere when lifting the chair over his head and for a second, it appears as if he is going to use the chair as he weapon on Eddie.

This atmosphere is made so great because of the huge amount of strain used by Eddie trying to lift the chair up, and the even greater strain used by Marco to raise the chair up and over his head, leaving him staring right into the eyes of Eddie. He smartly hides his real feelings towards Eddie from everyone else by revealing a friendly, victorious grin to him, showing that he is just having a bit of fun, but in reality, he is saying to Eddie that if he ever harms Rodolfo again, he will win the fight.

In conclusion, I think that the main tension was cause by Rodolfo. I think that he wants to stay in the country so much that he would marry Catherine no matter how much she meant to Eddie. I think that Catherine and Beatrice are always adding to the tension. Even though they may not realize they are doing this they still are. Just like as Catherine will do what ever Rodolfo says and Beatrice is always on Catherine’s side.