Analyzing Alfieri in "A View from the Bridge

1. A View from the Bridge • TBSHS Years 10/11 • WJEC Language • Speaking and Listening Activities • – speaking and listening - hot seating • Creative – ‘recipe’ writing • WJEC Literature : • Empathetic response – writing as one of the characters • Close analysis/readings of key scenes • Examination question(s)

2. Alfieri is the first person to speak in the play • Think about the roles he fulfils: • A Chorus who watches from the sidelines and comments on the tragedy –read the definition below and say how far you feel this is true of Alfieri – use quotation to support your answer • What does Alfieri tell us about the characters? • What does he tell us about the history of the place and the people? • Why does Miller use a chorus to help to tell his story?

3. The Greek chorus is believed to have grown out of the tragicplays of the ancient Greek theatre. The chorus offers a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. It comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama. It also represents the population in any particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about heroes, gods and goddesses. In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their fears or secrets. The chorus usually communicated in song form, but sometimes spoke their lines in unison.

4. Background • Summary • Heroes • Gods/goddesses • The character’s hidden fears and secrets • How many of these does Alfieri reveal to the audience?

5. Alfieri • Father Figure - father Confessor • Think about his role as an advisor to Eddie – how far do you think this description of him applies? • Who else does he try to help? • Support your argument with quotation from the play

6. Alfieri finishes the play as well as starting it. Are there any links between his opening speech, and the one which closes the play? What does he tell us about Eddie Carbone in the closing speech? Do you agree with his assessment of Eddie’s character, that Eddie was pure and ‘himself purely’

7. Eddie Carbone It’s always a good idea when you’re working an a drama to think who might play the leading roles. Take a moment to think who would best embody Eddie. He’s from an Italian background, but has been in the USA for along time. Find evidence from the early part of the play of his ancestral background. Think a bout: his attitude to women, to the law, to the community Select 5 words to describe his character from the early scenes of the play

8. Here is a list of words which might describe Eddie: • kind • mean • generous • Decent • thoughtful • cruel • Considerate • unromantic • selfish • Demanding • shy • uncompromising • cowardly • stubborn • responsible • joyful • law abiding • brooding • friendly • carefree • Hospitable • forgiving • Loving • intense • Overprotective • heartless • Scheming • pessimistic • family man • Casual • loyal • passionate

9. Make a chart putting in the words which apply in the right columns

10. How do the other characters in the play see Eddie? Many of them change their opinion of him as the play progresses. To simplify the changes, consider the following four basic stages: Stage 1: The beginning. Stage 2: After Act One. Stage 3: After Eddie has betrayed Rodolfo and Marco. Stage 4: The end. In pairs, discuss how the main characters feel about Eddie at these stages and then fill in a chart like the one below on Marco. Check to see that you agree with the statements about Marco’s feelings. Beginning Grateful to Eddie, a little in awe of him After Act One Wary – senses trouble After Betrayal Considers him a murderer End Feels he deserved to die - justice has been done

11. A View from the Bridge • Speaking and Listening Coursework • Task One● • A Big Brother Diary Room for a character in a set text, followed by their return to talk to the housemates (who could be other characters in the text but need not be). • Prepare your monologue • Speak to the ‘camera’ • Return to the main room and share your thoughts with the other characters • Each main room should include the other characters from the play AND one stranger • Timings need to be fairly tight, not more than 2 minutes to camera, 3 minutes in the main room • Remember we are assessing speaking and listening, you don’t listen and contribute sensibly you lose marks

12. Task 2 Activity ■ Ask students to write the text they’ve been studying as a recipe, with a list of ingredients and a set of instructions, to show how the writer has concocted the story, for instance: ● the ingredients (characters, themes, styles of writing) ● quantities (a pinch, a dash, several pints, lashings of...) to show what’s important ● instructions/method (the writer’s techniques) ■ Read some of the recipes aloud, to share what other students have written. ■ Students write a short commentary, explaining their recipe and how it relates to the original text.

13. 1. Charting the Play’s Structure A View from the Bridge is written in two Acts with interspersed commentary from Alfieri. He introduces and concludes the play and appears four times in each Act. His appearances provide one of the structures of the play. One way of reading the play in class would be to use these 'scenic units' as points to stop reading and explore what has been happening. After reading a scenic unit, talk about what has happened, what you have learned about the characters and the main issues or themes raised and fill in a chart like the one below. This chart will be useful for you when you come to write about the play.

15. 2. Character Hot – Seating Brainstorming in Role. After you have read a scenic unit (see previous activity), divide yourselves up into As, Bs and Cs to cover the number of characters in that unit. All the As are Eddie, the Bs Catherine and so on. In your character groups discuss what has happened to your character and how they are likely to be feeling at this point. You may want to use some of the following prompts to help you think in role: • Could you describe how you feel at this point? • Did you feel at the centre of what has just gone on or on the edges? • Were you generally leading and directing the dialogue and action or were you mainly reacting to it? • Were there things you wanted to do during that scene that you didn’t? • Were there things you wanted to say but didn’t? • What is making you behave as you are right now? • What is important to you at this moment? • Make a note of any questions you would you like to ask the other characters at this point?

