Literatura em Lingua inglesa iv

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Disciplina 
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
 
 
Coordenador da Disciplina 
Prof. Michel François 
 
 
8ª Edição 
 
 
Copyright © 2010. Todos os direitos reservados desta edição ao Instituto UFC Virtual. Nenhuma parte deste material poderá ser reproduzida, 
transmitida e gravada por qualquer meio eletrônico, por fotocópia e outros, sem a prévia autorização, por escrito, dos autores. 
 
Créditos desta disciplina 
 
Realização 
 
 
Autor 
 
Prof.ª Salete Nunes 
 
 
 
Sumário 
 
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story – Ernest Hemingway ............................................... 01 
 Topic 01: Hemingway and the Lost Generation .................................................................................... 01 
 Topic 02: Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”......................................................................... 04 
 Topic 03: Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” ...................................................................... 07 
 Topic 04: Analysis of Film Versions ..................................................................................................... 09 
 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry ..................................................................................... 12 
 Topic 01: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 12 
 Topic 02: Modernism ............................................................................................................................. 13 
 Topic 03: The Beat Generation .............................................................................................................. 23 
 Topic 04: Contemporary Poetry ............................................................................................................. 28 
 Topic 05: Interconnections .................................................................................................................... 35 
 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama .................................................................................... 38 
 Topic 01: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 38 
 Topic 02: Arthur Miller ......................................................................................................................... 40 
 Topic 03: The Trial of Arthur Miller: an article by John Steinbeck ...................................................... 43 
 Topic 04: Tragedy and the Common Man - an essay by Arthur Miller................................................. 46 
 Topic 05: A View from the Bridge – Introduction ................................................................................ 47 
 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller
 50 
 Topic 01: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 50 
 Topic 02: A View from the Bridge – Act 1 ........................................................................................... 52 
 Topic 03: A View from the Bridge – Act 2 ........................................................................................... 55 
 Topic 04: A View from the Bridge – Stage Version.............................................................................. 57 
 Topic 05: A View from the Bridge – Film Version ............................................................................... 58 
 Topic 06: Glimpses of Another View .................................................................................................... 60 
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story – Ernest Hemingway 
Tópico 01: Hemingway and the Lost Generation
1.1 Introduction
English Literature IV is a course which will explore the American Literature of the twentieth century in 
terms of three main genres: short story, poetry and drama. Thus, a selection of the works of some of the 
most representative authors from this period will constitute the required reading material for the course. 
The reading of short stories, poems and plays will be followed by the analysis of 
adaptations/translations of such literary works into other art forms/ media, such as films, videos, songs, 
etc.
Fonte [1]
This first lesson of this course focuses on the genre short story.
SHORT STORY
Brief fictional prose narrative. It usually presents a single significant episode or scene involving a 
limited number of characters. The form encourages economy of setting and concise narration; 
character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but seldom fully developed. A short story may 
concentrate on the creation of mood rather than the telling of a story. Despite numerous precedents, it 
emerged only in the 19th century as a distinct literary genre in the works of writers such as E.T.A. 
Hoffmann [2], Heinrich Kleist [3], Edgar Allan Poe [4], Prosper Mérimée [5], Guy de Maupassant [6], and 
Anton Chekhov [7].
Fonte:Britannica Concise Encyclopedia [8]
Most literary critics and scholars, who have studied this genre in the twentieth century, seem to agree 
that the American author who best developed the short story in this period was Ernest Hemingway. Harold 
Bloom, a famous contemporary American critic, states that:
It could be argued persuasively that Hemingway is the best short-story writer in the English language 
from Joyce's Dubliners until the present. (BLOOM, 2011, p. 3)
Hence, we will study two short stories by Hemingway in this lesson.
1
1.2 Lost Generation
When studying an author it is of utmost importance to understand the historical and literary context in 
which he lived and produced his works. In order to study Hemingway's short stories, one must refer to a 
period and a place that not only influenced his writing, but also played a decisive role in terms of defining 
what he wrote and how he did it. This period is the 1920's and the place is Paris.
In the 1920's, the world had just gone through the World War I (1914-1919). The effects of the war 
were devastating. A whole generation of young people was absolutely disillusioned and trying to figure out 
a meaning for life. Among them were many expatriate Americans who stayed in France after the war, or 
arrived there in the early 20s.
A number of American young writers were part of that group of expatriates, including Gertrude Stein, 
Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. The last two ones were to become the icons of this 
Lost Generation.
LOST GENERATION
Lost Generation, in general, the post-World War I generation, but specifically a group of U.S. 
writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The 
term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein [9] to Ernest Hemingway [10], "You are all a lost 
generation." Hemingway used it as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises [11] (1926), a novel that captures 
the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living set of disillusioned young expatriates in postwar Paris.
The generation was "lost" in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar 
world.
Encyclopedia Britannica [12]
The two main representatives of the Lost Generation:
Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 – 1961) [13] Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) [14]
STOP AND CHECK
Click on the link below the picture of Ernest Hemingway to learn about this American writer.
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Fonte [15]
ERNEST HEMINGWAY 
"Hemingway now is myth, and so is permanent as an image of 
American heroism, or perhaps more ruefully the American illusion of 
heroism. The best of Hemingway's work, the stories and The Sun Also 
Rises, are also a permanent part of the American mythology. Faulkner, 
Stevens, Frost, perhaps Eliot, and Hart Crane were better writersthan 
Hemingway, but he alone in this American century has achieved the 
enduring status of myth." (BLOOM, 2005, P. 125)
FURTHER READING
Are you interested in learning more about Hemingway? If so, click on the link below. The text will 
also be available in "Material de Apoio".
Ernest Miller Hemingway (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
3
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story – Ernest Hemingway 
Tópico 02: Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants
READING AND LISTENING TO THE SHORT STORY: Hills 
Like White Elephants
Hills near Zaragoza, Spain [16]
This story is part of the collection Men Without Women, published in 1927. Here Hemingway employs 
his art of dialogue in the most radical way, once the presence of the narrator is almost completely 
removed. As Paul Lamb explains,
What, then, were Hemingway's technical accomplishments in the writing of dialogue? They can 
be summed up in three phrases: minimum speech with maximum meaning; the elevation of 
banality into art; and the blurring of distinctions between the genres of drama and fiction. To 
achieve these goals, he removed or subtilized the controlling presence of the author's voice and 
incorporated into dialogue the techniques of his non-dialogue prose: indirection, juxtaposition as 
a means of having meaning derive from proximity, irony, omission, repetition, the objective 
correlative, and referential ambiguity. In doing so, he met the challenge of writing modern 
dialogue: representing the dynamics of real-life speech. After Hemingway, writers would have 
the option of making dialogue illustrative or constructive, and of having their characters show 
themselves in ways hitherto only revealed by other methods. (LAMB, 2011, p. 71)
Reading the story
Click on the following link to read the story. After reading it, answer the questions in Practice 1.
Hills Like White elephants (click here) (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
PRACTICE 1
After reading "Hills like White Elephants", answer the questions below.
1. The way that the conversation of the couple is "transcribed" by the author seems to denote that 
they are going through a/an
Mark X in the correct answer.
A. adventurous summer trip feeling very happy to be together
B. point in their relationship in which their dreams are all coming true
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C. difficult situation, but keeping a very harmonious relationship
D. moment of crisis and an overwhelming sense of misunderstanding
2. The connection of the title with the main theme of the story could be stated in terms of the 
drawing of a parallel with the
A. other elements of the setting
B. singular situation of the couple
C. couple and the people in the station
D. drinks the couple orders
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1 - D 
2 - B
LISTENING
Click on the following link to listen to "Hills like White Elephants". After listening to it, answer the 
questions in Practice 2.
Hills Like White Elephants [17]
PRACTICE 2
After listening to "Hills like White Elephants", answer the questions below.
1. Contrasting elements mentioned in the setting, like "the country was brown and dry" and on the 
other side "fields of grain and trees" may be said to establish an opposition between
Mark X in the correct answer.
A. ancient and new
B. warm and cold
C. dark and bright
D. barren and fertile
2. The couple's choice to have this conversation at a train station may imply/hint that they
A. felt it was just natural, as they were travelling
B. did not feel comfortable to discuss the issue privately
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C. had to part soon, so a decision was urgent
D. were eager to get rid of the 'white elephant
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1 - D 
2 - B
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Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story – Ernest Hemingway 
Tópico 03: Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
READING ANOTHER SHORT STORY BY HEMINGWAY: A Clean, Well-
Lighted Place
Fonte [18]
This short story was published in the collection Winner take Nothing (1933). It constitutes another very 
good example of Hemingway's style and of the themes that are recurrent in many of his works. According 
to H. P. Werlock,
Spare and short, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" develops almost entirely by 
dialogue. The narrative depends on the reader's ability to provide the framework 
of existential despair (see EXISTENTIALISM) and NIHILISM, the encounter with 
the cultural wasteland, and loss of faith. For many it is the seminal story in 
Hemingway's short story catalog, the quintessential illustration of his theory of 
omission. It is one of his most anthologized short stories. (WERLOCK, 2010, p. 
