A View From The Bridge, Arthur Miller, full book annotations
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
Book
A View from the Bridge
In preparation for my Edexcel IGCSE English Literature coursework, I have compressed a wide variety of sources (e.g. my own views, school guidance, online resources) to form this set of full book annotations. This has anchored the majority of my essay plan, which finally led to my coursework being ...
A View From The Bridge
✗ metaphor
'
- seen from a distance
( can see in front of you and .
connery, Manhatta
behind you)
-
things with
can see a larger [ Sep
panoramic view ( → we are .
Manhattan É
advised to relate Eddie 's drama
to the bigger story of Italians
adapting -6 American life, larger
moral implications, the nature of
justice . .
instead of getting
caught in all the little dramas
up
looking into the
(distance ,
from
from a richer a
coursework theme
separated
: each other /
another
LOVE AND DESIRE
Eddie vs catherine
A View from
EVs B Is
C R rosew
A Play in T
vs
Tension / conflict EVSR
M for his family
B for cousin
Bus C
Authur Miller
, Characters Act One composite stage
""
"
play opens with stage
Louis E 's longshoremen friends stage directions
:
"" +
gepudaM.tk everything needed for
-
;
-
Mike
in us for 25 years) ( ✗
-
Alfieri 1 narrator lawyer Italian lived
, , ,
The street and house front of a teneme
Main-draw entirely. The main acting area is the liv
É:::::::::::::::"
"" " " " "
Eddie "
" ""
Catherine orphan
( ,
B 's niece ) apartment. It is a worker’s flat, clean,
Beatrice CE 's wife , raised c) → motivated by love for family
down front; a round dining table at ce
Marco ( B older cousin Works at shipyard to send $back to family)
's .
I phonograph.
" "" Tony + ve love ☒ E 's love
At back are a bedroom door and an op
-
illegal immigrants
(brothers )
Rodolpho l C 's love interest likes to sing dance and sew, works at
-
, , interiors are seen.
from Italy
First Immigration Officer the shipyard to earn money,
At the right, forestage, a desk. This is
-
-
Second Immigration Officer 4 ✗
enjoy
Mr Lipari also a telephone booth. This is not use
I upstairs neighbours covered or left in view.
Mrs Lipari ]
→ who take R&M in
,
Two ‘Submarines’ illegal immigrants
-
= A stairway leads up to the apartment,
Neighbours which is not seen.
Ramps, representing the street, run ups
As the curtain rises, Louis and Mik
against the building at left.
A distant foghorn blows.
- narrator
Enter Alfieri, a lawyer in his fifties
humored, and thoughtful. The two pit
crosses the stage to his desk, removes h
hair, and grinning, speaks to the audie
law vs ju
-
- monologue
T Alfieri You wouldn’t have kno
soliloquy has just happened. You see how u
because I am a lawyer. In this ne
(
directed to the
-
or a priest on the street is unluck
audience
connection with disasters, and th
I often think that behind that su
three thousand years of distrust.
in Sicily, from where their father
a friendly idea since the Greeks
I am inclined to notice the ruins
was born in ☐
Italy . . . I only cam
Alfieri speaks at start & end
→
, 4 A View from the Bridge
In those days, Al Capone, the greatest Carthaginian of all, was Eddie Yeah, there’s another d
learning his trade on these pavements, and Frankie Yale himself Louis.
was cut precisely in half by a machine gun on the corner of
Eddie goes into the house, as light ri
Union Street, two blocks away. Oh, there were many here who
is waving to Louis from the window
were justly shot by unjust men. Justice is very important here.
•
a working-class part of Brooklyn Catherine Hi, Eddie!
