Act One
Eddie Carbone lives with his wife Beatrice and orphaned teenage niece Catherine. After agreeing to Beatrice's request to house Catherine's illegal immigrant cousins Rodolpho and Marco Eddie becomes unhealthily protective of Catherine. When Rodolpho and Catherine express an interest in each other Eddie becomes irrational in his anger at having to share Catherine with another man.
Act Two
When Eddie learns about the planned marriage between Rodolpho and Catherine he turns Marco and Rodolpho into the immigration authorities. The arrest of the two men causes Eddie to lose the respect of both his family and community. Marco and Rodolpho are released after bail is paid. Rodolpho can stay in America as Catherine's husband, but Marco must return to Italy. During a confrontation between Eddie and Marco Eddie tries to attack Marco, but Marco uses Eddie's knife to kill him.
Quotations
- "His eyes were like tunnels; my first thought was that he had committed a crime, but soon I saw it was only a passion that had moved into his body, like a stranger." — Alferi
- "Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better. Even as I know how wrong he was, and his death useless, I tremble, for I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory—not purely good, but himself purely And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain alarm." — Alferi
A View from the Bridge Author Information
- Mahalo's Guide to Arthur Miller
- Official Site: Arthur Miller Society
- Wikipedia: Arthur Miller
- Books and Writers: Arthur Miller Biography
- PBS: Arthur Miller Biography
- Imagi-nation: Arthur Miller Biography
- National Endowment for the Humanities: Arthur Miller Biography