Character study of Eddie Carbone is A View from the Bridge.
Character study of Eddie Carbone is A View from the Bridge
The main character from A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE is Eddie Carbone who lives with his niece Catherine and his wide Beatrice. Catherine is an orphan so Eddie and Beatrice look after her. In this play Eddie is a simple person who is a victim of circumstances but he also contributes to his own downfall. He works as a longshoreman at the Brooklyn Docks. Eddie is characteristically uneducated but still is a very hardworking man.
Eddie comes from a Sicilian background. I believe that this one of the most important things that motivates Eddie. Coming from this background Eddie believes that the man should be the leader of the household and that everything goes by him first concerning his family and that he should be very manly and stand up for those who are close to him. This can be believed by the way he talks to Catherine. Catherine talks to him about her job as a stenographer and says ' why don't you ask me before you took a job?' This shows that he wants Catherine to ask for his permission before accepting the job. He wants her to ask for authorization so he feels as if he is the boss and because he wants to be consulted first; otherwise he feels threatened. This is one thing that leads to his downfall because he was trying to be so masculine he is unable to show any emotion; everything is bottled up inside.
He is wrapped up in his family and the appearance of Beatrice's cousin's turn his world upside down. For instance when Eddie thinks that Rodolfo instincts Catherine to fall in love with him, he mentions his consideration about Rodolfo to Beatrice and says 'he's taking her for a ride'. In this occurrence Eddie is not too happy and starts to think what possibilities could arise in the future with Catherine. He has a very difficult personality, and other people around him feel awkward. Eddie makes Rodolfo feel uncomfortable when he tells Rodolfo to exit the room so that Eddie can talk to Catherine. This must have had Rodolfo superfluous and unwanted. 'I want to talk to her a minute, Rodolfo, Go inside, will you?'
Eddie is an irritable and intolerant sort of person, who does not appear to be calm and undoubtedly cannot be calmed. This can be observed when Eddie rudely corrects Beatrice, when she asks Marco 'how long you want to stay?' Marco replies pleasantly 'with your permission, we will stay maybe a...' Eddie impolitely interrupts ad says 'she don't mean in the house, she means in the country'. Here it can be seen that Eddie is not the type that sits around and lets things so wrong, at this point he tries to make it clear that he doesn't ...
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Eddie is an irritable and intolerant sort of person, who does not appear to be calm and undoubtedly cannot be calmed. This can be observed when Eddie rudely corrects Beatrice, when she asks Marco 'how long you want to stay?' Marco replies pleasantly 'with your permission, we will stay maybe a...' Eddie impolitely interrupts ad says 'she don't mean in the house, she means in the country'. Here it can be seen that Eddie is not the type that sits around and lets things so wrong, at this point he tries to make it clear that he doesn't want them to stay for long.
Eddie at first was an affectionate and big-hearted man, which can be seen by his esteem for Marco and Rodolfo when they come to stay. For example at what time Marco tells Eddie in a formal manner, that 'when you say go, we will go' Eddie's response to this was that they're 'welcome' he also adds that they've 'got plenty of room here'. Eddie also believes in family loyalties, this is mainly due to the tightly knit Sicilian community that he comes from.
The relationship between Beatrice and Eddie is very gloomy and ominous. Eddie always seems to be aloof and unsociable with Beatrice. This can been noticed when Beatrice requests Eddie to tell her what the problem is, but Eddie doesn't seem to be frank with her. 'What's the matter, Eddie, you don't like me, heh? Eddies reply to was not so polite 'what do you mean, I don't like you? I said I don't feel got, that's all' He expects to be 'the man of the house', a big dominant person and also wants everyone to have a high opinion of him and do whatever he says.
The relationship between Catherine and Eddie is abnormal as he is a married man; Eddie is over protective towards her. He shows a great deal of generosity towards Catherine.
The following sentence shows Eddie's protective towards Catherine:
'With your hair that way, you look like Madonna, you know that? You're the Madonna type.
Here Eddie secretly fears that if she dresses smartly the sailors and the plumbers at her new place of work might like her, and Eddie will lose her.
