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A View from the Bridge

by Arthur Miller

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1,0821518,552 (3.57)57
Winner of the 2016 Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play: Ivo van Hove Set in the 1950s on the gritty Brooklyn waterfront, A View from the Bridge follows the cataclysmic downfall of Eddie Carbone, who spends his days as a hardworking longshoreman and his nights at home with his wife, Beatrice, and orphan niece, Catherine. But the routine of his life is interrupted when Beatrice's cousins, undocumented immigrants from Italy, arrive in New York. As one of them embarks on a romance with Catherine, Eddie's envy and delusion plays out with devastating consequences. This edition includes a foreword by Philip Seymour Hoffman and an introduction by Arthur Miller.  For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)
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Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
I read this for The Dead Writers Society literary birthday for October 2016. I have wanted to read Arthur Miller's plays for a while, so hope to move onto "Death of a Salesman" next.

I don't know where to even begin with this one. I read it in one gulp and held my breath towards the end worrying about what would happen. From beginning to end, this play takes you on a wild ride.

Taking place in Brooklyn, we have our narrator Alferie who is a lawyer who is telling the story of longshoreman Eddie Carbone. Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and her niece Catherine. We find out that Eddie and Beatrice have raised Catherine since she was a child, but lately something is off anytime Catherine tries to assert her independence. We start to see inklings of what is going on with what is said and not said by Beatrice. And then things come to a head for the three unit family when Beatrice's Italian relatives (Rodolpho and Marco) come to stay with them looking for work in the U.S.

Eddie at first seems like a very benign guy. He wants to keep his little family safe from harm. But you start to slowly realize what he is really afraid of (losing Catherine) and he starts to become more and more unhinged as the story goes on. After an act of betrayal, Eddie might as well as walked around with a sign saying "Doomed" on it. I loved the nuances with this character a lot. I don't think that even he wanted to admit what he really wanted and why Catherine leaving and maybe marrying was bothering him so much.

Beatrice was definitely smart. But I think that sadly she was angry at the wrong person at times (Catherine). There was definitely a little bit of if you stopped doing what you are doing, Eddie would be able to get himself under more control. There was definite blaming going on there. Frankly at one point I was waiting for Beatrice to just throw Eddie out. But she is in love with him and does choose him in the end (when she refuses to go with Catherine to watch her marry when Eddie tells her he won't let her return home if she does).

Catherine is on the border of childhood/womanhood. You can see she wants to please Eddie and Beatrice, but she starts to realize what is going on with Eddie and why she really needs to leave home. I do think that Eddie was correct though that Rodolpho doesn't really love Catherine and marrying the first guy who you actually are allowed to hang out with is not that smart of a thing to do. It seemed like Catherine and Beatrice wanted to keep pushing things in Eddie's face thinking that would make him just get over things.

Rodolpho felt sly to me. I don't know if that is what Miller meant to show, but he is definitely not someone I got a good handle on while reading. I do think that Eddie's predictions of the couple will hold true if they do marry. He doesn't seem to love Catherine, she's just there and is female.

Marco I see-sawed about a lot while reading. He definitely realizes what is going on. But he blames Eddie and doesn't seem to care that his actions will ultimately cause his wife and children more pain than anything that Eddie did.

I really liked the writing and the flow of this play from beginning to end. Miller wrote very good stage directions and I could picture everything in my head (take note Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The play made me gasp a few times just based on dialogue and actions (Eddie kisses Rodolpho to prove to him and Catherine that he is gay and not really interested in Catherine) and to think this play was written in 1955 and staged in 1956 just floors me. Miller's writing, characters, everything is just so good.

The ending was definitely tragic, but you can see there was no other ending that would have worked for the play. Eddie's destiny was going to be tragic once he refused to let go of Catherine. I felt like if this was a Poirot novel, Miller would have had Eddie poison Rodolpho or Catherine both so that way he could still "win." ( )
  ObsidianBlue | Jul 1, 2020 |
When I was watching this play, I remember gasping at the kiss scene. I thought it didn’t feel right that he ‘went there’; I knew then I had missed the escalation of feelings. Sure enough, upon reading the play, the electricity is sparkling in the words.