145)
Reading the story
Click on the following link to read the story. After reading it, answer the questions in Practice.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (click here) (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
PRACTICE
After reading “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, answer the questions below.
1. Through the conversation between the two waiters, it can be inferred that the younger waiter
Mark X in the correct answer.
A. is in a hurry that specific night because his wife is waiting for him in bed, but he is a very understanding person 
when it comes to dealing with older people
B. is not able to grasp the existential issue involved in the old man's attitude of desperation in relation to his own life
C. feels that getting old is just an avoidable process and that he can picture himself in the future as he observes the 
old man in his loneliness
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D. admires and respects old people for their wisdom and dignity, but as the old man has stayed for too long in the 
cafe, he has lost his temper
2. When the old man, in an attitude of despair, tried to put an end to his own life, the person who 
saved him was
A. a close relative who takes care of him
B. a stranger who had never seen him before
C. his wife's niece, who was visiting at that moment
D. his wife, who arrived just in time to cut the rope
3. In the older waiter's monologue toward the end of the story, when he paraphrases the Lord's 
Prayer using the Spanish word nada, one can find the expression of the
A. absolute meaning of religion
B. meaninglessness of life
C. ability to create out of nothing
D. belief in human goodness
4. The older waiter expresses his solidarity with the old man, showing that he understands what it 
means to feel lonely and to wish for a "clean well-lighted place" in order to temporarily escape from the 
darkness of
A. a sinful soul
B. a moonless night
C. life and ultimately of death
D. a disturbed mind
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1 - B
2 - A
3 - B
4 - C
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Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story – Ernest Hemingway 
Tópico 04: Analysis of Film Versions
In Topic 4, you will watch the film versions of the stories you read in Topic 2 and 3:
Hills Like White Elephants
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
After watching a film version of each story you previously read, discuss the questions related to the 
films in the FORUM.
FORUM A
Click on the links below to watch the film versions of Hills Like White Elephants. After watching 
the films, discuss the following questions in FORUM A. 
Film versions for Hills Like White Elephants:
1. HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS - Directed by Bruno Schiebel [19]
2. HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS - Directed by by Yuriy Mikitchenko and Sean Brown [20]
Watch the two film versions for "Hills Like White Elephants" and establish a comparison 
between the film versions and Hemingway's short story, considering the following aspects:
1. Setting: Is the setting in the films similar to or different from the setting in the story?  How does 
that setting contribute to/is relevant to the development of the story?
2. Characters: How does the process of characterization of Jig and the American man show that 
the story unfoldsin the 20s? If it doesn't, which aspects do you have to indentify another time period?
3. Performance: Do you think that the performance of the actors was able to convey the state of 
anxiety of the couple and the lack of ability to communicate with each other that one senses when 
reading the story?
4. As to the end of the story, do you think that the way it was acted out in the films gives the viewer 
any hint in relation to Jig's decision? Or does it sound uncertain as it does to the reader?
FORUM B
Click on the links below to watch the film versions of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. After watching 
the films, discuss the following questions in FORUM B.
Film versions for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place:
1. A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE – Ash Blodgett [21]
2. A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE – Peter Hastic (PART 1 [22]) (PART 2 [23])
Watch the two film versions for "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and establish a comparison with 
Hemingway's short story, considering the following aspects:
9
1. Setting: Is the setting in the films similar to or different from the setting in the story?  How does 
that setting contribute to/is relevant to the development of the story?
2. Characters: How does the process of characterization of the two waiters and the old man reveal 
their traits as characters in the written story?
3. Performance: Do you think that the performance of the actors was able to convey the contrasting 
attitudes of the waiters in relation to the old man?
4. As to the end of the story, what aspects were omitted or are different from the written story and 
what implication does that have for the understanding of Hemingway's theme?
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of the stories and one of its film versions and write a short essay in which you analyze 
the adaptation process, taking into account the elements/aspects suggested for discussion in the 
forum and adding further comments on specific points, on choices of the directors to represent 
Hemingway's story.
Bibliography 
BLOOM, Harold. Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Ernest Hemingway. New Edition. New York: Infobase 
Publishing, 2011. 
______. Short Story Writers and Short Stories.(Bloom's 20th anniversary collection). New York: Chelsea 
House, 2005.
DONALDSON, Scott (ed.) The  Cambridge Companion to Hemingway. Cambridge: Cambridge University 
Press, 1996.
GELFANT, Blanche H.( Ed.).The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth Century American Short Story. 
New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
LAMB, Robert Paul. Hemingway and the Creation of Twentieth-Century Dialogue.In: BLOOM, Harold. 
Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Ernest Hemingway. New Edition. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. 
MONK, Craig. Writing the Lost Generation: expatriate autobiography and American modernism. Iowa 
City: University of Iowa Press, 2008. 
QUINN, Edward. History in Literature: A Reader's Guide to 20th-Century History and the Literature It 
Inspired. New York: Facts On File, 2004.
SCOFIELD, Martin. The Cambridge Introduction to The American Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 2006. 
STRINGER, Jenny (Ed.) The  Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. New York: 
Oxford University Press, 1996.
WERLOCK, Abby H. P. . The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story. Second Edition. New 
York: Facts on File, 2010.
Fontes das Imagens
1 - http://www.google.com.br/search?
hl=en&biw=1069&bih=725&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=literature&oq=literature&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=45667l48755l0l10l10l0l1l1l0l381l2154l0.4.3.2
2 - http://www.answers.com/topic/e-t-a-hoffmann
3 - http://www.answers.com/topic/heinrich-von-kleist
10
4 - http://www.answers.com/topic/edgar-allan-poe
5 - http://www.answers.com/topic/prosper-m-rim-e
6 - http://www.answers.com/topic/guy-de-maupassant
7 - http://www.answers.com/topic/anton-chekhov
8 - http://www.answers.com/topic/short-story
9 - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/564945/Gertrude-Stein
10 - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260825/Ernest-Hemingway
11 - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/573581/The-Sun-Also-Rises
12 - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/348402/Lost-Generation
13 - http://pt.nextews.com/3fb21ba3/
14 - https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_Of-XlklH6NQorupb6g7z87tdYJkUYEMf8aSbCvmhC23a9FXF
15 - http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/h/fotos/hemingway.jpg
16 - http://records.viu.ca/~lanes/hills.htm
17 - http://www.miettecast.com/authors/hemingway-ernest/
18 - http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/3300548/A_clean%2C_well_lighted_place
19 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAjJ4HE6woc
20 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIA_k5G7stQ&NR=1
21 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsnkIIlK6l0&feature=related
22 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QAxqhkuZAU
23 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UZaueA2V50&feature=related
11
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry 
Tópico 01: Introduction
The second unit of this course focuses on the genre poetry.
Poetry
Poetry, language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some 
pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words on the 
basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm or 
metre, which may be supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both. The 
demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium 
than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of 
special words and phrases ( poetic diction) peculiar to poets, and a more 
frequent and more elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor and 
simile. … Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness of 
ideas, whether these be solemn or comical. Some critics make an evaluative 
distinction between poetry, which is elevated or inspired, and verse, which is 
merely clever or mechanical. The three major categories of poetry are narrative, 
dramatic, and lyric, the last being the most extensive.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
Fonte: http://www.answers.com/topic/poetry#ixzz1OcxjUcn9 [1]
Twentieth century American poetry is characterized by a great variety of trends and poets, reflecting 
the complexity and the multiculturalism of modern and contemporary American society. However, some 
movements can clearly be identified as broad categories that include most of other classifications and 
tendencies: Modernism, Beat Generation and Contemporary/Postmodern Poetry.
We are going to concentrate our readings on the works of three poets, each representing one of these 
movements, respectively: William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg and Billy Collins.
12
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry 
Tópico 02: Modernism
Fonte [2]
Modernism expanded the use of nonmetrical or irregular verse, following a certain tendency in all 
the arts to liberate aesthetics from the constraints of a way of thinking, of a paradigm considered 
outdated.
Modernist poets and poetry react especially productively to the period's pre-eminent modes 
of avant-garde experimentation: manifestoes and the leading techniques of modernist 
visual art, collage and abstraction. Responding to and reinventing these avant-garde 
discourses and practices – not in any conventional sense poetic – twentieth-century poets 
derive modernist poetry's signal formal techniques: free verse, montage, juxtaposition, 
intertextuality and linguistic abstraction. (DAVIS& JENKINS, 2007, p. 29)
William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963) [3]
The poems of William Carlos Williams are representative of Modernism. Let's read about this poet.
