Discuss How the Characters Of Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine contribute to the dramatic effects of 'A View From The Bridge'

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Discuss How the Characters Of Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine contribute to the dramatic effects of 'A View From The Bridge'

Character Studies

The various characteristics, including the flaws of the characters, act as a great catalyst to the tragedy at hand throughout the play as they portray and describe the characters' emotion and thoughts towards one another.

Catherine

Catherine is a very naïve woman who has not really experienced much of the world, but is eager to. She has grown up in a warm nurturing environment and so has grown into a very innocent and open character. Catherine expresses her innocence by the way she will say what she the thinks without a moment of thought towards the consequences, '(wondrously) How come he's so dark and you're so light, Rodolfo?' By the tone Catherine uses she blatantly shows that she has some sort of attraction to Rodolpho. Judging from the text in where Beatrice says 'Was there ever any fella he liked for you? They' we can see that Catherine's previous relationships have been prevented from going very far most probably by Eddie. Catherine is therefore very inexperienced with relationships and shows this in her not very subtle approach to Rodolfo and how clearly known she makes her feelings for him.

It is most probable that due to Catherine's naivety and immaturity that she does not realise Eddie's passionate feelings towards her. As Surprisingly Catherine genuinely is unaware as to Eddie's passionate feelings for her, and therefore does not realise that his feelings towards her have over-stepped the bounds of fatherly love. As previously she did not believe that their relationship was anymore than that of a father-daughter one, we can tell this by her horrified reaction to Beatrice saying ' You want somethin' else, Eddie, and you can never have her!'.

We see that Catherine is very warm and compassionate, as even after Eddie has rejected Rodolpho and hurt her feelings deeply, she still finds it difficult to reject Eddie 'you think it's easy to turn around and say to a man he's nothin' to you no more?'

During the beginning of the play Catherine is heavily influenced by Eddies thoughts and feelings, as when he tells Catherine that she shouldn't take the job as a stenographer if he had not changed his mind then it is most probable that Catherine would not have taken the job. We also see the extent of Eddies influence over her when he tries to persuade her not to marry Rodolfo, as she begins to doubt Rodolpho's motives for marrying her, we see know this by the uncertainty in her voice, when Eddie tells her that 'he's only bowin' to his passport.' She says 'I don't think he's even thinking about it' and 'Oh, no, Eddie, I don't think so'.

However Catherine finally manages to overcome her doubt in Rodolpho due to the deep trust that she has placed in him, as she gradually distances herself from Eddie and draws Rodolpho closer. When Catherine sleeps with Rodolpho she seems to have a new found sense of independence and appears to have developed a backbone, it is at this point that she completely disconnects herself from Eddie, from this point on Catherine begins to side against Eddie in arguments and go against his word. However it is really when Eddie betrays Rodolfo and Marco that Catherine shows how distant from Eddie she has become since Marco and Rodolphos arrival, as Catherine begins to show an almost sick resentment of Eddie. She becomes spiteful and makes hate-filed remarks such as 'He's a rat!' and 'In the garbage he belongs!'. So Catherine's character now shows a complete contrast to her opening character. And it is not until the final, very dramatic scene where Catherine shows that she still cares about Eddie after all, despite all that has happened when she says 'Eddie, I never meant to do nothing bad to you'.
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Beatrice

Beatrice is a loving and caring character, Eddie describes her has having 'too big a heart'. She always seems to be the mediator in the plays many hostile situations. Beatrice can be an assertive character when the situation calls for it; we see an example of this when she defies Eddie's words and says 'Be the way you are' as she believes that this would be beneficial to Catherine and that perhaps with Catherine gone Eddie's incestuous feelings would deteriorate. Beatrice also plays a key role in provoking some of the plays most tense moments and ...

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