Setting Analysis-A View from the Bridge
Tone
Atmosphere/mood
Details
Main Setting
Alfieri's Office
Eddie and Beatrice's apartment
Forestage
Just a table and a telephone booth
Next to Eddie's apartment, in the same street
Worker's flat
Red Hook, Brooklyn-New York
1940's
The front is "skeleton entirely" meaning it does not have a beautiful facade and it is just structure
Main stage: Living/Dinning room
Clean, has too much space, feels like home
Round Dinning table
Eddie's rocker chair
Portable phonograph
Not appearing on the scene
Kitchen
Bedroom
After the front door, there is a stairway that also connects to the building above theirs, in which the butcher Lippari and his son live
The poor conditions of Red Hook described as the gullet of New York where all the Italian immigrants live, matches the fate of the main character as a stool pigeon; an animal that runs those streets and also a reference for a spy, a dirty and selfish one.
Also, the setting is not juxtaposed in any way so the image of sadness and poor living conditions reverberates in the fate of each character of the book.
However, New York City and Broadway are very different from Red Hook and mostly represent the American Dream of the younger couple (Katie and Rodolpho), how hopeful they are and their wish to have the greatest of times.
Brooklyn in the years of the second world war and after increased its popularity within immigrants. Italians running away from fascism and later on, Irish (as seen the book "Brooklyn"), Germans and other immigrants flourished in those streets. However, the condition of most of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn wasn't as clean and neat as Manhattan was.
That culminated into a lower class society full of workers that received enough money to survive, though living in their affordable conditions (basic level schools, dirty streets, almost no treated water, etc.). These workers mostly did physical jobs being construction workers, plumbers, carpenters, and longshoreman.
Therefore, the atmosphere established by the book is of dreams long ago shredded which went through the mouth of the world and were digested by it. No one there should be seeing to achieve nothing more than what they have. Since most of them are immigrants and do not speak "proper" English, society out of it would not accept them.
Portable phonograph: shows context and, of course, is later used by Catherine and Rodolpho when they dance. Also, is the literary device that presented Rodolpho´s abilities to sing and that he loves the song Paper Doll
The apartment being cozy, clean and having too much space is a way to represent how simple, happy and organized life was before the brothers came. Also, it is described as uncomplicated by the author so the main attention goes to the characters and their conflicts. There was even a production with Mark Strong where the house was just a white panel in floor
The telephone booth is later used by Eddie to call the Immigration Bureau ☎. It is a foreshadowing instrument
The main street is made of ramps. Exactly there, the fight between Marco and Eddie happens. The street is the place where the wrong doings happen which are always exposed to the people see.
Alfieri's atmosphere when he is talking to himself and others is a reflective duty. He reflects upon Eddie's situation (rhetorical Questions) while he continues saying and won't ever change his mind about law
Eddie's atmosphere is always heavy and negative. We see him as a content person in the beginning of the book, but from there, there is just rock bottom for him. As Rodolfo comes, we can see Eddies true nature in the adverbs, verbs, and adjectives that describe his actions and with slangs and imperatives which describe his words. Everything is just a struggle for Eddie and he can-t control his sorrow and rage, making us fear for everyone near him and somentimes for himself.