a view from the bridge essay on love

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A View from the Bridge

Arthur miller.

Love—of one kind or another—is the main motivator of Miller’s characters in this play, and drives the major events of its plot. Catherine’s love for Rodolpho and Eddie’s intense love for Catherine lead to the central problems of the play. But even before this, it is Marco’s love for his family that motivates him to come to America, and it is Beatrice’s love for her extended family that causes her to have Marco and Rodolpho stay in her home. Beyond this, though, A View from the Bridge especially explores the way in which people are driven by desires that don’t fit the mold of normal or traditional forms of familial and romantic love. For one thing, Eddie’s love for Catherine is extreme and hard to define exactly. He is very overprotective, and to some degree is a father figure for her. However, as Beatrice subtly hints several times, his love for Catherine often crosses this line and becomes a kind of incestuous desire for his niece, whom he has raised like a daughter. This repressed, taboo desire—which Eddie vehemently denies—erupts to the surface when Eddie grabs Catherine and kisses her in front of Rodolpho.

Eddie may also have other repressed desires. Directly after kissing Catherine, he kisses Rodolpho, as well. He claims that this is to prove that Rodolpho is homosexual (an accusation he constantly implies but never says outright), but as he is the one to restrain Rodolpho and forcefully kiss him, his motivations are dubious. Throughout the play, Eddie is disproportionately obsessed with proving that Rodolpho “ain’t right,” and this fixation on Rodolpho’s sexuality (combined with the fact that he does not have sex with his wife Beatrice) may suggest that there are other motivations behind Eddie’s kissing him.

Eddie is a mess of contradictory, half-repressed desires that are difficult to pin down or define, perhaps even for him. Through this tragically tormented and conflicted character, Miller shows that people are often not aware of their own desires, and reveals the power that these desires can exert over people. Eddie’s suffocating love for Catherine becomes a desire to possess her. He even claims that Rodolpho is stealing from him, as if she were an object he owned. His obsession with Catherine drives him apart from his family and leads him to betray Beatrice’s cousins, thereby effectively ostracizing himself from his friends and neighbors. Through the tragic descent of Eddie, A View from the Bridge can be seen not only as the drama of a family, or of an immigrant community, but also as the internal drama of Eddie’s psyche, as he is tormented and brought down by desires he himself doesn’t even fully understand.

Love and Desire ThemeTracker

Love and Desire Quotes in A View from the Bridge

Listen, you been givin’ me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it.

Katie, I promised your mother on her death-bed. I’m responsible for you. You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things.

I’m gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own, A doll that other fellows cannot steal.

Alfieri: Is there a question of law somewhere? Eddie: That’s what I want to ask you. Alfieri: Because there’s nothing illegal about a girl falling in love with an immigrant.

We all love somebody, the wife, the kids—every man’s got somebody that he loves, heh? But sometimes . . . there’s too much. You know? There’s too much, and it goes where it mustn’t. A man works hard, he brings up a child, sometimes it’s a niece, sometimes even a daughter, and he never realizes it, but through the years—there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?

Don’t, don’t laugh at me! I’ve been here all my life. . . . Every day I saw him when he left in the morning and when he came home at night. You think it’s so easy to turn around and say to a man he’s nothin’ to you no more?

Catherine. If I take in my hands a little bird. And she grows and wishes to fly. But I will not let her out of my hands because I love her so much, is that right for me to do?

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The Imagery of a View from The Bridge's Tragedy and How The Main Characters Are Unable to Show Their Feelings

A critique of a view from the bridge, a play by arthur miller, the balance of power in a view from the bridge and the lion and the jewel, a juxtapositioning of the opening in a streetcar named desire and a view from a bridge, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Analysis of The Movie Version Of, a View from The Bridge by Arthur Miller

A view from the bridge: themes of immigration and tragedy.

September 29, 1955

Arthur Miller

Eddie Carbone, Beatrice, Catherine, Alfieri, Marco, Rodolpho, Louis, Mike, Tony, Immigration Officer 1,Immigration Officer 2

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Theme of Love in A View From The Bridge

Filed Under: Essays Tagged With: Interpersonal relationship

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the theme of love and how it is presented in A View from the Bridge, the importance of love in the play, the characters that demonstrate the various types of love, and how the characters are affected by these different types of love.

Throughout the play, Eddie show unnatural love for Catherine and not only acts like a father to her, but also as a jealous boyfriend. I dont believe it and I wish to hell youd stop it! This quote is a good example of Eddies jealousy about Rodolpho and Catherines relationship. He has shown his unnatural feeling for Catherine before when he was telling her not to wear high heels and that the men were looking at her too much: …youre walking wavy…I dont like the looks theyre giving you in the candy store. Then he also shows that he really cares about Catherine by saying You aint all the girls.When Beatrice notices Eddies unnatural love for Catherine, she encourages Rodolpho and Catherines relationship and talks to Eddie. Look, honey, you wanna get married, or dont you wanna get married? What are you worried about, Katie?