2.1 William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was born, lived all his life and died in Rutherford, New Jersey. Nowadays 
he stands, together with Pound and Eliot, as one of the main representatives of modernist American 
poetry. He is the one who managed to use the language of everyday speechfor poetry, recording the 
"local" as a necessary first step to presenting the "universal"
During most of his life, Williams kept a balance between his successful career as a doctor in his 
small town and his production as a poet. He was a very versatile writer, for he wrote not only poetry, but 
also short stories, plays and essays. He thought it was his duty to improve society, both through 
medicine and writing.
13
Poetry does not hold a mirror up to nature, Williams argues, but, by a process analogous to 
nature's own, transfigures nature into new, living form. The contemporary poet must strive 
to heave the most seemingly insignificant, 'unpoetic' materials into the transfigured light of 
the imagination ('So much depends / upon // A red wheel / barrow'), and he must also work 
to wrestle objects and emotions away from their traditional poetic associations, the 'crude 
symbolism' that associates 'anger with lightning, flowers with love'. (DAVIS& JENKINS, 
2007, p. 183-184)
Now let's read some poems by William Carlos Williams.
The poems we are going to read are from two different moments: first from his final collection of 
poems, "Pictures From Brueghel" (1962), and then from earlier collections from the 1920s and 1930s.
Poems
The poem Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is taken from the collection Pictures From Brueghel, 
published in 1962, in which all the poems are based on paintings by Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569). The book 
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry just two months after the poet's death in 1963.
A point to be highlighted in relation to these poems is style. And here it is necessary to mention a 
poetic resource that is frequently used by Williams, which is enjambment.
Enjambment or enjambement, the running over of the sense and 
grammatical structure from one verse line or couplet to the next without a 
punctuated pause. In an enjambed line (also called a 'run‐on line'), the 
completion of a phrase, clause, or sentence is held over to the following line 
so that the line ending is not emphasized as it is in an end‐stopped line.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms:
What is enjambment? [4]
In Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, this type of verse contributes to give the poem a sense of 
continuity all along the falling journey of Icarus. The absence of punctuation and the very short lines also 
add to that point/aspect. The description of the scenery, of the beautiful landscape in the painting leads 
the reader on a descent towards the crucial moment in the final stanza: Icarus drowning.
CHALLENGE
Observe the painting and answer these questions:
1. Where is Icarus?
2. How many other people are there in the painting?
Do they see the fall of Icarus? 
14
Fonte [5]
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS 
After answering these questions, read the poem.
LANDSCAPE WITH THE FALL OF ICARUS 
by William Carlos Williams
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
15
of the year was 
awake tingling
near
the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
PRACTICE 1
Now that you have read the poem, answer these questions:
1. Among the people in the painting, who is mentioned in the poem? 
2. Which verse/verses in the poem show(s) that the people did not pay attention to Icarus fall?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS 
1. From the people portrayed in the painting, only the ploughman/ 
farmer is mentioned in Williams' poem.
2. As to the fact that people did not really pay attention to Icarus' fall, 
it is clearly shown in the verse: a splash quite unnoticed.
FURTHER READING
Click on the tabs below to read 2 other poems from the collection Pictures From Brueghel.
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Fonte [6]
THE HUNTERS IN THE SNOW 
by William Carlos Williams
The over-all picture is winter
icy mountains
in the background the return
from the hunt it is toward evening
from the left
sturdy hunters lead in 
their pack the inn-sign
hanging from a
broken hinge is a stag a crucifix
between his antlers the cold
inn yard is
deserted but for a huge bonfire
the flares wind-driven tended by
women who cluster
about it to the right beyond
the hill is a pattern of skaters
Brueghel the painter
concerned with it all has chosen
a winter-struck bush for his
foreground to
complete the picture
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Fonte [7]
SELF PORTRAIT 
by William Carlos Williams
In a red winter hat blue
eyes smiling
just the head and shoulders
crowded on the canvas
arms folded one
big ear the right showing
the face slightly tilted
a heavy wool coat
with broad buttons
gathered at the neck reveals
a bulbous nose
but the eyes red-rimmed
from over-use he must have
driven them hard
but the delicate wrists
show him to have been a
man unused to
manual labor unshaved his
blond beard half trimmed
no time for any-
thing but his painting
2.2 Poems: The Young Housewife and This Is Just To Say
Williams embraced the concrete pictorialism of imagist poetry, mainly in his earlier works, being also 
interested in exploring the interconnections between painting and poetry. In general, his poems contain a 
very strong visual appeal. That is especially true in the case of the poem The Young Housewife, in which 
the reader can almost "see" her.
The Young Housewife
Listen to the poet reading this poem. The poem is copied down for you to 
follow the poet's reading.
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) reads his poem 'The Young Housewife' for a 
Columbia Records 78 rpm disc in the series 'Pleasure Dome: an audible anthology of 
modern poetry read by its creators," May 20, 1949.
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
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The Young Housewife (1920)
At ten A.M. the young housewife
moves about in negligee behind
the wooden walls of her husband's house.
I pass solitary in my car.
Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.
This is Just to Say
Listen to the poet reading another poem. The poem is copied down for you to 
follow the poet's reading.
William Carlos Williams reads his poem This Is Just To Say - Recorded by 
Richard Wirtz Emerson in Rutherford, NJ, August 1950.
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
This Is Just To Say (1934)
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
PRACTICE 2
After reading and listening to the two poems, do the following activities:
1. Answer these questions about the poem The Young Housewife
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a. Identify verses that picture the housewife as an object of desire or that might imply desire/sensuality 
on the part of the speaker.
b. Which line(s) could be said to contain word(s) with and onomatopoeic quality?
2. Write a parody of the poem This is just to say.
PARODY
Parody: A ludicrous imitation, usually for comic effect but sometimes for ridicule, of the style 
and content of another work. The humor depends upon the reader's familiarity with the original.
Poetry Glossary: (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/parody#ixzz1P66mAPDT [8]
Parody: A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work 
for comic effect or ridicule.
American Heritage Dictionary: (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
http://www.answers.com/topic/parody#ixzz1P65wRfXO [9]
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS 
1. The verses in red are related to question 1.a. and the verse in green is related to question 1.b.
At ten A.M. the young housewife
moves about innegligee behind
the wooden walls of her husband's house.
I pass solitary in my car.
Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.
2. Here are 2 examples of parodies of the poem This is just to say.
This is just to say
I have read all
the mail
that was in 
your inbox
and which
you were probably
thinking
were private
Forgive me
they were so tempting
This is just to say
Forgive me
for leaving the plums
from my science project
in the icebox.
You probably
thought that
I was saving them
for breakfast.
The trash can
was so far away
20
and your
password known
By Renee
and I
was so tired.
By Steve Faires
TIPS
Click on the link below if you wish to read more examples of parodies for this poem.
This Is Just to Say [10]
FORUM
PART A:
1. Discuss the following questions about the poem The Young Housewife.
a. Which verse/verses provide(s) us with hints as to the type of relationship husband/wife?
b. What does the poem let us know about the role of women in the 1920s?
2. Read an excerpt from a poem by W. H. Auden (1907-1973), Musée des Beaux Arts, that refers 
to the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, and compare it with Williams' version, taking into 
consideration the 2 questions in practice 1  as a starting point for your comments, and consider also:
a. Which verse/verses in Williams' poem express(es) the beauty of the landscape? 
b. In the painting, Brueghel brings to the foreground all the exhilarating beauty of the landscape and 
places Icarus in a corner, almost hidden from view, thus saying, somehow, that Icarus' fall was not of 
importance for the surrounding world. In which verse/verses does Williams express this idea? What 
about Auden's poem?
MUSÉE DES BEAUX ARTS 
W. H. Auden 
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully 
along;
……
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
21
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. 
22
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry 
Tópico 03: The Beat Generation
Beatnik - A person, especially a member or follower of the Beat 
Generation, whose behavior, views, and often style of dress are pointedly 
unconventional.
American Heritage Dictionary:
What were beatniks? [11]
The two main writers of the Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac (prose) and Allen Ginsberg (poetry) [12]
The Beat Generation emerged in the context of post-1945 American society, a period characterized 
by a culture of consumption and of conformity with values that were very restrictive in terms, for 
example, of aesthetic norms and moral issues. 
A new generation of Americans viewed those values as a form of repressive attitude and rebelled 
against them. In doing so, they challenged several other aspects of American life, expressing their 
alienation and eventually inventing a new form of youth culture that would have a long lasting influence 
on the following generations.
According to Charters (apud CREIGHTON, 2007, p. 30-31)
It was a rebellious group, I suppose, of which there many on campuses, but it was one that 
really was dedicated to a 'New Vision'. It was trying to look at the world in a new light, trying 
to look at the world in a way that gave it some meaning. Trying to find values… that were 
valid. And it was through literature all this was supposed to be done.
Although the Beat Generation continues to be identified as an American phenomenon, it is 
important not to overlook its global dimensions.
FURTHER READING
Would you like to know more about the Beat Generation?
READ WHAT OTHER AUTHORS HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT. 
