A View from the Bridge Themes

A View from the Bridge Themes

Justice and Judgment

A View from the Bridge sets up a very basic conflict: "civilized" American law vs. "uncivilized" Italian tradition. When the American justice system is incapable of bringing the characters the kind...

Sex

We debated over whether or not to call this category "love." There's no actual sex in A View from the Bridge. The characters' forbidden desires are all in the subtext. The play explores what happen...

Abandonment

The main conflict in A View from the Bridge centers around an uncle's fear of abandonment. He's terrified of his niece growing up and moving away. On the flip side of the equation, the nice is terr...

Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

Everything looks bright and sunny at the beginning of A View from the Bridge. A man's life's work is about to finally pay off. A young girl is about to embark on a new career. Two immigrants have c...

Contrasting Regions

A View from the Bridge is set in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the 1950s. At the time, it was a majority Italian American community. All of the characters are of Italian origin, and some are newly arrived...

Respect and Reputation

It all ends with the main character throwing his life away over this theme. A View from the Bridge shows how destructive it can be when a person places his reputation over everything else. It also...

Men and Masculinity

The entire world of A View from the Bridge is male dominated. As such, there's a lot of talk about what a real man is supposed to be like. The main character's ideas seem to be pretty traditional:...

Women and Femininity

A View from the Bridge does a great job of showing the unfortunate role of women in 1950s Red Hook, Brooklyn. For the most part, they're forced to be submissive to the men. Getting married and havi...