I think that his secret desire for Catherine motivates him to become over-protective of her to the extent that he does not want her going out or wearing revealing clothes. This is shown when he says 'I think it's too short'
Eddie feels more affection for Catherine than is natural for a man towards his niece. He likes her more a woman way than a child. 'Catherine, I don't want to be a pest, but I'm tellin' you you're walkin' wavy. Eddie said this phase when Catherine wears a new skirt she had brought, to show Eddie. He is concerned that she will receive attention form men, which Eddie doesn't like as he thinks of Catherine as his. He also says 'you isn't all the girls'. Here Eddie is saying you are not all the girls; you are my girl. All these factors indicate that she is become a woman and Eddie doesn't like this, so he is motivated to protect her as much as possible. He was so authoritarian with her as she was growing up.
Eddie's secret desire for Catherine is also integrated in his self interest because all he can think about is he. He cannot appreciate how happy Catherine is with Rodolfo. All he cars about is trying to break them up and he tries to do this by calling the Immigration Bureau but all this caused was Catherine and himself to grow apart and for Catherine to finally see what type of man he is. He is so interested in himself that he keeps on demanding respect from Marco 'wipin the neighbourhood with my name Marco, now gimme my name and we go together to the wedding' Here he is so interested in what other people thought of him that he cannot see how it is destroying his marriage with Beatrice his relationship with Catherine and eventually it would destroy him.
Eddie's sense of justice and fairness seems motivate him in a good way. For instance he thinks he has to let Marco and Rodolfo stay because it was the right thing to do 'then what the hell. It's an honour B., I mean it. I was just thinkin' before, comin' home, suppose my father did not come to this country, and I was starvin' like them over there. And I had people in America who could keep me a couple of months? The man would be honoured to lend me a place to sleep'. This shows his fairness but towards the end his sense justice and fairness deteriorates. For instance, in the middle of the play, he grasses on Marco and Rodolfo.
A crisis begins when Marco and Rodolfo arrive illegally at night. Initially everything seems to Beatrice to be all right. The brothers steadily disrupt the sense of balance in the family. Marco has huge intellects of honour to his family and his community. He too is over defensive, but towards his brother. When Eddie is fighting Rodolfo, its like fighting against Marco. When Eddie is rude to Rodolfo, Marco confronts him to a physical show of strength. Marco shows his power by asking Eddie to lift a chair. Eddie accepts the offer.
Eddie found it hard but when Marco tried it he lifted the chair high above his head, showing Eddie who the boss was. Marco gives a glare of warning and then a smile of triumph and Eddie cannot take it. 'Gee that's hard, I never knew that.' This passage shows that Marco and Rodolfo are always together where as Eddie is always on his own and has no one to stand up for him.
'There are stool pigeons.' This meant that there were spies around the neighbourhood trying to find out some information. By saying this, Eddie is a hypocrite. He had vowed that he would not 'snitch' and he did.
The denouement of the play begins when everyone in the neighbourhood collects outside the flats. Marco comes in and announces the sin that Eddie had done to him and Rodolfo. Honour is one of the main themes in this play. This means that you get respect and your family and community protects you. Eddie has committed the 'ultimate dishonour' and shown disrespect. Eddie has lost the respect that he once had from all his family and the community. Eddie gets annoyed and they have a brawl, Eddie then pulls out a knife and lunges towards Marco. He reverses the direction and stabs Eddie. Eddie falls down and dies. His last words were:
'Beatrice'. This shows that even though Catherine must have meant more to him than a child, he still thinks that Beatrice is his one true love and that he thought of Beatrice more than he thought of Catherine, even though, it seems that he likes Catherine more.
The theme of 'A View from the Bridge' is an ordinary man's tragedy. Eddie is a temperamental person, who does not like to be beaten at things that he would call 'manly' and certainly does not like to lose in front of people who respect him and treat him like the man of the house. In the play, Eddie is a man torn apart by two people, who are both related. He likes both in very much the same way. This is just one of his worries, but when his wife's cousins come, his life is 'scrunched into a ball and flung into a bin'. The contrast is so great that he loses everything that he has achieved but most of all, he loses his life and 'honour'.
Overall I think that many things motivate Eddie but the most important thing is his secret desire for Catherine and he can never come to terms with the fact that he does not own her. I think this is also why he eventually dies because he cannot let go.
Anjum Kohli A View from the Bridge- Eddie Carbone 1