" …the Beat Generation is classified as a generation because its 
writers were looking to break free of some of the constraints of an older 
23
tradition (metrical poetry, for example). Their shared philosophy also 
brings them together. To much of mainstream America, their philosophy 
seemed to be an irresponsible anything-for-a-kick ideal, but the writers 
saw themselves on a religious quest, looking for sense out of the 
senselessness of modern life and trying to quiet their anxiety, as the 
world entered the looming danger of the atomic age."( DITTMAN, 2007, 
P. 2)
"The Beat generation would graft itself into the San Francisco 
renaissance, launch it and usurp it as a national spectacle by way of jazz 
and scandal, flamboyant personality, charismatic literature, and through 
the invention of literary-historical Beat fiction. With the advent of the 
Howl trial in San Francisco in 1957, Beat generation writers crossed the 
threshold from being a small contingent of an obscure U.S. avant-garde, 
to becoming controversial symbols of a new generation. Although the 
transformation seemed to happen in a day, the Beats had long been 
building momentum, developing
their style, and waiting for an opening."( WHALEY, 2004, p. 10)
3.1 Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg is one of the main poets of the Beat Generation. 
Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997) [13]
Ginsberg's parents were both schoolteachers, and his father was also a poet. They participated in the 
bohemian life of Greenwich Village around the 1920s. Thus, Ginsberg had a background within which an 
ambition to be a creative writer was celebrated. Although the first time his father read "Howl" he was 
shocked, he also recognized that it was the expression of the great talent of his son and later declared that 
he was an admirer of the young Ginsberg poetry.
"Howl" is a poem of protest, outrage, attack, but at the same time of affirmation, of a desperate 
search. The poet seems to go through an underworld of darkness, solitude, while trying to achieve some 
sense of union with others and with a certain spiritual element. It is filled with images of destruction and 
starvation, persecution and alienation, but it also contains images of illumination, some glimpse of a 
transcendent reality. Although full of personal allusions, it is not reduced to them.
Ginsberg makes use of constant repetitions and parallel structures, which make the poem sound very 
powerful. That is a poetic style that was extensively first used in American poetry by Walt Whitman (1819-
1892) and that influenced most poets in the twentieth century, especially Ginsberg.
24
Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997) [14]
"… Howl and Other Poems (1956) gave rise to a censorship trial that 
brought the beats into the public eye for the first time and cast them as 
literary rebels prepared to test the limits of censorship and social 
convention."
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
http://www.answers.com/topic/beat-generation#ixzz1OYT5cMDz [15]
PRACTICE 3
Read this extract (montage) of the poem (click here) (Visite a aula online para realizar download 
deste arquivo.) and, through the analysis of the verses starting with who, identify some features that 
characterize the generation mentioned in the first verse (who they were, how they lived, what they did).
Now see a video of John Turturro reciting this extract of HOWL in the following link:
Aullido del Héroe [16]
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWER. 
Here is a transcription of the verses starting with who, in which the 
passages in red help us characterize the generation Ginsberg mentions.
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat
up smoking in the supernaturaldarkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities 
contemplating jazz, 
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, 
burning their money in wastebaskets and listening 
to the Terror through the wall, 
who got busted in their pubic beards returning through 
Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York, 
who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in
Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their 
torsos night after night 
with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares,
…
who talked continuously seventy hours from park to
25
pad to bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge, 
a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping
down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills
off Empire State out of the moon, 
yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts 
and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks 
and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars, 
…
who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking visionary 
indian angels who were visionary indian angels, 
…
who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the
roof waving genitals and manuscripts,
…
who wandered around and around at midnight in the 
railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, 
leaving no broken hearts, 
who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing 
through snow toward lonesome farms in grand-father night, 
"The Ballad of the Skeletons"
The poem "The Ballad Of The Skeletons" was written in 1995. It was set to music by Paul McCartney 
and Philip Glass. 
MULTIMEDIA
Read the poem and click on the link to watch a performance of Paul McCartney and Allen Ginsberg 
reciting the poem accompanied by music.
Allen Ginsberg & Paul McCartney
Live at the Royal Albert Hall, October 16, 1995.
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
26
The Ballad of the Skeletons (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste arquivo.)
FORUM
Part B: Now that you have read the poem "The Ballad of the Skeletons", and watched the video, 
choose the speech of 05 skeletons and explain why they are still meaningful nowadays.
27
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry 
Tópico 04: Contemporary Poetry
Contemporary or postmodernist writers tend to use multiple styles and approaches in their writing, 
and to argue against the possibility of established meanings. Another feature is that they tend not to 
distinguish between various kinds of art or different modes of expression,  incorporating photographs, 
illustrations, footnotes, bibliographies, parodies, just to mention a few.
As a result of that trend, all aspects of daily life can be treated with similar consideration and be part 
of the work of art, of literature, of poetry. 
Billy Collins's poems are representative of Contemporary poetry.
4.1 Billy Collins
Billy Collins 1941 [17]
Probably the best way to introduce Billy Collins is giving him voice in this poem in which he expresses 
his view of the teaching of poetry.
INTRODUCTION TO POETRY 
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
28
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
William J. Collins  (Billy Collins) was born in New York City in 1941. He studied  at the College of the 
Holy Cross and, for his M.A. and PhD. he went to the  University of California, Riverside. He taught for thirty-
five years at Lehmann College of the City University of New York. He has received many awards, including 
the Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry, in 2005. He was US Poet Laureate in the period 2001-2003 and 
New York State Poet Laureate in 2004.
QUESTION
What is Poet Laureate?
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT POET LAUREATE. 
Poet Laureate, a position created in 1937 for the purpose of raising 
Americans' consciousness of and appreciation for the reading and 
writing of poetry. The librarian of Congress, in consultation with poetry 
experts and critics, appoints the poet laureate for a one-year term. 
Serving from October to May, the poet laureate receives a stipend of 
$35,000 funded by a gift trust. Although the appointee is encouraged to 
pursue his or her own projects while in residence at the Library of 
Congress, the laureate's duties also include giving a lecture and a poetry 
reading. The poet laureate also customarily introduces participants in the 
library's annual poetry series, which dates back to the 1940s. In addition, 
those holding the position often use the forum to bring their own artistic 
and educational concerns to the fore.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
What is a poet laureate? [18]
By the time Billy Collins was selected the nation's poet laureate in 2001, 
he had produced a number of volumes of poetry that enjoyed both critical 
success and an impressive level of popularity among readers from a wide 
range of ages. In his position as laureate, it was the young adult audience he 
most actively sought to reach, mobilizing a movement to reinvigorate poetry 
in classrooms across America through a project he called Poetry 180, named 
29
not only for the number of days in a typical school year but also for the 
number of degrees in a complete about-face turn. (BLANCHARD, 2007, p. 51)
Unlike many poets of his generation, Collins often uses humorous 
anecdotes as the basis for his work. This sense of humor, tempered with 
wise observation and skillful manipulation of image and story, attracts both 
an academic and a nonacademic audience. Critics praise his craft, which 
transforms the apparent superficial image or idea into verse that is 
metaphysically and lyrically surprising. (KIMMELMAN, 2005 p. 96)
4.2 POEMS
4.2.1 "The Lanyard"
From The Trouble with Poetry,2005.
Read the poem The Lanyard (click here) (Visite a aula online para realizar download deste 
arquivo.), and listen to the poet reading it.
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
PRACTICE 4
After reading and listening to the poem, answer the following questions:
1. The humorous aspect of the poem lies mainly in the irony that pervades it. What irony is that?
2. By the end of the poem, after weaving each stanza carefully through the ironic statements, what 
is it that the poet manages to "seriously" imply about mother/son relationship?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1. This poem leads the reader through different moments in time: in 
stanza 1, the poet presents the context in which he wrote or had the 
inspiration to write the poem. In stanzas 2 and 3 he goes further back in 
time and explains to the reader the moment in which he had made the 
lanyard, now subject of the poem. In stanzas 4, 5 and 6 (subject of this 
question) the poet lists a number of things, great things that his mother 
did for him all along life, and pairs all these deeds with the statement 
that what he gives her in return is simply a lanyard. That's the great irony. 
That's what makes the poem funny, because it sounds so absurd that 
you think you can repay with such a 'useless' object someone who gave 
you life, took care of your health, provided you with an education, 
prepared you "to read the world".
2. In the final stanza, commenting on his mother's reaction when 
receiving the lanyard, which leads us to understand that it was an 
attitude of happiness and gratitude, the poet conveys the idea that a 
30
mother does not expect/need great gifts from her children to feel 
rewarded.
4.2.2 A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal
Now read the poem: "A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal," from Picnic, Lightning, 1998.
