A View from the Bridge - Importance of the Boxing Scene

“A View from the Bridge” is a tragic play written by Arthur Miller, based on the concept of illegal immigrants being snitched on by their own relatives. In this play, the boxing scene refers to the last part of Act 1 or Episode 5 of the play. So far in the play, we learn that Beatrice and Eddie are married, and their adopted child is Catherine, who is almost a legal adult. Marco and Rodolfo are illegal immigrants from Sicily, who are Beatrice’s cousins. Catherine and Rodolfo soon start to develop feelings for each other, and Eddie is trying to prevent this, as he has an unnatural attraction for Catherine. In the boxing scene, Eddie insults Rodolfo many times, and tries to humiliate him through boxing with him. Marco gets angry watching his brother get teased and challenges Eddie to lift a chair. Eddie fails, but Marco lifts the chair up high, gaining authority over Eddie. The boxing scene has huge dramatic importance, not only because it is the scene that ends the act. Tension between Eddie and Rodolfo is revealed, Marco’s reactions and views change and the scene shows the responses of the two women. Miller does this all while following the conventions of Greek tragedy closely. This essay will explore how these points make the scene dramatic and important.

Miller uses this scene to highlight and show the tension between Eddie and Rodolfo. The reader can see the suspense between the characters, which is the central conflict in the play. This is first shown when Eddie knocks down Rodolfo. A quote from Eddie to show this is, “Why? I didn’t hurt him. Did I hurt you, kid?” This shows tension, as Eddie asks Rodolfo to defend Eddie from any accusations, but also to challenge Rodolfo. This questions the manliness of Rodolfo, and Rodolfo is forced to say that he is alright, to keep Eddie happy and to keep his own reputation. The way Eddie defends himself makes others feel that he is trying to care about Rodolfo, but in reality he is trying to humiliate