But this is Red Hook, not Sicily.NewThis is the slum that faces the
location of [ bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn
1in York )
Bridge. This is the gullet Eddie is pleased and therefore shy ab
setting
of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world. And now jacket. clues of E 's inappropriate
'
towards
we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle for half, C
and I like it better. I no longer keep a pistol in my filing cabinet. Eddie Where you goin’ all dre
And my practice is entirely unromantic. Catherine (running her hands over
like it?
y
-
My wife has warned me, so have my friends; they tell me the
Eddie Yeah, it’s nice. And wh
people in this neighborhood lack elegance, glamour. After all, Repetition
who have I dealt with in my life? Longshoremen and their ( desperately
\ Catherine You like it? I fixed
wives, and fathers and grandfathers, compensation cases,
-
seeking for E 's He’s here, B!
evictions, family squabbles – the petty troubles of the poor – approval dependant
,
Eddie Beautiful. Turn around
|
and yet . . . every few years there is still a case, and as the and submissive
parties tell me what the trouble is, the flat air in my office towards El turns for him.) Oh, if your mother
suddenly washes in with the green scent of the sea, the dust in wouldn’t believe it.
this air is blown away and the thought comes that in some Catherine You like it, huh?
Caesar’s year, in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff at Syracuse,
-
another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same Eddie You look like one of th
complaint and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run Where you goin’?
its bloody course. J Catherine (taking his arm) Wai
Eddie has appeared and has been pitching coins with the men and is something. Here, sit down. (She i
[ , C1B
introduced highlighted among them. He is forty – a husky, slightly overweight Calling offstage.) Hurry up, will yo
longshoreman. dmeapjytsatypFF.AM
-
-
Eddie (sitting) What’s goin’ on
This one’s name was Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman working Catherine I’ll get you a beer,
the docks from Brooklyn Bridge to the breakwater where the
open sea begins. Eddie Well, tell me what happ
me.
Alfieri walks into darkness.
Catherine I want to wait till
Eddie (moving up steps into doorway) Well, I’ll see ya, fellas. beside him.) Guess how much we p
Catherine enters from kitchen, crosses down to window, looks out. Eddie I think it’s too short, ai
I
overprotective
'
Louis You workin’ tomorrow? Catherine (standing) No! not w
, 6 A View from the Bridge
Eddie Yeah, but you gotta sit down sometimes. so friendly, kid. (Calls) Hey, B, w
(To Catherine.) Get her in he
Catherine Eddie, it’s the style now. (She walks to show him.)
I mean, if you see me walkin’ down the street – Catherine (starting out ) What?
⇐ freaking me out )
Eddie Listen, you been givin’ me the willies the way you
i,
Eddie Her cousins landed.
,,
walk down the street, I mean it.
Catherine (clapping her hands tog
Catherine Why? and starts for the kitchen.) B! Your c
Eddie Catherine, I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m tellin’ Beatrice enters, wiping her hands w
you you’re walkin’ wavy. sexualis ing his niece overprotective + inappropriate)
-
(
Beatrice (in the face of Catheri
Catherine I’m walkin’ wavy?
Catherine Your cousins got i
Eddie Now don’t aggravate me, Katie, you are walkin’
wavy! I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you in the candy / C flirted Beatrice (astounded, turns to Edd
store. And with them new high heels on the sidewalk – clack, with boys about? Where?
clack, clack. The heads are turnin’ like windmills. Eddie I was just knockin’ off
Catherine But those guys look at all the girls, you know come over to me; he says the shi
that. Beatrice (her hands are clasped at
Eddie You ain’t ‘all the girls’. half in unutterable joy) They’re al
desperately seeks for approval
Catherine (almost in tears because he disapproves) What do you Eddie He didn’t see them yet,
soon as they get off he’ll meet th
um
want me to do? You want me to –
o’clock they’ll be here.
Eddie Now don’t get mad, kid.
Beatrice (sits, almost weak from te
Catherine Well, I don’t know what you want from me. the ship all right? That’s fixed, h
Eddie Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed. I’m Eddie Sure, they give them re
responsible for you. You’re a baby, you don’t understand these walk off with the crew. Don’t wo
things. I mean like when you stand here by the window, wavin’ to it. Couple of hours they’ll be
outside.
Beatrice What happened? Th
Catherine I was wavin’ to Louis ! next Thursday.
Eddie Listen, I could tell you things about Louis which you
Eddie I don’t know; they put
wouldn’t wave to him no more.
them out on. Maybe the other sh
Catherine (trying to joke him out of his warning) Eddie, I wish there was some danger – What y
there was one guy you couldn’t tell me things about!
Beatrice (astounded and afraid )
Eddie Catherine, do me a favor, will you? You’re gettin’ to I didn’t even buy a new table clo
be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself more, you can’t be walls –
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