The Brooklyn Bridge Symbol Analysis

While it is never mentioned explicitly during the play, the Brooklyn Bridge is alluded to in Miller’s title and is to be imagined in the background of Eddie’s Brooklyn neighborhood. An important symbol of New York that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan, the bridge is a liminal, or in-between space, not fully belonging to either Brooklyn or Manhattan. In this way, it comes to represent how many of the characters in the play are similarly on “bridges” of sorts in their lives, caught between two worlds or two stages of life. As illegal immigrants, Marco and Rodolpho are caught between Italy and the United States. Catherine, meanwhile, is caught between childhood and adulthood, as well as between her relationships with Eddie and with Rodolpho. On a broader level, all the Italian immigrants in Red Hook—even those who are relatively acclimated to their lives in America—must still balance and reconcile their Italian past with their American present.