Catherine, who is Eddie’s niece, is young, naïve, passionate and also loving toward her family, she has a very close relationship with her uncle Eddie, you can see this when she gets home and ‘sits on her knees’ to talk to him, she feels exited telling him about her new job, ‘bea, can I tell him now?’ And is very happy to listen to him talk about his job at the harbour. Eddie has great concern towards Catherine, you can see this when he says, “you been givin me the willies, the way you walk down the street” this quote suggests that even though eddie is concerned about her as an uncle, he is especially protective of her around men and wouldn’t want men looking at her as she walks down the street, he is also protective of her education, you can see this when he instantly disagrees when Beatrice tells him “she’s got a job”, he then replies, “what job? She’s gonna finish school” he demands, this gives the reader a direct note to his disapproving character, when Catharine meets rodolpho, they have very good chemistry with him, eddie notices this, so although he does notice rodolpho, he comes to “more and more address Marco only”, she seems amazed and almost star struck when he sings for her ‘wow, he’s wonderful!’ but by the beginning of act two, her uncle’s stubbornness must have rubbed on to her when she insists to hi ‘we are getting married tomorrow’ which shows a character development in her, which contrasts to the way eddie used to talk to her, “you’re a baby, you don’t understand these things”, Catherine continued to acts childishly around eddie until Beatrice tells her to grow up and plan her future with rodolpho, but when the relationship beginning to get really serious, she realises she would be betraying the man who raised her like a father, telling rodolpho, “I like him, rodolpho-and I cant stand it” this statement tells the reader that at this time Catharine is very confused about what to do because she is worried about hurting eddie.
The characters in ‘a view from the bridge’ all develop dramatically from the beginning to the end, the most dramatic development in character is in Marco, when he is first introduced he seems as much as a family man as Eddie, he was very eager to find work in America asking ‘will we find work next week?’ but as the play develops to the middle (end of act two) he challenges Eddie to life up a chair then doing so himself, as if trying to show Eddie that he is more manly than he (Eddie) is, showing him that Marco will stand up for his brother rodolpho. Another big character personality development was seen in Eddie in act one he is a happy, hard-working family man but towards the end his anger and jealousy get the better of him and push him into doing the unthinkable.
The dialogue in the play from Eddie, Catherine and Beatrice is unsophisticated and uneducated, the language used by Alfieri is educated and controlled, rodolpho’s language is attractive while his brother Marco’s is serious and heavy, the language of Alfieri is reflective and helped the reader to think about the issues in the play that Authur Miller feels are important, he is Millers spokesperson, Eddie, Catharine and Beatrice speak in shortened uncomplicated sentences, when rodolpho speaks, it is easy to tell he is speaking in his second language but he speakers in a lively way and has the ability to entertain the audience, Miller shows us this when he entrances Catharine and Beatrice by telling them stories from his home town, and how in Italy they ‘push everything’
Auther Miller has a great talent when it comes to writing dialogue, which is as differentiated as this.
The relationship between the characters are also very varied, there is the tender loving relationship between Catharine and Rodolpho, which begins in act two after he takes her to see a movie, or the then troubled and confused relationship between Catharine and Eddie, there is the sexually sterile relationship between Eddie and Beatrice, Beatrice seems to be uncomfortable with Catharine and eddied relationship, this is clearly shown when she tells Catharine to ‘grow up’ and ‘don’t let him push you around’ as if telling her that she is too old to act the way she does around her uncle or expressing to the audience that Beatrice may even feel jealous of Eddie’s love for Catharine, because it seems she is almost telling Catharine to back off. This also contributes to making the character of Beatrice even more realistic because Miller has made her reaction and an aunt and wife realistic, how any woman in her situation would.
Authur Miller creates a subtext of extreme tension behind everything that is said and done, for example when Eddie challenges Rodolpho to a boxing match, it seems that he is just being macho and friendly as they start to “jab” each other and approach each other “cautiously”, none the readers can tell it is more of a challenge of manliness, Beatrice can also see this because she ‘looks around nervously’, but Catharine doesn’t, rodolpho feels respect for Eddie and tries to back out of the challenge, it seems as if the fight is just a joke but it gets serious when their words became sarcastically teasing yet threatening, “…I’ll teach him again”, another scene with deep subtext is at the very end of act 1 when Marco challenges Eddie to a chair lifting contest, when Eddie is unable to do this using ‘maybe its slanted’ as his excuse, Marco then lifts the chair above his head and looks Eddie right in the eye, this carries an extreme amount of tension, with Marco almost openly threatening Eddie as if telling him that he is being watched and “eddies grin vanished as he absorbed his look”. The stage direction also add subtext to the play, because the stage direction always seem to be telling the reader of a character touching, fidgeting o expressing body language, like hugging, “…then rushing to hug him” “he holds her face away from him…”or “grasping his arm to reassure him and to erase the accusation”
There are many other examples of dramatic tension in the play, including the end of eddies discussion with Alfieri where Eddie is the only person on stage and a telephone box is made the audiences focal point “eddie at the same time appeared beside the phone”, this is almost giving the reader a hint about what is about to happen or even lets us feel whet Eddie is thinking, trying to decide whether to make to phone call or not, the telephone box being highlighted makes the audience feel his temptation, they would almost want to shout out and tell Eddie not to, in act two when eddie returns home “unsteady, drunk” the audience knows that something big is about to happen because they know that rodolpho and Catherine are alone together in the bedroom, miller adds tension by telling the audience when eddie “mounds the stairs” and the audience are afraid that the couple will be caught by eddie which is what makes the scene so vivid and exiting to read.
The narrator, Alfieri, gives us the background of the characters as well as a glimpse of the future “eddie carbone had never expected to have a destiny” and “there was going to be trouble that wont go away”, this creates tension in the play, the narrator, Alfieri has a small but highly important role in the play, he tells the future, he is there to warn Eddie about the decision he was about to make, but after eddies death he still shows a grudging admiration for Eddie, for not settling for half and truly standing up for what he believed in “Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better”
Eddie’s character has obvious similarities to that of a tragic heroes in literature, a tragic hero is a main character in a tragedy, some of these similarities are; although not of high birth, Eddie has an important position as head of the family, he has many good qualities, he has a weakness which is his love for Catharine and the need to protect her, this flaw is what eventually brings about his death at the hands of Marco, he dies unexpectedly because he was trying to save his name, “I want my name! He didn’t take my name “ he yells, showing the readers that no one can ever disrespect him and that he is not used to being ignored or looked down on, innocent people like Beatrice or the two other immigrants suffered in the process.
There are different ways in which Authur Miller feeling of vividness in his characters, these include using a storyline with a social and historical background, the development of the personalities of the characters, interesting dialogue, stage directions that give the reader a feeling of knowing, subtext which help the reader to understand the characters further, dramatic tension, the role of a narrator, all of these different elements are what make the characters of ‘a view from the bridge’ so vivid and realistic
