Product Description

"Heinemann Plays" offers contemporary drama and new editions of classic plays. The series has been developed to support classroom teaching and to meet the requirements of Key Stages 3 and 4. The plays are ideal for classroom reading and performance; many have large casts and an equal mix of parts for boys and girls. Each play includes strategies and activities to introduce and use the plays in the classroom. "A View From the Bridge" tells the story of Eddie Carbone, who agrees to shelter his wife's cousins who are seeking refuge in New York as illegal immigrants. Trouble begins when his wife's niece is attracted to Eddie's younger brother. There are 13 parts, ten of which are male and three female.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140601 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 70 pages

About the Author
Arthur Miller's first success came in 1947 with All My Sons for which he won the New York Drama Critics Circle award. His next play, Death of a Salesman, stunned audiences with its brilliance and was quickly became a classic of the modern theatre. It also sparked heated debates over the true nature of tragedy. Arthur Miller was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for Death of a Salesman. He has come to be considered one of the greatest dramatists in the history of the American Theatre, and his plays continue to be produced worldwide.

From AudioFile
Arthur Miller's play is a bit melodramatic and uses some crude dramaturgy, but it's an entertaining period piece written in 1955 and set in Brooklyn during that era. Ed O'Neill (who played Al Bundy on "Married... With Children") is convincing as Eddie Carbone, the Italian-American longshoreman at the center of this play about obsession and betrayal. Jamie Hanes and Harry Hamlin put on passable accents as illegal Sicilian immigrants hiding out in the Carbone home. The play also benefits from judicious editing that makes the action easier to follow in an audio-only format. D.B. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

One of Arthur Miller's greatest plays
A View From the Bridge is a compelling and exciting drama that delves into such issues as incest, manliness and justice. It's the story of Eddie, an illiterate longshoreman, and his anger towards his niece's affection for an illegal immigrant staying in his house. The complicated relationships between these and many other characters in the play makes A View From the Bridge a truly great piece of theatre. The play has the ingredients of a traditional Greek tragedy, complete with Alfieri, a narrator that fulfils the same purpose as Sophocles's chorus from his plays about Oedipus and Antigone. It's a really good read and unravels like a great page-turner.

The over whelming relationship.
The structure of the play is uncomplicatad. The play is in two acts but within the acts there are easily defined divisions which are controlled by Alfieri. Alfieri is essential to the structure of the play. He opens and closes the play. He is Arthur Miller's mouthpiece and he moves the action fluidly. Catherine is a young lady who, it seems, as a result of her mother's death is living with her aunt, Beatrice, and Beatice's husband, Eddie. Eddie and Catherine have developed a close family relationship. The credibility of the relationship throughout the play is inceasingly questionable. Eddie is fatherlike in Catherine's eyes. In the first conversation between them Catherine looks for Eddie's approval that she looks good.She behaves almost in a coquettish manner to Eddie BUT this is not calculated. She sees him as a loving father figure. Eddie's obsessive attention to her physical appearance is realized when he asks her to turn around so he can see in her back. His intensions here are questionable. Is he attracted or is just parental pride? Eddie realises this from the beginning. Perhaps he feels that for the responsility he has taken, to support Catherine, he deserves a reward. The reward he wants(Catherine) is too big, and which if he got would be unnatural and ridiculous. Beatrice notices the relationship but her unwillingness to speak out makes her part of the problem. Eddie uses an emotional approach which in sensitive to Catherine's emotions. He suggests that all he is doing is looking out for her interests. He uses her inexperience to denunciate her arguements. Catherine shows her interests in Rodolpho's physical appearance. Eddie subjugates her. His intensions to show power dominate his actions. Rodolpho speech is lively and descriptive if a little frivolous. Catherine seems to be attracted to his different style which contrasts to Eddie's simple, normal style. Eddie is antagonistic towards Rodolpho because he is jealous of the obvious chemistry between the youngsters. Eddie unsuccessfully does his atmost to vilify Rodolpho. He sees him as a homosexual who is using Catherine to get an American passport. Catherine is attempting to be independent but she can't stand up to Eddie. She seems to be looking for attention again but Eddie's tension and his use of passionate words bring us to question his motives.

An Intense Question of the Bonds of Family
Arthur Miller often allows the reader to have difficulty identifying with a character, while empathizing with several characters. This is the case in "A View from a Bridge." When the story ends in tragedy, it is no surprise that the reader is made to question some aspect of American society.

In this play, Eddie inherits the duty of raising his niece since the death of his sister. When cousins who are illegal immigrants come to stay with the family, it is a challenge to Eddie's role as father figure. The character and integrity of Rodolpho the younger immigrant is called in to question as he begins a relationship with Eddie's niece Catherine. Is he only marrying her to obtain American citizenship? Is he too much of a free spirit with his singing and dress-making skills? In Eddie's eyes, he certainly not the proper suiter he expected for Catherine. With a wedding on the horizon, Eddie takes his only real option to prevent the marriage. He calls immigration. The final confrontation between Rodolpho and Eddie ends in tragedy, but the character flaws in both men make it difficult to sympathize with either.

The story raises questions of the bonds of family as well as the changing conditions of immigration into America. The fact that the play makes the reader think about social conditions is a reflecion of the quality of the play. It is from the high standard readers hold an Arthur Miller play to.