When asked to explain his connection toreaders, Collins explains, 'As I'm writing, I'm always 
reader conscious. I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I'm 
talking to, and I want to make sure I don't talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a 
hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like 
stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong. (LEHMANN, G. 
http://jmww.150m.com/Collins.html)
In his books of poems Billy Collins usually includes a poem in which he addresses the reader directly, 
as if having a friendly conversation. He talks about this strategy just before reading the poem in this video.
Listen to his explanation and the reading of the poem.
Billy Collins at 2009 NWP Annual Meeting
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
A PORTRAIT OF THE READER WITH A BOWL OF CEREAL 
Every morning I sit across from you
at the same small table,
the sun all over the breakfast things—
curve of a blue-and-white pitcher,
a dish of berries—
me in a sweatshirt or robe,
you invisible.
Most days, we are suspended
over a deep pool of silence.
I stare straight through you
or look out the window at the garden,
the powerful sky,
a cloud passing behind a tree.
There is no need to pass the toast,
the pot of jam,
or pour you a cup of tea,
and I can hide behind the paper,
rotate in its drum of calamitous news.
But some days I may notice
a little door swinging open
31
in the morning air,
and maybe the tea leaves 
of some dream will be stuck
to the china slope of the hour—
then I will lean forward,
elbows on the table,
with something to tell you,
and you will look up, as always,
your spoon dripping milk, ready to listen.
No specific activity will be assigned for you to do in relation to this poem you have just read and 
listened to - A Portrait of the Reader with a Bowl of Cereal. As the poet says in the last line, he expects the 
reader is 'ready to listen'. Thus, we expect that this sounds like an invitation for you to continue reading his 
poems, and not only his, but poetry in all forms and styles. As Shakespeare says through Hamlet, his most 
famous character, "words, words words,…" 
FURTHER READING
◦ Read more – Interview with Billy Collins for The Paris Review
Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83 [19]
◦ Read also (and listen to) – Litany
To listen [20]
TO READ 
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine.
JACQUES CRICKILLON - Belgian poet (b. 1940).
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass,
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
32
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is no way you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley,
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's teacup.
But don't worry, I am not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.
◦ Read also (and listen to) – Forgetfulness
To listen [21]
TO READ 
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
33
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
34
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry 
Tópico 05: Interconnections
Recently (May 11, 2011), The White House promoted a poetry workshop for students/poets from all 
over the country. Poets were invited to speak for 5 five minutes only (and had 5 more minutes to answer 
questions from the students). In these 5 five minutes they were supposed to provide the participants with 
advice they considered really relevant when attempting to write poetry/become a poet. 
Click on the link to watch the video of Billy Collins' participation (it starts in minute 04:34) in the 'White 
House Poetry Workshop' (May 11, 2011) and answer the question: what are the two pieces of advice that 
the poet gives to anyone aspiring to write poetry?
Billy Collins at White House poetry workshop pt 1
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ANSWERS. 
1. Your voice has an external source. Your voice is lying in other people's poetry; it is lying 
on the library shelves. To find your voice, you need to read deeply. Of course you need to 
look inside for material because poetry honors subjectivity, but to find a way to express 
that, you need to look outside yourself, read widely, read all the poetry you can get your 
hands on. And in your reading, you search for something, for poets who make you 
furiously jealous. And then you start imitating them.
2. Don't forget that poetry is play. Poetry is not a place to take yourself more seriously than 
you take yourself in normal life. It's a place to have fun with language; it's a place to play.
If you wish to see the complete workshop, here is the link: Poetry Student Workshop at the White 
House
PRACTICE 5
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of these options:
1. Write a brief essay in which you compare the two poems you have read based on Brueghel's 
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, taking into consideration the questions in Practice 1 and in Forum 
A, and expanding your comments. 
35
2. Write a brief essay in which you analyze the speech of at least five of the skeletons in The 
Ballad of the Skeletons, discussing how, through a single line of speech, the poet conveys a 
multiplicity of meanings that apply to the specific figures being portrayed. 
TIPS
Here are some links to videos, in case you wish to continue having fun with poetry.
"Walking Across the Atlantic" [22] by Billy Collins recited by a 3-year-old child
Sweet Talk [23] -- Billy Collins
Consolation [24] - Billy Collins
The Conversation: Child Poet a YouTube Star [25]
Bibliography 
BLANCHARD, M. L. & FALCETTI, C. Poets for Young Adults: Their Lives and Works. Westport: 
Greenwood Press, 2007.
CREIGHTON, David. Ecstasy of the beats: on the road to understanding. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 
2007.
DAVIS, Alex. & JENKINS, Lee M. (Eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Poetry. New York:Cambridge University Press, 2007.
DITTMAN, Michael J. Masterpieces of Beat literature. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2007. 
FERGUSON, M.,  SALTER, M. J., STALLWORTHY, J. (Eds.) The Norton Anthology of Poetry. 5th.ed. 
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
KIMMELMAN, B. The Facts On File Companion to 20th-Century American Poetry. New York: Facts 
on File, 2005.
LEHMAN, David. The Oxford Book of American Poetry. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
RASKIN, Jonah. American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation. 
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
WHALEY, Preston. Blows Like a Horn: beat writing, jazz, style, and markets in the transformation of 
U.S. culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
WILLIAMS, W. C. The Collected Earlier Poems of William Carlos Williams. Norfolk: New Directions 
Books, 1951. 
Fontes das Imagens
36
1 - http://www.answers.com/topic/poetry#ixzz1OcxjUcn9
2 - https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUUxfBrYeWt19YN3-92FJIp-
4zWWar5vV00ESGNZRO0tcO349bvw
3 - https://otherbooksla.com/products/imaginations-by-william-carlos-williams
4 - http://www.answers.com/topic/enjambement#ixzz1OmPem1Zo
5 - http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/resources/images/2218056.jpg?type=articleLandscape
6 - http://www.artgalleryartist.com/pieter-bruegel-the-
elder/paintings/images/pieter_bruegel_pieter_-_caccioatori_nella_neve.jpg
7 - 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Jean_Fouquet-_Portrait_of_the_Ferrara_Court_Jester_Gonella.JPG/380px-
Jean_Fouquet-_Portrait_of_the_Ferrara_Court_Jester_Gonella.JPG
8 - http://www.answers.com/topic/parody#ixzz1P66mAPDT
9 - http://www.answers.com/topic/parody#ixzz1P65wRfXO
10 - http://somewhereinthesuburbs.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/this-is-just-to-say/
11 - http://www.answers.com/topic/beatnik#ixzz1P72KfSN7
12 - http://1001buecher.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/beatlitmosaic4.jpg
13 - http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPb9vip07chw34wRYo231uEC_cm0G2gWn5szOZfsLYN23J5bsmuw
14 - 
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DhwEDk_bCS0/UXAR7XgIdKI/AAAAAAAAFqw/ic3jdQ4CVfE/s1600/tumblr_m6jipwQFHz1qam3qao1_1280.jpg
15 - http://www.answers.com/topic/beat-generation#ixzz1OYT5cMDz
16 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyh3tVyuQNU
17 - https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcSbgeTKbgCSfK10DXS5bIdksOfpicEpQIGgadpzGqvwFDpYTz3ang
18 - http://www.answers.com/topic/poet-laureate#ixzz1Ou1TIORB
19 - http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/482/the-art-of-poetry-no-83-billy-collins
20 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56Iq3PbSWZY&feature=related
21 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-a8ELOVig4
22 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahcrYHgK7wg&feature=related
23 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0yn7nS_wuc&feature=related
24 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXx5K6gfQBw&feature=related
25 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ur-S_mp_4&NR=1
37
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama 
Tópico 01: Introduction
The third unit of this course focuses on the genre Drama. Click here to read a definition of drama.
CLICK HERE
Drama: the general term for performances in which actors impersonate the actions and speech of 
fictional or historical characters (or non‐human entities) for the entertainment of an audience, either on 
a stage or by means of a broadcast; or a particular example of this art, i.e. a play. Drama is usually 
expected to represent stories showing situations of conflict between characters, although the 
monodrama is a special case in which only one performer speaks. Drama is a major genre of literature, 
but includes non‐literary forms (in mime), and has several dimensions that lie beyond the domain of 
the literary dramatist or playwright (see mise en scène). The major dramatic genres in the West are 
comedy and tragedy, but several other kinds of dramatic work fall outside these categories (see drame, 
history play, masque, melodrama, morality play, mystery play, tragicomedy).
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
http://www.answers.com/topic/drama#ixzz1Pdib0W90
Twentieth century American drama tends to raise questions about the pluralized and fragmented self, 
about the role of spatiality in the individual's condition and position in society. Another tendency is the 
exploration of drama's own conditions and processes of existence. All these aspects are major 
modern/postmodern concerns.
Two main playwrights remain as center figures in the scene of American drama in the twentieth 
century: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.
Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) [1] Arthur Miller (1915 - 2005) [2]
During the years immediately following the Second World War, two major playwrights, 
Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, dominated the American stage. These playwrights were 
often interested in exploring social issues, specifically the human costs of postwar industrial 
capitalism and the contradictory nature of the American dream. Both essentially followed the 
38
conventions of domestic realism, yet freely utilized anti-realistic devices in order to most 
effectively convey their visions for the stage. (SADDIIK, 2007, p. 40)
According to Miller,
When I began writing, when Tennessee Williams began writing, we shared 
the illusion that we were talking to everybody. Both of us wrote for the man on 
the street. So consequently the architecture of our plays, the embrace of our 
plays, their breadth, was in accordance with that conception. It was the very 
opposite of an elitist theatre, the very opposite of an intellectual theatre. (Miller, 
apud BLOOM, 2005, p. 116)
In this unit, we are going to study about Arthur Miller and read/start discussing one of his most 
frequently performed plays both in the US and abroad: A View from the Bridge.
39
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama 
Tópico 02: Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) [3]
Arthur Miller was born and grew up in New York City. His father was a prosperous businessman until 
the Crash of 1929, after which the family went through serious financial problems during the Great 
Depression.
GREAT DEPRESSION.
Great Depression: the longest, deepest, and most pervasive depression in American history, lasted 
from 1929 to 1939. Its effects were felt in virtually all corners of the world, and it is one of the great 
economic calamities in history. Economic activity began to decline in the summer of 1929, and by 
1933 real GDP fell more than 25 percent, erasing all of the economic growth of the previous quarter 
century. Industrial production was especially hard hit, falling some 50 percent. 
Gale Encyclopedia of US History
The Great Depression [4]
The Depression period (1930s) had a great impact on Miller's sense of himself, his family, and his 
society. During this period, he worked as a truck driver, as a waiter, and as a clerk in a warehouse among 
other jobs. These jobs made it possible for him to be in contact with the kind of working-class 
people/characters who appear in his plays. His father's fall from financial security and the way the people 
around him had to struggle to hold on their place in society put Miller in a position of a keen observer of 
social relations. 
Miller started writing plays in the period he was at the University of Michigan (1934-1938). 
Nevertheless, success and recognition as a playwright only came about a decade later, with the play All My 
Sons (1947), confirmed with Death of Salesman (1949). In the sequence came The Crucible (1954) and A 
View from the Bridge (1956). All these plays explore social themes, and that is what came to be a 
distinguishing feature in Miller's works.
The author was involved in the web of McCarthyism. 
40
CLICK HERE TO LEARN WHAT MCCARTHYISM WAS 
McCarthyism: Generally, the use of unscrupulous methods of 
investigation against supposed security risks and the creation of an 
atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Specifically,Joseph McCarthy was a US 
senator for Wisconsin from 1946 until his death in 1957. He is remembered 
for his demagogic crusade between 1950 and 1954 to root out alleged 
communists and spies in American public life. As chairman of the Senate 
Government Operations Committee conducting investigations, he appalled 
observers by his coarse and brutal behaviour. Witnesses were 
remorselessly bullied, currency was given to wild and unsubstantiated 
charges, and evidence falsified. As a result an ugly mood of national 
hysteria was created, the careers of honourable men and women were 
damaged, and the reputation of the United States abroad suffered badly. 
McCarthy operated at the height of the Cold War when international 
communism could be reasonably seen as a serious threat to the American 
way of life and many others shared McCarthy's fears. Eventually, however, 
the senator overreached himself in virulently attacking the Army on security 
grounds. He was subsequently censured by his colleagues in the Senate 
and ended his life as a broken and discredited figure.
Oxford Dictionary of Politics
Fonte
Miller supported various liberal and radical causes in the 1940's and 1950's and was called to testify 
about his political commitments before HCUA (House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC - 
House Un-American Activities Committee) in 1956 (this was also the year he married Marilyn Monroe, from 
whom he divorced in 1961). And "while he willingly answered all questions regarding himself and his own 
activities, he refused to give the names of alleged communist writers with whom he attended a few 
meetings in New York in 1947. He was cited for contempt for refusing to testify and was blacklisted by 
Hollywood. In 1958, however, he was officially cleared of contempt after a two-year legal battle." (SADDIIK, 
2007, p. 50)
His (Miller's) theater emphasizes the tragic conditions of human existence, a theater that 
oftentimes depicts frustration, anguish, and failure as the prevailing condition of people trapped 
by circumstances and the crush of overwhelming forces in their society or within their own 
psyche.… His plays offer hope and solace for a world desperately seeking to find a glimmer of 
hope in a world of darkness. In spite of his tragic vision and brutally honest confrontation with 
the dark forces of human depravity, Miller's plays show the possibility for redemption, 
transcendence, even triumph in the face of seemingly overpowering odds and adversity most 
inimical to human enterprise and achievement. Miller's theater is not escapist in nature, but 
neither is it fatalistic, pessimistic, or nihilistic. It is a drama of hope not despair, transcendence 
not reduction, and, above all else, the limitless potentialities and possibilities of the human spirit. 
(CENTOLA, 2007, p. 201)
FURTHER READING
Click here [5] to read an interview with Arthur Miller. 
41
"Arthur Miller, The Art of Theater No. 2 – Spring 1966"
42
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama 
Tópico 03: The Trial of Arthur Miller: an article by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) [6]
John Steinbeck (1902-1968), one of the greatest American novelists of the twentieth century, winner 
of the Novel Prize in Literature in 1962, wrote, in 1957, an article for Esquire Magazine in which he 
vehemently defends Arthur Miller in relation to his trial from the HUAC's sentence of contempt of congress.
TIPS
Click here [7] to read Steinbeck's article, "The Trial of Arthur Miller".
PRACTICE 1
Now that you have read the article by Steinbeck, answer these questions:
1. Along the article, written in a perfectly woven sequence of arguments to show the 
absurdity/irrationality of the decision of the committee against Miller, Steinbeck develops his 
reasoning using parallel sentences / structures and juxtaposing opposing ideas, which make his 
arguments really powerful. Identify some instances of this stylistic strategy.
PARALLEL SENTENCES
Parallelism in sentences refers to matching grammatical structures. Elements in a sentence 
that have the same function or express similar ideas should be grammatically parallel, or 
grammatically matched. Parallelism is used effectively as a rhetorical device throughout literature 
and in speeches, advertising, and popular songs.
Example: Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison
Fonte [8]
JUXTAPOSING
43
Juxtaposition is a literary device that is used as an important tool in Literature to bring a 
dramatic effect to certain situations and thereby make more of a mark for the work of art in its 
entirety. But what does juxtaposition mean? Juxtaposition is the placement of two concepts, 
characters, things, events, ideas, phrases, settings or words side by side in order to draw a 
contrast, create suspense, bring about a rhetorical effect, compare, or as a tool for character 
development.
Fonte [9]
2. At a certain point in the text, Steinbeck is quite satirical/ ironical about the almost absolute 
power of the congress to interfere in a citizen's life. Identify a paragraph /paragraphs in which this 
occurs.
3. Steinbeck mentions other laws in his country that had to be abolished either because people 
rebelled against them or because they were found to be really unjust. Find these examples in the text.
4. The author also mentions situations in other countries in which certain laws provoked a reaction 
from people in his own country, as if they were at a higher level in relation to that sort of attitude. Cite 
examples.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1. The people I knew were not and are not, in my estimation, traitors 
to the nation. If they were, I would turn them in instantly.If I give names, it 
is reasonably certain that the persons named will be called up and 
questioned. In some cases they will lose their jobs, and in any case their 
reputations and standing in the community will suffer. And remember 
that these are persons who I honestly believe are innocent of any 
wrongdoing. Perhaps I do not feel that I have that right; that to name 
them would not only be disloyal but actually immoral. The Committee 
then is asking me to commit an immorality in the name of public virtue.
If I agree, I have outraged one of our basic codes of conduct, and if I 
refuse I am guilty of contempt of Congress, sentenced to prison and 
fined. One way outrages my sense of decency and the other brands me 
as a felon. And this brand does not fade out.
2. There is no doubt that Congress has the right, under the law, to 
ask me any question it wishes and to punish my refusal to answer with a 
contempt charge. The Congress has the right to do nearly anything 
conceivable.
It has only to define a situation or an action as a "clear and present 
danger" to public safety, public morals, or public health. The selling or 
eating of mince pie could be made a crime if Congress determined that 
mince pie was a danger to public health--which it probably is. Since many 
parents raise their children badly, mother love could be defined as a 
danger to the general welfare.
3. The Congress had a perfect right to pass the Alien and Sedition 
Act. This law was repealed because of public revulsion. The Escaped 
44
Slave laws had to be removed because the people of the free states 
found them immoral. The Prohibition laws were so generally flouted that 
all law suffered as a consequence.
4. We have seen and been revolted by the Soviet Union's 
encouragement of spying and telling, children reporting their parents, 
wives informing on their husbands. In Hitler's Germany, it was 
considered patriotic to report your friends and relations to the 
authorities. And we in America have felt safe from and superior to these 
things. But are we so safe or superior?
