A View from the Bridge

In A View from the Bridge, the sea is associated with excitement, novelty, and adventure. Toward the end of Alfieri’s opening speech, he describes how every few years, “as the parties tell me what the trouble is, the flat air in my office suddenly washes in with the green scent of the sea” (379). For Alfieri, the sea signifies the blowing away of the humdrum world with which he is usually concerned, and the evocation of a more vital and ancient order of things, linked to his Mediterranean past. The sea also represents excitement and escape for Catherine. As she is asking Rodolpho whether he would move with her to Italy, she reminds him that “you’re always saying it’s so beautiful there, with the mountains and the ocean” (419). The ocean represents a rural and idyllic world, free from the complications of urban life and her increasingly oppressive emotional entanglement with Eddie.

However, the sea at the same time symbolizes danger. For example, Beatrice reminds Catherine about the “spider coming out of the bag” that Eddie brought home from the piers (387). The sea in this instance represents something out of which unknown and threatening forces can emerge.