Literature Coursework: A View from a Bridge
Literature Coursework
Eddie Carbone is a working class Longshoreman who lives in Red Hook Brooklyn and is a bitter man.
Eddie is the focal point, everything rests on Eddie's reaction to events.
At first this is relatively minor, for example will he or wont he allow Catherine (Eddie and Beatrice's niece) to take the job at the plumbing company? This soon becomes critical, will he or won't he understand that he cannot keep Catherine to him self, he must allow her to live her own life.
Eddie is the centre around which all the conflict in the play revolves around.
He takes care of his wife Beatrice and looks after a girl called Catherine who's father died when she was younger.
Eddie lusts for Catherine but manages to keep his feelings suppressed and turns it into hate towards Beatrice's cousins Marco and Rodolpho which makes him act irrationally. This ends up making Eddie loose his good name.
Eddie felt that Revenging against Marco will regain his pride and good name in the community.
There are a lot of moments through out the play where the audience is given clues that Eddie's love for Catherine wasn't normal. For example when Catherine light's Eddie's cigar in the living room, this gives Eddie unusual pleasure.
Eddie pays great attention to his niece and less attention to his own relationship which makes this clear.
The summery of plot and themes start off as Beatrice (The wife of Eddie and the aunt to Catherine) telling Eddie that her cousins would be arriving around 10pm that nigh and Catherine tells him that she now has a job that was given to her by her school. Eddie is angry that she is going to work but is talked around by Beatrice and Catherine. Eddie harbours a secret lust for his niece Catherine, he is very ...
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Eddie pays great attention to his niece and less attention to his own relationship which makes this clear.
The summery of plot and themes start off as Beatrice (The wife of Eddie and the aunt to Catherine) telling Eddie that her cousins would be arriving around 10pm that nigh and Catherine tells him that she now has a job that was given to her by her school. Eddie is angry that she is going to work but is talked around by Beatrice and Catherine. Eddie harbours a secret lust for his niece Catherine, he is very protective of her. He is proud of her looks but is concerned that it will attract the attention of men and covers it up with being concerned about her new job, he finds it hard to accept that she has grown into her own woman. "I guess I just never figured... that you would ever grow up".
Beatrice's two cousins arrived and they all sat down and talked. While doing so Eddie sees an attraction between Catherine and Rodlulfo, one of Beatrice's cousins, Eddie grows jealous of him when he sees the impression he makes on Catherine. "He looks at [Catherine] like a lost boy". He starts looking for the down sides to him in his opinions, for example that he makes dresses, he sings and he cooks. Eddie now treats Rodulfo as a wimp and less of a man.
He shout at him for singing because he and Catherine are getting close, then figures he's a push over.
Eddie feels that he is always right and he must be obeyed and respected. Eddie is also disturbed, he want Catherine for himself and because of that he gives Rodolfo a hard time even though he already has a wife of his own. Eddie found that there wasn't any way to stop Catherine from seeing Rodulfo or marrying him, so he tried making people think that Rodulfo's motive is to marry Catherine to get his citizens-ship, to have the right by law to stay in America. He found that, that would not work so he tried looking for a legal way to stop them from marrying but failed so he used the only way he could, by snitching. He calls the Immigration Bureau as a last desperate attempt to stop the wedding, he cares so much for Catherine that he is prepared to break his code of honour.
In doing so he's fellow neighbours and friends denied him and he became known as a rat. Eddie then began bullying Rodulfo but Rodulfo's older brother Marco did not let it happen.
Eddie finally tried to get his name back, he's self respect and the respect of others by confronting Marco in front of the whole world, he's planes backfired as he was killed at the hands of Marco with the knife he planed to use to killed Marco.
Most people would think that Eddie deserved to die because he had it coming. If he had left well alone, he's fait would not have come to such a disastrous and tragic end, dying a cold hearted bitter man, hated by others.
The ending of the play is quite emotional as it is acted out in public were all the main characters in the play are gathered, outside Eddie's apartment to witness Eddie being killed by Marco. In the end, he loses everything, Catherine, his wife and his name but ironically his death restores some of his lost honour because he does not try to escape his fate
Alfieri rounds off the play by reminding us that Eddie's death was useless and that he loved him, but that he mourns him with "a certain... alarm". He thinks that even though he could predict what was going to happen, even he a lawyer couldn't do anything to stop it.
Tone is used in the play and it usually depends on if Eddie is in a good mood. For example, when Beatrice's cousins arrive and the stage directions tell us that he is 'laughing', the tone is light. If Eddie is in a bad mood, for example, the same night 'his face puffed with trouble' there is tension.
Dramatic Irony is used in the play in the form of unlucky timing, when Eddie calls the immigration after his meeting with Alfieri on the same day that Catherine says that she's going to marry Rodolpho soon because she is scared of him getting caught by immigration, at the same time Marco and Rodulpho move out of the apartment causing other immigrants to be picked up instead.