45
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama 
Tópico 04: Tragedy and the CommonMan - an essay by Arthur Miller
Fonte [10]
Click on the link to read Miller's essay, "Tragedy and the Common Man" [11]
FORUM
PART A: Discuss the following questions with your classmates and tutor in the forum.
1. How does Miller justify his view that the common man is as apt a character for tragedy as the 
ancient kings and characters of a high rank, as mentioned by Aristotle in his definition of tragic hero?
2. In which terms, then, does Miller define "tragic flaw"?
3. In Miller's view, where do the qualities in tragic plays, that move/disturb us as human beings, 
stem from?
4. In which aspect, according to miller, does tragedy express the belief in the perfectibility of man?
46
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama 
Tópico 05: A View from the Bridge – Introduction
Fonte [12]
The play A View from the Bridge is based on the true story of a Brooklyn longshoreman who ruined 
his life by informing the Immigration Bureau about two illegal immigrants from Italy. First written and 
staged on Broadway in 1955 as a one-act play, it was not successful. Miller tried to simply tell the story he 
himself had heard, but he later recognized it was too direct and cold. 
Thus, in 1956, he decided to rewrite it for a production in London. That's when he made it into a two-
act play. He also expanded some characters, especially Beatrice and Catherine. It was then a great 
success not only in London, but also in Paris. After that, the play has had many productions in the US. 
Recently (2010/2011) it has had very successful revivals both in New York and London. 
A View from the Bridge is a play which bears a similarity to Greek Drama, not only in its tragic 
approach, but also in the way it is structured, with the figure of a narrator/commentator, who, somehow, 
plays the role of the Greek chorus.
GREEK DRAMA
According to Aristotle, Greek drama, or, more explicitly, Greek tragedy, originated in the dithyramb. 
This was a choral hymn to the god Dionysus and involved exchanges between a lead singer and the 
chorus. It is thought that the dithyramb was sung at the Dionysia, an annual festival honoring Dionysus.
Tradition has it that at the Dionysia of 534 B.C., during the reign of Pisistratus, the lead singer of 
the dithyramb, a man named Thespis, added to the chorus an actor with whom he carried on a 
dialogue, thus initiating the possibility of dramatic action. Thespis is credited with the invention of 
tragedy. Eventually, Aeschylus introduced a second actor to the drama and Sophocles a third, 
Sophocles' format being continued by Euripides, the last of the great classical Greek dramatists.
Generally, the earlier Greek tragedies place more emphasis on the chorus than the later ones. In 
the majestic plays of Aeschylus, the chorus serves to underscore the personalities and situations of 
the characters and to provide ethical comment on the action. Much of Aeschylus' most beautiful poetry 
is contained in the choruses of his plays. The increase in the number of actors resulted in less concern 
with communal problems and beliefs and more with dramatic conflict between individuals.
Columbia Encyclopedia 
http://www.answers.com/topic/drama#ixzz1PddPV6Ru
47
TIPS
Click on the link to watch a video of an interview with Arthur Miller for BBC, in which he is talking 
about A View from the Bridge. [13]
FORUM
PART B: After watching the video, discuss the following questions with your classmates and tutor 
in the forum.
1. According to Miller, in this extract of the interview, there is an aspect which is implicit in 
tragedies in general. He even mentions Hamlet and Macbeth to exemplify it. Which aspect is this?
2. How did Miller get to know the story that gives origin to the play?
3. Miller also explains the meaning of the title of the play. Why A View from the Bridge?
4. And about the function of the character Alfieri, what does Miller say?
Bibliography 
BIGSBY, Christopher. The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Sixth Printing. New York: 
Cambridge University Press, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Modern American Drama. Bloom's Period Studies. New York: Chelsea House, 
2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 
2007.
BORDMAN, G. & HISCHAK, T. S. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 3rd. ed. New York: 
Oxford University Press, 2004.
BRYER, J. R. HARTIG, M. C. The Facts on File Companion to American Drama. Second Edition. New 
York: Facts on File, 2010.
CENTOLA, Steven R. Arthur Miller and the Art of the Possible. In: BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. 
Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. KRASNER, David (ed.). A 
Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
MEYERS, Jeffrey. A Portrait of Arthur Miller. In: BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern 
Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.
OAKES, E. H. American Writers. New York: Facts on File, 2004.
SADDIIK, Annette J. Contemporary American Drama. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Fontes das Imagens
1 - http://hansenpublishing.com/assets/tw-4x4-web.jpg
2 - http://www.primeeducation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Arthur-Miller.jpg
48
3 - http://www.bydewey.com/miller3.jpg
4 - http://www.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_%27great_depression%27_like
5 - http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4369/the-art-of-theater-no-2-arthur-miller
6 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/John_Steinbeck_1962.jpg
7 - http://www.oocities.org/tleeves/huac.html
8 - https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1097644-reading-is-to-the-mind-what-exercise-is-to-the
9 - http://www.buzzle.com/articles/juxtaposition-in-literature.html
10 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Arthur-miller.jpg/200px-Arthur-miller.jpg
11 - http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/12/specials/miller-common.html
12 - https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcQDHyn3at0OZ99em9OS16zlSze2TmN4p7uTcPfcaoru9xQU0Oudhg
13 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVv_9jKRODI&feature=related
49
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 01: Introduction
Fonte [1]
The fourth unit of this course focuses on the analysis of the play A View from the Bridge, by Arthur 
Miller.
In terms of structure, A View from the Bridge is divided in two acts. Although there is no formal 
division of scenes, they can quite clearly be identified through the sequence of episodes in the story and 
also through the interludes (in this case, a short time intervening between events), when the narrator 
(Alfieri) appears to comment on the events or to give the audience guidance to better understand other 
characters' attitudes, mainly Eddie's (the protagonist). He not only narrates, explains, but also judges 
Eddie's behaviour.
As already mentioned in unit 3, Alfieri's function is that of the Greek chorus, an intermediary between 
the audience and the characters. His role as a lawyer reflects this in-between space. He is both an insider 
and an outsider.
Here are the main characters in the play, illustrated by the cast of the 2010 Broadway revival of A View 
from the Bridge. 
Liev Schreiber (as 
Eddie Carbone) [2]
Scarlett Johansson 
(as Catherine) [3]
Jessica Hecht (on the right) (as 
Beatrice) [4]
TIPS
If you wish to see the cast for the other characters in this Broadway production, click here and 
watch a video in which they talk about their roles. It starts at 1:28.
50
Opening Night: A View from the Bridge [5]
51
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 02: A View from the Bridge – Act 1
Penguin Edition of A View from the Bridge.
All the references to pages are from this book. [6]
In 'Tópic 2' you are going to read and analyzeAct One of the play "A View from the Bridge". In order to 
make the process of reference to the parts of the play easier, we have done the segmentation of the acts 
into scenes. For Act One, the division is as follows:
Prologue: (Alfieri); pp. 1-2
Scene 1: Eddie gets home from work bringing the news about the arrival of Beatrice's 
cousins, two illegal immigrants from Italy; pp. 3-15
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 15 
Scene 2: The arrival of the cousins (Marco and Rodolpho) at Eddie's home, where they 
are going to stay temporarily; Rodolpho´s singing of "Paper Doll"; pp. 15-23
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 23
Scene 3: Catherine and Rodolpho go to the movies (weeks later); pp. 23- 33
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 33
Scene 4: Eddie is increasingly upset by the developing relationship between Catherine 
and Rodolpho and visits Alfieri in search of legal advice; pp. 33-37
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 37-38
52
Scene 5: An evening at home – Catherine and Rodolpho's dancing; boxing lesson; 
increasing tension; pp. 38-46
PRACTICE 1
After you finish reading Act One of A View from the Bridge, answer these questions:
1. In scene 1, what gives us hints that Eddie is extremely jealous of Catherine, maybe not in a way appropriate for a father-
like/uncle x niece relationship?
2. When Eddie seeks Alfieri´s advice (scene 4), trying to find a way of stopping Rodolpho and Catherine's relationship, 
Alfieri tries to make him see that he has gone too far in his feelings for Catherine, but he refuses to/is unable to see it. 
Identify evidence of this fact.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1. Eddie's speech lines on page 4. 
2. ALFIERI, rising: But, Eddie, she's a woman now.
EDDIE: He's stealing from me!
ALFIERI: She wants to get married, Eddie. She can´t marry you, can 
she?
EDDIE, furiously: What're you talkin' about, marry me! I don't know 
what the hell you're talkin' about!
STOP AND CHECK
Read the lyrics of the song Paper Doll, which is sung by Rodolpho in scene 2, and then click on the 
link to listen to a recording of it by Michael Bublé. After that, answer the questions (1 and 2) about it in 
FORUM A.