When Beatrice says this to Catherine, she clearly encourages her relationship with Rodolpho. The relationship between Eddie and Beatrice also gets worse as she asks Eddie: When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?The romantic love between Rodolpho and Catherine is, according to Eddie just to get a Green Card and to be able to legally stay in the USA. Catherine argues that Rodolpho is innocent and that he simply loves her. The fact that Catherine loves Rodolpho is clearly shown when Rodolpho is singing and Eddie interrupts him and she says: Leave him finish, its beautiful! Hes terrific! Its terrific, Rodolpho. Rodolpho indicates his love for Catherine as well when Eddie asks him if he would like some sugar with the coffee and he replies: Yes! I like sugar very much! This might have a symbolic reason as sugar also stands for love.

Beatrice also shows family love as she accepts cousins which she has never seen before into her house. She shows this when she is worried that she didnt buy a new tablecloth: Im I just I cant believe it! I didnt even buy a new tablecloth; I was gonna wash the walls . This shows how much she cares about her family. Later on in the story, Marco is forced to act in a powerful and protective way when Eddie insults and hurts his brother. This shows brotherly love. Eddie also shows family love as how he takes care of Catherine.

The love for a country is also illustrated throughout the play as Rodolpho really loves the United States and Catherine loves Italy. Rodolpho shows his love for America when Eddie asks him if he plans to stay in America and he replies: Me? Yes, for ever! and when he says …I want to be an American.Throughout the play, many types of love are shown like romantic love, family love, love for a country, and the unnatural feelings Eddie has towards Catherine.

A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller

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A View From the Bridge Arthur Miller

A View from the Bridge literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller.

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A View From the Bridge Essays

“alfieri’s commentary gives a depth and complexity to what might otherwise have bean a sordid and uninteresting story.” rebecca howden, a view from the bridge.

Alfieri’s commentary on the action of the play is integral to Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, communicating directly to the audience and presenting the events from a more impartial and credible perspective, forcing the viewer to consider...

“Ultimately, the tragedy of a View From the Bridge is the inability of the main characters to articulate their feelings.” Rebecca Howden

In Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, Eddie’s death is made all the more tragic because it stems from his inability to understand – let alone articulate – his feelings. The play depicts the downfall and death of a decent man due to a fatal...

“A View From the Bridge explores the difficulties migrants face in adapting to a new culture.” Rebecca Howden

The heart of conflict in Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge is the struggle to reconcile the array of conflicting social, moral and legal laws to which an individual is bound and to determine which of those deserves one’s primary allegiance....

American Identity in Roth and Miller Anonymous 12th Grade

In American Pastoral and A View From the Bridge, Philip Roth and Arthur Miller respectively present family life as a tense realm of activity where relationship ties are easily stretched and broken. By setting their novels in Rimrock, New Jersey,...

Clarity, Perspective, and Tragedy in A View from the Bridge Anonymous 11th Grade

Arthur Miller wrote A View from the Bridge , a work set in the late 1940s, as he became interested in the Italian immigration at the Brooklyn docks. Fascinated by the life of Pete Panto, a longshoreman who challenged the work of the Mafia, Miller...

The Balance of Power in A View from the Bridge and The Lion and the Jewel Anita Hill 12th Grade

Many plays use the balance of power as a theme to drive the plot forward and to define their characters. In A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, the patriarchal figure of Eddie becomes a tragic hero through his loss of power and reaction to...

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The opening of a play is naturally one of its most important parts, serving as an introduction to its setting, characters and themes; the best openings also encapsulate both the intentions and style of the playwright. In A Streetcar Named Desire ,...

Fixed Gender Roles and Gender Tensions in A View from the Bridge Jack Springate 10th Grade

A View From the Bridge was set in the 1950s and reflects how men and women had set roles in society. Men, in the case of Eddie and Marco, are the breadwinners and paterfamilias of the family. Whilst on the other hand women should be demure,...

How is the theme of "Love" portrayed in the play? Anonymous 11th Grade

Love serves as a crucial element in "A View from the Bridge", and is arguably the main force which drives the events of the play. Undoubtedly, the inappropriate love of Eddie towards his niece, Catherine, and his unwillingness to let her mature...

Deconstructing Alfieri’s Speech Anonymous 12th Grade

The play “A View from the Bridge” begins with a speech from Alfieri, a lawyer. Alfieri offers the audience the titular “view from the bridge” and acts as the greek chorus in a tragedy. The speech serves as an introduction to the play, introducing...

Conflicted Domesticity: A Character Study of Beatrice in 'A View from the Bridge' Anonymous 12th Grade

Beatrice is a central character in Miller’s “A View from the Bridge”. In terms of theme and significance, she acts as the glue that holds the family together and she represents the struggles of a claustrophobic domestic environment. She is shrewd...