Set in the 1950’s, Eddie, his wife Beatrice, and orphaned niece Catherine shared modest accommodations in a Brooklyn that was predominately inhabited by newly immigrated Italians, including illegals called “submarines”. Eddie is incessantly protective of Catherine. An undertone of this protectiveness reveals itself early, recognized by all but Eddie himself. Enter Beatrice’s 2 cousins, brothers Marco and Roldopho, who arrive as submarines and sleeping on their floor. Catherine and Roldopho start dating and soon speak of marriage. Eddie is unimpressed with Roldopho, particularly since he exhibits traits typically viewed as effeminate, believing Roldopho’s intentions is only to gain citizenship. Eddie’s increasing paranoia leads to visits to the neighborhood lawyer, Mr. Alfieri, and eventually leads to tragedy for himself and those around him.

Fundamentally, the premise of this play is basic but it packs a punch. I was drawn to the tightness of the writing style as well as its various themes. Love, even if rooted innocently, can lead to unintended consequences. Overprotectiveness of a child may lead to rash decisions of the child once he/she is grown. The ease to which a man is assumed to be homosexual simply because he sings, cooks, and sews. A tight-knitted neighborhood will readily raise up against one of its own when a fundamental rule is broken. The U.S. is built by the masses who arrived in search of jobs and opportunity. From Roldopho, “What would you eat? You can’t cook the view!” A man demands respect in his home and from his wife; sadly, the wife is controlled, as if owned, by the husband. (Argh!)

Curiously, both Eddie and Marco wanted laws to work in their favor – the former seeking a law to prevent a relationship where “the guy ain’t right”, while the latter seeking a law to revenge dishonor. The use of Mr. Alfieri as the narrator of the play is highly effective. He provided the neutral stance amongst the warring factions and explained the charm of this Brooklyn neighborhood: "…this is Red Hook, not Sicily. This is the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge. This is the gullet of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world. And now we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle for half, and I like it better. I no longer keep a pistol in my filing cabinet.” ( )
  varwenea | Apr 3, 2016 |
I would love to see this one performed, it had a hard-driving, (Greek) tragic edge to it, and insight into social realities (e.g. the immigrant experience) that felt surprisingly (or not) contemporary. It reminded me of how good Miller was...glad to see this back on stage. (Wish I could see it on stage). ( )
  bibleblaster | Jan 23, 2016 |
Plays are like poetry in their economy of words. By necessity, plays pack a tremendous amount of character development and tension into a mere couple hours of dialogue. This is certainly true with Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge.

Miller first heard the story of Eddie and his family from a water-front worker and decided to write it as a play. He first wrote it as a "mood experiment" (vii). He "wanted the audience to feel toward it as I had on hearing it for the first time—not so much with heart-wringing sympathy as with wonder" (vii). After a dismal debut which led to a major rewrite, Miller achieved his goal.

This story is full of tension. Imagine the low cello note in the backdrop of a suspense movie. That note builds throughout the play and doesn't relent until the climax. Miller gives us characters and relationships of psychological depth.

This play is a study in desire gone wrong. This is human nature left to play out its vices. ( )
1 vote StephenBarkley | May 19, 2015 |
Yet another brilliant play from Miller. The protagonist's unnatural love for his niece by marriage acts as a "fatal flaw" and makes this otherwise kind and unremarkable man into a Shakespearean figure. Truly a brilliant play. ( )
  AliceAnna | Oct 23, 2014 |
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Arthur Millerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Kossin, SanfordCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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The street and house front of a tenement building.
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Winner of the 2016 Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction of a Play: Ivo van Hove Set in the 1950s on the gritty Brooklyn waterfront, A View from the Bridge follows the cataclysmic downfall of Eddie Carbone, who spends his days as a hardworking longshoreman and his nights at home with his wife, Beatrice, and orphan niece, Catherine. But the routine of his life is interrupted when Beatrice's cousins, undocumented immigrants from Italy, arrive in New York. As one of them embarks on a romance with Catherine, Eddie's envy and delusion plays out with devastating consequences. This edition includes a foreword by Philip Seymour Hoffman and an introduction by Arthur Miller.  For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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