A View From The Bridge Analysis

In today’s society, women are empowered, independent, and have freedom on their parts to live their life freely. This is definitely a positive aspect of the modern day society, however, this may not be how it always was. Travelling back in time, to the Red Hook community of Brooklyn, circa 1950s, we are able to see the societal expectations of a women at the time through Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. The two female characters, Catherine and Beatrice, play crucial roles in the play and are essential to the tragic storyline of Eddie and his downfall. However, Arthur Miller has skillfully been able to show the lives and societal expectations of the women at the time, and to portray how women should not be treated. Both Catherine and Beatrice face different particular issues, but in the end are treated similarly as women. First, we shall look at Catherine and Beatrice and their individual parts in the story. After this, the portrayal of women and femininity in Red Hook at that time will be explored in reference to Catherine and Beatrice.

Catherine is 17 years old in this play, and is growing up to become a woman, while starting to think independently as seen in her clothing choices. However, Eddie is against this idea of her blossoming into a woman, as seen when he says, "You're getting to be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself more, you can't be so friendly, kid." At the same time, Beatrice gives Catherine advise that she should not be so dependent on Eddie and that she should view herself as an independent woman instead of letting Eddie dictate her life, when she says, "You're a woman […] and now the time came when you said goodbye." Through the story, Catherine is put in a spot where she does not want to leave eith...

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...ould merely be because of the Italian value of loyalty to the family before all, however, it is more probable that Beatrice was stuck in a situation which offered her no way out. In the 1950s, women are to marry, give birth to children, and be homemakers, and there was very little opportunity for women to succeed in a working environment as men were considered to be superior in this area. Beatrice thus would not be able to live her own life without Eddie, even if she had considered leaving him. This shows that women back then may have been deprived of a social stature that would allow them to live in their own free will. Arthur Miller has thus brought the aspect of women and femininity in the Red Hook community in the 1950s to light in A View from the Bridge, providing a thinking point for all readers alike, especially compared to today’s roles of women in society.