16. Hot Seating. • Now all the characters get the opportunity to ask a question of another character or to say something that they feel needs saying. • Everyone needs to remain in role for this hot-seating exercise so it is useful to have a non - participant to chair the questioning and answering - perhaps your teacher would do this. • Stay in your character groups. Each group will be asked if they have anything they want to say to another character; anyone from the group can do it. • The other character group then has a chance to respond either as one voice or several. • Try to get at the truth.

17. Rodolpho Rodolpho’s Letters Home Imagine that Rodolpho writes five letters home during the course of the play, starting from his voyage to America until the end of Act Two. His hopes, worries and feelings would vary at different stages. Try writing four different letters, each written at a particular point in his journey, by looking back at the play and putting yourself in Rodolpho’s shoes. Letter One (page 26) On the ship just before arriving in America. What do you know of who you’re going to stay with? What are your plans for work? What are your hopes and fears and expectations of life in America? Letter Two (page 33) After your first evening in Eddie’s and Beatrice’s home. What are your first impressions of the family, of Catherine, of your chances of work?

18. Letter Three (page 58) This is written after the tense encounter between you, Eddie and Marco at the end of Act One. How much do you understand of what has gone on here? What are your feelings and intentions towards Catherine? How does this episode alter your idea of the future? How dependent are you on Marco? Letter Four (page 65) This is written after the show-down with Eddie when he comes home unexpectedly when you and Catherine were alone. What are you going to do now? Do you understand Eddie’s behaviour? What about Catherine’s wish to go and live in Italy? Letter Five (the end of the play) How are you going to explain what has happened? Do you understand it yourself? What about Marco - what do you think is going to happen to him? What is going to happen to you and Catherine? Before you start writing, decide who you are writing to as this will affect the tone and content of your letters. For example, you might be writing to a parent, a brother or sister, or a friend who hopes to join you.

19. 2. Marco’s Trial Sicilian Codes of Conduct The community in A View From the Bridge has a set of rules or laws - a kind of code of conduct which isn’t written down. Many of them come from the Sicilian way of life. For example: • Work traditions from country life in Sicily. • Laws of hospitality. • Family laws. • Marriage and courtship laws. • Laws of honour. • Laws of revenge. • Laws of sexuality. • Masculine laws. • Feminine laws. In pairs write down short quotations from the play which refer to the Italian code of conduct. Write them as a chart like the one below. The following page references may help you: 11-12, 45, 47, 48, 66, 78-79.

20. Laws/Codes Italian Code Sicilian work traditions Laws of hospitality Family laws Marriage laws Honour Revenge Sexuality Masculinity Femininity Quotations The following page references may help you: 11-12, 45, 47, 48, 66, 78-79.

21. Beatrice’s Dilemma Beatrice is in a very difficult position throughout the play. She loves Eddie, and wants to remain loyal to him. But she also understands that Catherine is growing up, and that Eddie is wrong to continue being so protective towards Catherine. As the play goes on, Beatrice is more and more certain that Eddie is heading for disaster. Frequently, she tries to reason with him to get him to see that he is being obstinate or unfair or selfish. At various times she: • tells Eddie he doesn’t love or want her any more; • accuses Eddie of shaming Rodolpho and upsetting Catherine; • is disgusted with Eddie for betraying Rodolpho and Marco to the Immigration Bureau; • tries to make Eddie see that Catherine is growing up; • pleads desperately with Eddie to make it up with Rodolpho and Marco; • angrily tells Eddie to leave Catherine alone; • makes Eddie face his sexual desire for Catherine; • tries to defend Rodolpho from Eddie’s criticisms. You can find the passages where Beatrice does these things on pages: 20; 68-69; 34-35; 74; 35-36; 81-82; 42; 83.

22. Role Play - Catherine and Beatrice 10 Years On. In pairs, act out a conversation between Catherine and Beatrice ten years later, in which they try to talk honestly about what happened during the events of the play. Before you start you will need to make some decisions: • whether Catherine’s marriage to Rodolpho has been a happy one; • whether Beatrice and Catherine have remained close or whether they are meeting again for the first time in ten years; • whether Marco is in prison/ back in Italy/ still living in America.

23. Read this in pairs. Circle anything you think you understand and can back up with evidence from the play. Make notes alongside anything you disagree with. Underline anything you’re not sure of and talk about it as a whole class. Miller has said of Eddie: ‘ I had originally conceived Eddie as a phenomenon, a rather awesome fact of existence, and I had kept a certain distance from involvement in his self-justification. Consequently, he had appeared as a kind of illogical sport, and to a degree a repelling figure not quite admissable into the human family. In revising the play it became possible to accept for myself....that however one might dislike this man, who does all sorts of frightful things, he possesses or exemplifies the wondrous and human fact that he too can be driven to what in the last analysis is a sacrifice of himself for his conception, however misguided of right, dignity and justice.’ He felt that: ‘It was finally possible to mourn this man, that in the end one feels pity for him and the kind of wonder which it had been my aim to create in the first place.’ Introduction, Collected Plays

24. Exam question Year 10 The action of the play is Alfieri’s story of a case he dealt with as a lawyer. Alfieri comments on and explains the action of the play as it is happening. At times, he is part of the drama itself. Write about how Arthur Miller uses Alfieri in View from the Bridge: • to explain the themes; • to expand on the characters; • to give background information about the time and the place; • to make sure the audience is clear about Miller’s message; • to participate as a character in the action.