At the end of the play, Alfieri tells the audience, Even as I know how wrong he was
I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory.To what extent is it possible to feel sympathy for Eddie? Consider in your answer th
2/12/00 English Literature Coursework Essay Danielle Orchard- 10H
'A View From the Bridge' Arthur Miller
At the end of the play, Alfieri tells the audience, "Even as I know how wrong he was... I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory."To what extent is it possible to feel sympathy for Eddie? Consider in your answer the part played by the Italian community in his behaviour.
When Alfieri concludes his feelings at the end of the play, he is suggesting to the audience that although we recognize Eddie's actions as immoral and wrong, perhaps we may still be able to sympathise with him. In order to answer this, we have to delve deeper into what provoked Eddie to commit the crimes he did, which ended eventually in his own death.
At the beginning of the play, Miller wants us to recognise just how good a man Eddie can be. With his Italian roots and having been submerged into an Italian American community, being a good man is harder than it might otherwise seem. Miller describes him as "a hardworking longshore man", which signifies some of the characteristics an Italian man should possess. He should provide for the family, he should be physically strong and hardworking. Miller also demonstrates him to be a protective father, as Eddie makes a reference to the length of Catherine's skirt, "I think it's too short, ain't it?" Not only does he care for Catherine, but also on the surface his relationship with his wife, Beatrice, appears to be positive, and we can notice he compliments her frequently by saying things like, "you got too big a heart." With all of this obvious evidence to suggest and prove that Eddie is a good man, we have to identify what happened to make him suddenly carry out actions that appear to be completely foreign to a man with his nature.
The problems can really be identified when Rodolpho and Marco arrive in New York, and begin their stay with the Carbone family. Eddie had already stated, "It is an honour, B" and from this we would believe that he really does want to help his wife's family. It is at this point when I believe the audience start to feel some sympathy for Eddie. As Miller has already said, Eddie is hardworking and it is obvious from previous conversations about the size of their home that it is not all that spacious. When two more people intruded upon the family's personal space, tension immediately begins to build. Eddie is only living up to his expectation as an Italian man, to be hospitable and by putting up with these guests, he is also likely to be pleasing Beatrice. Eddie's behaviour changes because of this tension, and he noticeably becomes more short-tempered and sarcastic as Miller writes, "Just lay off me will ya!"
The reason why Eddie suddenly changes is predominantly because of his feelings for Catherine. When he notices that Rodolpho is attracted to Catherine, his attitude certainly changes towards him. We are not quite sure at this time whether his feelings towards Catherine are purely paternal or whether there is something deeper lurking in his intentions. We already know that Eddie is finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that Catherine is growing up, as Miller writes, " I guess I never figured... that you would ever grow up." Catherine, who is at a difficult age ...
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The reason why Eddie suddenly changes is predominantly because of his feelings for Catherine. When he notices that Rodolpho is attracted to Catherine, his attitude certainly changes towards him. We are not quite sure at this time whether his feelings towards Catherine are purely paternal or whether there is something deeper lurking in his intentions. We already know that Eddie is finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that Catherine is growing up, as Miller writes, " I guess I never figured... that you would ever grow up." Catherine, who is at a difficult age anyway, is putting added pressure onto Eddie, because although he wants her to be happy, he cannot let her go. Rodolpho does not improve the situation at all, by acting in a flirtatious way towards Catherine, and to Eddie this must seem like he is accelerating the movement of Catherine away from, much quicker than Eddie is able to accept. This is a point at which I believe it is possible to feel sympathy for Eddie as Rodolpho is really making life difficult. Whether or not this justifies Eddie's spiteful suggestions that Rodolpho could be gay is another matter, but it is clear to see that Eddie is just acting upon his very dominant paternal instincts towards Catherine. Eddie acts spitefully, when he goes to kiss
Eddie is a fairly unintelligent man who does not appear to be able to understand his own feelings, let alone anyone else's. It is this inability to understand himself that I believe causes his own death. It becomes quite obvious to the audience that Eddie's feelings are so strong for Catherine, that they have become more than paternal, and even Beatrice notices as Miller writes, " You want something else... you can never have her." In the Italian community, it would be unthinkable for a father figure to have such thoughts about his daughter, and it was due to these thoughts that made Eddie unable to face up to them and in a way deny them. As an Italian man, Eddie is unable to talk about his feelings, and this becomes apparent when Beatrice makes an attempt to talk about their lack of sex life, when Miller writes, "When am I going to become a wife again?" The Italian man, although he is expected to be virile, to maintain his position as head of the family should be hard physically and mentally and lacks the ability to communicate his feelings to others. Eddie does in some way, make an attempt to discuss his problems with Alfieri, although after he realises that his feelings are being discovered, he dismisses them. This dilemma between being an Italian man and not expressing his feelings, and being honest with himself and admitting his feelings for Catherine, cause complete confusion and incomprehension that triggers some of the unforgivable crimes against his family that he commits.
