Focus on a particular scene Essay

This essay will focus on a particular scene in â€Å"A View From The Bridge† An argument and subsequent fight rises between Eddie Carbone and Rodolpho, an Italian illegal immigrant and nephew of Eddie’s wife, Beatrice. A View from the Bridge was written by Arthur Miller and is set in a slum in New York in the 1950s.  A View From the Bridge is about a working class Italian immigrant community in the Red Hook section of New York, illegal immigrants often stayed until they settled into America or gained legal status. The story focuses on the Carbone family; Eddie, his wife Beatrice and their niece Catherine. They help Beatrice’s cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, who have illegally emigrated to America earn a living in order to send money home to their poverty stricken families in Sicily. The central theme of the play is honour. In act two Marco accuses Eddie of † Killing my children† and this obviously dirties Eddie Carbone’s name. Consequently Eddie challenges Marco to a fight in order to clear his name. This results in Marco fatally stabbing Eddie in the concluding brawl at the end of the play.  This scene comes at an important part of the play; this is because it sparks off the eventual fight between Eddie and Marco. The end of Act One is a turning point mainly because Eddie raises some highly controversial questions about Rodolpho’s sexuality when he says, â€Å"he sings, he cooks and he makes dresses† implying that he behaves like a traditional wife, Eddie appears to be questioning Rodolpho’s masculinty, Rodolpho doesn’t understand. As a result of this scene the vendetta between Eddie, Rodolpho and Marco grows more serious leading up to a tragic finish at the end of the play. The characters in this particular scene are Eddie, Catherine, Beatrice and two southern Italian immigrants called Marco and Rodolpho. Eddie and Beatrice look after their young seventeen year old, naive niece Catherine. (Louis and Mike are long shoremen like Eddie who don’t come into the story often.). The scene reveals the characters’ personalities such as Eddie’s moaning, self-questioning and bitter attributes when he jealously ridicules Rodolpho’s camp and effeminate personality. Beatrice is Eddie’s loving, loyal wife and Catherine has lived with them all her life so she is like a daughter to them. Beatrice is a housewife and lives on Eddie’s wages. Catherine appears to be a young naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve girl who is desperate to get a job, which Eddie will approve of. She seems to hope that if this happens Eddie will treat her in a more adult way and be proud of her. Marco is strong with a tough build. In a modern society he would be described as very much his own man. This means that he doesn’t let others make decisions for him. Eddie mentions that † Nobody questions Marco,† suggesting that Marco is more than capable of defending himself. Marco shows us that he is quiet, reserved and tough. He warns Eddie that he is a potential danger to him by raising a chair that Eddie fails to lift. Previously Marco has behaved in a more reserved fashion and had kept himself to himself. Almost as if he was in solitary confinement. In this part of the play Eddie behaves like a protective father, putting a curfew on the time that Catherine returns home. He also makes decisions about what men Catherine dates and what clothes she wears. He wants to control her life even though she is old enough to get married. Eddie goes on to say that he didn’t â€Å"like the looks† that she had been getting in the â€Å"candy store†. Furthermore he shows his disapproval about her waving to his friend Louis commenting â€Å"I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldn’t wave to him no more†. This suggests that Eddie at this point of the story is having trouble accepting that his niece has grown up and is becoming interested in men. He is also jealous of the relationship between Catherine and Rodolpho. It is apparent through Marco’s behaviour suggests that he is getting sick and tired of Eddie’s antics. This is evident when Marco intervenes in the heated sparring match between Eddie and Rodolpho. Another example of the rivalry between Marco, Rodolpho and Eddie is when Marco lifts a chair that Eddie fails to; Marco greets this with a â€Å"Triumphant smile†.  Rodolpho dances with Catherine after the sparring match with Eddie. This shows Eddie that Rodolpho loves her and is not just after his American citizenship. However this is more a message to Eddie that he isn’t scared of him and.