10. A View From The Bridge
Answer both parts of (a) and either part (b) or part (c).
You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on part (a), and about 40 minutes on part (b) or part (c).
(a) Read the extract on the opposite page. Then answer the following questions:
(i) What do you think of the way Eddie speaks and behaves here? [5]
(ii) What do you think of the way Beatrice speaks and behaves here? [5]
EDDIE: Where is everybody? (BEATRICE does not answer.) I says where is everybody?
BEATRICE: (looking up at him, wearied with it, and concealing a fear of him) I decided to move
them upstairs with Mrs Dondero.
EDDIE: Oh, they’re all moved up there already?
BEATRICE: Yeah.
EDDIE: Where’s Catherine? She up there?
BEATRICE: Only to bring pillow cases.
EDDIE: She ain’t movin’ in with them.
BEATRICE: Look, I’m sick and tired of it. I’m sick and tired of it!
EDDIE: All right, all right, take it easy.
BEATRICE: I don’t wanna hear no more about it, you understand? Nothin’!
EDDIE: What’re you blowin’ off about? Who brought them in here?
BEATRICE: All right, I’m sorry; I wish I’d a drop dead before I told them to come. In the ground I
wish I was.
EDDIE: Don’t drop dead, just keep in mind who brought them in here, that’s all. (He moves
about restlessly.) I mean I got a couple of rights here. (He moves, wanting to beat
down her evident disapproval of him.) This is my house here not their house.
BEATRICE: What do you want from me? They’re moved out; what do you want now?
EDDIE: I want my respect!
BEATRICE: So I moved them out, what more do you want? You got your house now, you got your
respect.
EDDIE: (he moves about biting his lip) I don’t like the way you talk to me, Beatrice.
BEATRICE: I’m just tellin’ you I done what you want!
EDDIE: I don’t like it! The way you talk to me and the way you look at me. This is my house.
And she is my niece and I’m responsible for her.
BEATRICE: So that’s why you done that to him?
EDDIE: I done what to him?
BEATRICE: What you done to him in front of her, you know what I’m talkin’ about. She goes
around shakin’ all the time, she can’t go to sleep! That’s what you call responsible for
her?
EDDIE: (quietly) The guy ain’t right, Beatrice. (She is silent.) Did you hear what I said?
BEATRICE: Look, I’m finished with it. That’s all. (She resumes her work.)
EDDIE: (helping her to pack the tinsel) I’m gonna have it out with you one of these days,
Beatrice.
BEATRICE: Nothin’ to have out with me, it’s all settled. Now we gonna be like it never happened,
that’s all.
EDDIE: I want my respect, Beatrice, and you know what I’m talkin’ about.
BEATRICE: What?
Pause
EDDIE: (finally his resolution hardens) What I feel like doin’ in the bed and what I don’t feel
like doin’. I don’t want no –
BEATRICE: When’d I say anything about that?
EDDIE: You said, you said, I ain’t deaf. I don’t want no more conversations about that,
Beatrice. I do what I feel like doin’ or what I don’t feel like doin’.
BEATRICE: Okay.
Pause
EDDIE: You used to be different, Beatrice. You had a whole different way.
BEATRICE: I’m no different.
EDDIE: You didn’t used to jump me all the time about everything. The last year or two I come in the house I don’t know what’s gonna hit me. It’s a shootin’ gallery in here
and I’m the pigeon.
Your exams and how this blog works
In your English lessons, you are studying for TWO GCSEs.
English
and English Literature.
English
60% exam (2 2-hour papers, Paper One and Paper Two)
20% speaking and listening coursework
20% written coursework (four essays: creative writing, transactional writing, Shakespeare, poems from other cultures)
English Literature
70% exam (one 2.5-hour paper consisting of three sections - one on a play, one on a novel, one on an unseen poem)
30% coursework (four essays: Shakespeare, poems from other cultures, pre-1914 poetry, pre-1914 prose)
The exam board is WJEC, the Welsh board.
This blog has been designed to help you understand and revise for all three papers. There is lots of information, tips, practice questions and links.If you look on the right, there is a list of labels. Click on these and it will direct you to all the information about that particular label. For example, click on An Inspector Calls and you will get four posts about the play, how to answer a question on it, key quotes, etc. Or, if you are worried about answering Section B type questions, click on that and you will get all the posts helping with that.
