Literature │A Greek Tragedy
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller

(published in “Avrupa” newspaper)

Emile Zola once said, “The environment must determine the character” and Miller’s A View from the Bridge certainly incorporates this line of thinking, as it deals with the intimate lives of longshoremen, set against an American Italian setting, most are immigrants working hard, whilst living with the imminent danger of being found out and reported to immigration by their own families or neighbours. The opening scene is introduced by the play’s narrator, Alfieri, the neighbourhood attorney, also from Italy, who immediately divulges to the audience that the story that is about to be told is one of tragedy. Not only is the play tragic in the classical Greek tragedy sense, but also due to the fact that Alfieri is able to perceive the inevitable from the outside and does nothing to prevent it, Alfieri therefore takes on the role of the traditional “chorus” in which what he says at times can reflect badly upon himself as well as the characters that are playing out the scenes in front of him.

The story is of a close family; Eddie is a hardworking longshoreman who has always provided for his wife, Beatrice, and his niece, Catherine who he can not bare letting go, especially to a blonde Italian immigrant (Beatrice’s cousin) who comes to live with them. Eddie displays an uncomfortable incestuous interest in his niece which we have to observe with tightened faces and pursed lips. We watch Catherine fall in love with Rodolpho, as Eddie’s grip tightens on Catherine, making his wife cringe at his ruthless behaviour. Beatrice knows that Eddie has an unnatural attachment to his niece and deals with this by trying to push Catherine away towards independence and away from a husband who no longer pays any attention to her. Throughout this addictive read, one is unable to shake off the strong sense of impending doom and betrayal, which we know is lurking around the corner.

A View from the Bridge (1955) was Miller’s fourteenth play, following many other successful plays such as All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953). A View From the Bridge was in fact based on a real story that Miller had heard around the waterfront, in which a worker had contacted the Immigration services on someone that he knew, and ended up being shunned from his community for this betrayal, this story had such an impact on Miller that he envisioned a Greek tragedy unfold in front of him. In a BBC interview in 1987, Miller said, “…you can’t conceive a tragedy without the idea of betrayal, Hamlet is betrayed by the King, Macbeth, Lear, it’s all betrayal, it’s implicit in the tragic idea.”
The community depend upon one another, each person is meant to look out for the next, and yet, this is at a cost. The play produces an unshakeable sense of claustrophobia as we are faced with a family setting which is in fact a melting pot, waiting to explode with male pride, angst, dreams and love. Eddie is a proud man, a hard worker and believes in traditional values, when Rodolpho and his older brother are introduced, Eddie’s values and the life that he has built for himself and the women in his life becomes rocky, exposing the fractured foundations upon which he has built this life. Beatrice is a typical housewife trying to keep everything together, and in the end has to yield to her husbands rules, she urges Catherine to be independent, but all that Catherine manages to do is move from one man ruling her life (Eddie), to another (Rodolpho) making it a play in which there are no identifiable heroes, but simply a tragic story which will be passed on from one person to the other, making sure that the story that Miller had once heard, lives.

©Zehra Mustafa