Acesse a aula online para visualizar este conteúdo
PAPER DOLL – BY MICHAEL BUBLÉ 
Paper Doll'
- written by Johnny S. Black, 1915
- lyrics as recorded by The Mills Brothers in 1942
I'm gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal
And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with dollies that are real
53
When I come home at night she will be waiting
She'll be the truest doll in all this world
I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own
Than have a fickle-minded real live girl?
I guess I had a million dolls or more
I guess I've played the doll game o'er and o'er
I just quarrelled with Sue, that's why I'm blue
She's gone away and left me just like all dolls do
I'll tell you boys, it's tough to be alone
And it's tough to love a doll that's not your own
I'm through with all of them
I'll never fall again
Say boy, whatcha gonna do?
I'm gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal
And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with dollies that are real
When I come home at night she will be waiting
She'll be the truest doll in all this world
I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own
Than have a fickle-minded real live girl 
54
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 03: A View from the Bridge – Act 2
In 'Tópic 2' you are going to read and analyze Act Two of the play "A View from the Bridge". In order to 
make the process of reference to the parts of the play easier, we have done the segmentation of the acts 
into scenes. For Act Two, the division is as follows: 
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 
Scene 6: Christmas time(December 23rd); Catherine and Rodolpho first time alone at 
home; Eddie's arrival and kisses; pp. 47-53 
Interlude: (Alfieri); p. 53 
Scene 7: December 27th; Eddie visits Alfieri again and is warned against a radical 
attitude; pp. 53-54 
Scene 8: Eddie and Beatrice's conversation; Marco and Rodolpho found and arrested; 
Eddie accused; pp. 54
Scene 9: Marco and Rodolpho released from prison; Alfieri advises /warns Marco; pp. 
55-67
Scene 10: Wedding day; Fight between Eddie and Marco; Eddie's death; pp. 67-72
Epilogue: (Alfieri); p. 72
PRACTICE 2
After you finish reading Act Two of A View from the Bridge, answer these questions:
1. In Catherine's conversation with Rodolpho in scene 6, there is a moment in which she expresses 
the dilemma she is going through: the fact that she loves Eddie as a father figure, that she knows and 
understands him so well and would not like to see him hurt, but, at the same time, the fact that she is 
afraid of what he might do to prevent her from marrying Rodolpho. Identify this in the conversation.
55
2. In his visit to Alfieri in scene 7, Eddie is desperate to find a way to prohibit Catherine's marriage 
to Rodolpho. As Alfieri shows him that there is nothing to be done, that he has to let her go, he (Alfieri) 
can clearly see Eddie is going to risk all and call the immigration office. That´s when Alfieri uses the 
argument that has to do with the code of honor in such cases. What is that ultimate argument?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. 
1. Catherine's speech lines on page 50. 
2. The final part of Alfieri's speech on page 54 starting with, "You 
won't have a friend in the world, Eddie!"
FORUM
PART A: Discuss the following questions with your classmates and tutor in the forum. 
1. Rodolpho sings a part of the song Paper Doll in scene 2. In which sense is the song very to the point in relation to 
Eddie's feelings toward Catherine?
2. In scene 5, after Eddie knocks Rodolpho down in the boxing lesson, Catherine puts Paper Doll on the phonograph to 
dance with Rodolpho. What´s the significance of that choice then?
3. What is the meaning of Eddie's kisses (Catherine and Rodolpho) in scene 6?
4. In which way is the tragic ending also a statement made by Miller in relation to what was going on (the McCarthy 
period) at that moment in his country? 
56
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 04: A View from the Bridge – Stage Version
Fonte [7]
Click on the link to watch a stage version of A View from the Bridge. Then answer the questions 
related to it in FORUM B.
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Don't Know Nothin" [8]
57
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 05: A View from the Bridge – Film Version
Fonte [9]
Click on the links to watch a film version of A View from the Bridge. Then answer the questions 
related to it in FORUM B.
1 - 6
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 1
A View from the Bridge Part 01 [10]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 2
A View from the Bridge Part 02 [11]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 3
A View from the Bridge Part 03 [12]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 4
A View from the Bridge Part 04 [13]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 5
A View from the Bridge Part 05 [14]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 6
A View from the Bridge Part 06 [15]
7 - 12
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 7
A View from the Bridge Part 07 [16]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont )- 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 8
A View from the Bridge Part 08 [17]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 9
A View from the Bridge Part 09 [18]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 10
A View from the Bridge Part 10 [19]
58
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 11
A View from the Bridge Part 11 [20]
• A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed by Sidney Lumet part 12
A View from the Bridge Part 12 [21]
FORUM B
After watching the stage production and the film production of "A View from the Bridge", 
discuss the following questions with your classmates and tutor in the forum. 
1. In relation to the stage version, how does the setting match the description provided in the opening page? What is 
different? Is anything left out? Does it really make a difference?
2. In the stage version, how does the fact that Alfieri's role is played by a woman affect the overall interpretation of the 
character? Does it change the way Eddie relates to him (her)?
3. In relation to the absence of the narrator in the movie, what are some of the things that the viewer is left without 
knowing because of his deletion?
4. As to the end of the movie, how does it differ from the play? How does that alter the interpretation of the final scene?
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of the video versions of A View from the Bridge (stage production or film production) 
and write a short essay in which you compare it to the text of the play. Take the questions in FORUM B
as starting points and move on exploring other aspects that called your attention, showing how they 
keep/don't keep the focus on the text.
59
Literatura em Língua Inglesa IV 
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2): A View from the Bridge – by Arthur Miller 
Tópico 06: Glimpses of Another View
A view from the bridge broadway [22] Fonte [23]
In “Tópic 6”, we have included a few links for videos related to the 2010 Broadway revival of A View 
from the Bridge. They are really just glimpses, as the entire play is not available to be viewed online. Have 
fun watching them!
Theater Talk: "A View from the Bridge" with actor Liev Schreiber and director Gregory 
Mosher [24]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Don't Know Nothin" [25]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "He's Like a Chorus Girl or Something" [26]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Can't Be So Friendly, Kid" [27]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Can't Act the Way You Act" [28]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "I'm Not a Baby" [29]
Bibliography 
BIGSBY, Christopher. The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Sixth Printing. New York: 
Cambridge University Press, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Modern American Drama. Bloom's Period Studies. New York: Chelsea House, 
2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 
2007.
BORDMAN, G. & HISCHAK, T. S. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 3rd. ed. New York: 
Oxford University Press, 2004.
60
BRYER, J. R. HARTIG, M. C. The Facts on File Companion to American Drama. Second Edition. New 
York: Facts on File, 2010.
CENTOLA, Steven R. Arthur Miller and the Art of the Possible. In: BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. 
Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. KRASNER, David (ed.). A 
Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
MEYERS, Jeffrey. A Portrait of Arthur Miller. In: BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern 
Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.
OAKES, E. H. American Writers. New York: Facts on File, 2004.
SADDIIK, Annette J. Contemporary American Drama. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Fontes das Imagens
1 - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/3323510096_9689066ed3_o.jpg
2 - https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Coverage-SUPERIOR-DONUTS-Opening-Night-Arrivals-20091002
3 - https://br.pinterest.com/bellajaneva/scarlett-johansson/
4 - http://www.broadway.com/shows/view-bridge/photos/first-look-a-view-of-bways-bridge-starring-scarlett-johansson-and-
liev-schreiber/143373/a-view-from-the-bridge-show-photos-scarlett-johansson-jessica-hecht
5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyVcPZ1chO0&playnext=1&list=PL4A2BA91FE5A9F2F5
6 - https://www.amazon.com/View-Bridge-Arthur-Miller-ebook/dp/B0023EFB14
7 - http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kPHK6s5ttx4/TdY2x_OoaYI/AAAAAAAAAhs/umvs24-yJzI/s1600/a%2Bview%2Bfrom%2Bthe%
2Bbridge.jpg
8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hY6IKXrc6s&feature=youtu.be
9 - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AmfDpMMlmtU/TahGr0HfuGI/AAAAAAAAFRE/3aMHFcvNwCU/s1600/view-from-the-bridge%
2Ba.jpg
10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFsjVqR_awQ
11 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO6GTfz2n8A
12 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyW95RSOkI4
13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umbKaMzOJcs
14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Lww785MJc
15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5YeE542KAE
16 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WlL-LgQE-g
17 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQceYwspCRQ
18 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__NznftZcA
19 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOx9bI8m1k8
20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNuzQ3CUSag
21 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZufxmf9rgA
22 - https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcRrt4TNDAvFw7V0cTmXXT9lUkkNX0U0pbQPVmMtHJXCUYCGT0FOFFKZ
23 - http://www.theatregold.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/cort-theatre-300x228.jpg
24 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FN6Vr7GajA
25 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hY6IKXrc6s&feature=related
26 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3yQSjjiug4&NR=1
27 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FH29Wno448&NR=1
28 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=comkyLdZUU0&NR=1
29 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdCRyUciTQ&NR=1
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