The Italian community also places a huge amount of expectation on him. An example of this was when Eddie returns home from work to find that Catherine and Rodolpho had just been in the house alone together, and he assumes that they have had sex. In the Italian community, as they are all devout Catholics, it would be thought disgraceful for a woman to have sex before marriage. As head of the family, Eddie has a responsibility to protect the reputations of his family, and so his reaction to Rodolpho when he says, "Get outa here!" could seem like the normal paternal response in his situation. At this point we could also begin to question how Beatrice could have caused Eddie to act in this way. As the mother figure of Catherine, she too had expectations placed upon her as an Italian woman, to take care of Catherine. Eddie could feel slightly alone in the sense that he seems to be the only one that is making an effort to protect Catherine's reputation. It is also left to him to protect the reputation of the family, as he demands at the end of the play, "I want my name, Marco." Without his good name and reputation restored, Eddie will have lost all credibility and respect from the community, which in the close community he lives in could ruin his life in Brooklyn.
Eddie is under a lot of pressure from everyone surrounding him. He experiences pressure from Catherine because he wants her to be happy and yet he finds himself unable to let go of her. He is under threat from Marco that he should not lay a finger on Rodolpho, as we can ascertain from the incident where Marco challenges Eddie to lift a chair. He is under pressure from Beatrice, due to their lack of sex life, and to be a good husband, provider and father to Catherine. At the same time he is putting pressure on himself because he is caught in a dilemma between acting in the way an Italian should, and expressing his feelings for Catherine. A way in which you could justify the terrible crimes that he committed, were a way of controlling and expressing his feelings. As the play goes on, you can recognise the sheer desperation that forms, as he starts to become violent, and even attempts to kill Marco.
Although the arguments justifying Edie's actions and giving reasons to sympathise with him are strong, it could quite as easily be argued, that despite all of the pressure being applied to him especially by his expectations as an Italian, he still has some element of choice in whether he commits the crimes that he did. When Eddie called the Immigration Bureau, and reported the whereabouts of the 'submarines', Marco and Rodolpho, he knows the severity of the consequences, and the scale of the reaction in his community that it will provoke. Despite this he still carries it through, but it would be injust to blame this on the dilemma that his Italian roots pose to him. Although obviously disobeying the expectations of the community would have been wrong too, at the end of the day Eddie allowed his Italian blood to take over his life, like obsession of a religion, which was not the way it was intended to be.
Eddie's spiteful attitude towards Rodolpho, could be said to have stemmed purely from his own jealousy that he was unable to control, and that cannot be blamed on anyone else but himself. His personality and character defects such as his inability to discuss his feelings could also be said not to be the fault of anyone else but Eddie.
At the end of the play, Alfieri concludes his feelings towards Eddie, and that his own selfishness caused his own death, Miller writes, "surely it must be better to settle for half." This could be said to be true of Eddie, and many people would say that Eddie's death was brought about by his own selfishness and inability to settle for half.
And so to conclude this essay, I would like to give my opinion on the whole question of whether to feel sympathy for Eddie. There is not doubt in my mind that Eddie was just trying to be a good man, and that it was his unintelligence to understand his own feelings that resulted in his own end. The Italian community, in my opinion, seems to lie at the centre of Eddie's faults and the dilemmas that he posed to him, he was unable to deal with. Eddie misused his power that was installed to him by his Italian roots, and it was the way he abused it and perhaps took it too seriously that caused the complications.