How are the
themes of Obsession and Desire explored in ‘A View from the Bridge’?
The most obvious exploration of desire in the play is
Eddie’s feelings for Catherine, which are clearly indicated in quotations such
as ‘he envelops her with his eyes.’ This desire is hidden from many of the
other characters but the fact that this is strong enough to ultimately make
Eddie betray his family by reporting Rodolpho and
Marco to the immigration police reveals how destructive obsessive desires like
this can be as they blind Eddie to the demands of socially acceptable
behaviour. A clear indication of the way in which desire can drive us to behave
unacceptably is when Eddie ‘kisses [Catherine] on the mouth’ after he discovers
that she has slept with Rodolpho. Further evidence
that desire can make us break social rules can bee seen in Alfieri’s warnings
that ‘there is too much love for the niece’ and Beatrice’s desperate
exclamation that Eddie ‘want[s] something else and can never have her.’ Eddie’s
unacceptable desires ultimately mark him out as a pariah in his society much
like Vinny Bolzano and Frankie Yale, both of whom
‘snitched’ on those who were close to them and paid the ultimate price.
Desire is made to seem even more destructive by
Miller because characters in the play often act blindly in the face of their
desires, unaware of the real forces that motivate them. Eddie never fully
acknowledges the feelings that he has for Catherine and Miller employs dramatic
irony here as the audience has a much better understanding of Eddie’s character
than he does himself. Miller may have done this to intensify the sense of
tragic inevitability that runs throughout the play as it seems the key
characters are manipulated by forces which they do not understand and which are
too powerful for them to control. We similar blindness in Catherine as she does
not seem to realise that she may have inadvertently encouraged Eddie’s
affections by walking around in her ‘slip’ and ‘throwing herself at him’ when
he comes home from work. Beatrice also seems to blindly forgiving of Eddie’s
faults, calling him ‘an angel’ when he finally concedes that Catherine can go
to work at the start of the play after his original petulant outburst to the
contrary.
In contrast to the destructive role that desire plays
in Eddie’s life, Miller uses Catherine and Rodolpho’s
relationship to imply that the passion can be a unifying force that brings
people together. The unifying power of desire is most apparent in the second
act of the play when Catherine implores Rodolpho to
‘hold me … teach
However, like Eddie, the audience is also able to see
a different side to Rodolpho: the side that is just
after a ‘green card.’ Miller leaves Rodolpho’s
feelings ambiguous with phrases such as ‘that’s the only wonder here – work’ when
Rodolpho talks about
Another disturbing effect of desire is the way that
it can turn women into possessions of the men who are obsessed with trying to
control them. When Beatrice asks ‘When am I gonna be
a wife again?’ it is clear that one of her roles in her relationship with Eddie
is to provide sex and at the moment they are not sleeping together. This lack
of sex could indicate the lack of desire Eddie feels for Beatrice as he is
clearly obsessed with Catherine. As a result of the sense of ownership that
Eddie feels towards Catherine he calls Rodolpho ‘a
goddamn thief’ and accuses him of ‘stealing from me.’ The possessive attitude
here may reveal the gender roles that dominated 1950s American society as women
were often controlled by men, both sexually and physically. Another indication
of the obsession that men have with possessing women can be seen in the song
‘Paper Doll.’ The lyrics such as ‘gonna buy a doll to
call my own’ and ‘a doll that other fellows cannot steal’ once again portrays
the accepted gender roles at the time and clearly reveal the way in which women
were treated as objects of desire that can be controlled by men.
However, the most powerful expression of desire has
nothing to do with women. Instead it is the obsession that men have with honour
and moral justice. Eddie repeatedly exclaims ‘I want my name’ just before his
fight with Marco at the end of the play and the repetition exemplifies the need
he has to defend his reputation in Red Hook after Marco spat in his face and
accused him of being a traitor and murderer following his arrest. Miller uses
the strength of Eddie’s obsession with honour (an obsession which ultimately
leads to his death) to reveal the way in which the most powerful value in the
immigrant community is the belief in honour. To reinforce this Miller has
painted Marco as a man similarly obsessed with honour and moral justice as we
are told that ‘he’s praying in the church’ before he comes to kill Eddie
showing that Marco’s desire for honour and justice is so strong that he is
prepared to commit a mortal sin in order to meet these moral expectations.
Therefore, we can see that the themes of desire and obsession are closely
linked with the Italian code of morality and Miller seems to celebrate the
strength of these powerfully destructive feelings when he has Alfieri admit
with chagrin that his practice is ‘entirely unromantic.’ Alfieri has obviously
given up on living the Italian way of life and has chosen instead to ‘settle
for half.’ At the end of the play Alfieri is left living a safer life but one
that lacks the passionate intensity of life in Red Hook. Hence his wistful
concluding comments that he ‘mourns’ characters like Eddie albeit ‘with a
certain … alarm.’