How is Eddie Presented in A View From The Bridge

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Aaron Mcfarlane

How is Eddie presented through a view from the bridge?

Eddie Carbone from ‘A View From The Bridge’ is a creation of Arthur Miller, ‘A View From The Bridge’ evolves around Eddie Carbone’s personality, everything and anything he does causes a consequence. He is used as a means of raising several themes all closely relating to attachment and relationships.

Eddie represents how one may react in various demanding scenarios.

Eddie Carbone is introduced by Alfieri in his first opening scene as an Italian lower-class worker living in New York a “forty - a husky, slightly overweight longshoreman”; a longshore worker is one who works on a dock loading and unloading goods.

The word husky creates a sturdy, dominant and possibly worn sculpture of Eddie, this is probably due to this career.

Alfieri and Eddie have a unique bridge throughout the play; Alfieri comes from a ‘upper-class’ background, this can bee seen from his job as a “lawyer” whereas Eddie lives amounts the ‘lower-class’; this within the time the play was produced, the ‘lower-class‘ were treaded more as second-class human beings with less opportunities to make it up the social ranks; therefore to see these to bond in such a strong manner is a very rare sight.

Alfieri, a hardworking lawyer, is seen to be the narrator through the play, judging and summing-up each characters personality and appearance as well as introducing their roles and status, During ‘Act One’ Alfieri is the first character to take the light, he starts his opening speech by saying “You wouldn’t of known it, but something amusing has just happened. You see how uneasily they nod to me?” this rhetorical question refers to the action beforehand were “The two pitchers nod to him as he passes,” this tells the reader Alfieri is quite presumptuous of the readers communicational knowledge, giving reason to assume Alfieri lives alongside wealthier individuals where ‘street knowledge’ isn't as recognized; he continues to explain stating “I often think that behind that suspicious little nod of theirs lie three thousand years of distrust.” By three thousand years of distrust Alfieri is reminding the reader about the Battle of Marathon 490 BC in which the “pichters” relations had fort and lost. Just by the opening scene the themes of betrayal and dishonesty are unveiled and continue to emerge throughout the play and at the end of the play have an inexcusable consequence resulting in Eddies death.

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Alfieri describes Eddie saying “His eyes were like tunnels: I saw that it was only a passion that had moved into his body like a stranger.” This quote uses figurative imagery to describe his eyes to be like tunnels, through a metaphoric perspective this shows Eddie may have seen a diverse range of people just like car through a tunnel; some good, some bad; this also gives Eddie a reason to be so protective over Catherine.

From the beginning of the play Eddie’s status in his neighborhood towers above the rest,

even though he neglects his wife and miscommunicates ...

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