"Examine the ideas of manliness, hostility and aggression as they are portrayed in the play A View from the Bridge - How are these ideas connected?"

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An Nguyen 11P

“Examine the ideas of manliness, hostility and

aggression as they are portrayed in the

                                  play A View from the Bridge.

How are these ideas connected?”

All the events of the play are set in about in Red Hook, New York roughly during the 1950’s, a time where equal rights were not an issue and before the feminist era was in full swing. Most men saw it as their duty to look after their wife and family and saw it as unmanly to do anything other than that. A lot of men found they have to prove they could look after themselves and their family by using their fists rather then their mind. Eddie Carbone was one of these men.

        Eddie from the start has a fixed idea on how a ‘real man’ should be. He thinks that men should be the provider and look after family. He is very protective of his family especially Catherine. He sees himself as a father figure to Catherine and comments on her “walkin’ wavy!” which shows his over-protectiveness towards her growing up.

        When Rodolpho and Marco arrive you can notice that Catherine has taken a liking toward Rodolpho and you can see Eddies not to pleased about this. When Rodolpho sings Eddie stops him abruptly, he is then embarrassed about this and quickly cover’s it up with a feeble excuse. Eddie is uncomfortable with the thought of Catherine being attracted to Rodolpho so he role as the head of the household to stop him.

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        Eddie likes to be right and hates being told otherwise. When Eddie comments on how he heard in Italy they paint oranges orange, Rodolpho corrects him. Eddie resents being corrected by Rodolpho so he replies by saying:

“I know lemons are green,

for Christ’s sake, you see them in the store they’re green

sometimes. I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothing

about lemons.”

I think Eddie finds it irritating that “a kid” like Rodolpho is correcting him.

        Eddie starting to show his dislike for Rodolpho when he continually addresses Marco only. Eddie is extremely ...

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