The main reason as to why Eddie shows hostility and aggression to Rodolfo is because Rodolfo doesn’t live up to Eddie’s views on what qualities are needed to be a man. Eddie suspects Rodolfo almost as soon as he meets him (he talks to Beatrice about how ‘the guy ain’t right), although the audience are likely to expect him to suspect other characters because earlier on in the play he says ‘the less you trust, the less you be sorry’. Although, it is not just Eddie who explicitly shows distrust of Rodolfo, as some of the other longshoremen who Eddie works with comment on how Rodolfo has ‘a sense of humour’, and there are other remarks throughout the play such as ‘Danish’, ‘Paper Doll’ and ‘Chorus Girl’ which clearly suggest that Rodolfo doesn’t conform to the general ideas of masculinity, not just Eddie’s. This is partly because Rodolfo can sing, cook, and make dresses, and at the time this would have been seen as very unmanly, which is the main reason for the doubt of Rodolfo from other characters. Although, Rodolfo does conform to some of Eddie’s ideas on masculinity as he works as a longshoreman, which is physical work, and he is also prepared to work very hard, and the audience knows this almost as soon as they meet him because Rodolfo says ‘We work hard, we’ll work all day and night’, which shows that he is prepared to work hard for himself. He also proves Eddie’s opinion that he is gay wrong, as he clearly shows his love for Catherine, which also shows his masculinity. Although, the audience can see that Eddie is slightly jealous of Rodolfo, as Rodolfo can communicate his ideas to the other characters a lot more effectively than Eddie can and so this causes the conflict between them more than anything else in the play. For example, Eddie ‘teaches’ Rodolfo how to box just as a excuse to hit him, and the audience get the impression that Rodolfo would not have done this, as he as the skills to communicate properly with other characters, so they could possibly be feeling sorry for him because he is masculine in a different way to the other characters, although he is constantly being bullied by Eddie and the other longshoremen because of it.
Although Rodolfo doesn’t live up to Eddie’s ideas on masculinity, Marco does so more than Eddie, which is why Eddie is hostile, and towards the end of the play aggressive, towards him. Marco is very different to his brother Rodolfo, who is fair haired and pale, as he is dark skinned and has dark hair, so he is a typical Italian immigrant. At first, Eddie likes Marco very much as he is very strong and hard working. Another longshoreman describes Marco as a ‘regular bull’ and Eddie himself says that ‘he’s a strong guy’. The audience respect Marco very much as he works this hard to make money for his family, which is a very manly thing to do. He also matches Eddie’s ideas on what it means to be a man this way as he is working to save his family and he feels that it is his duty to do so. Eddie feels threatened by Marco because he is more masculine than he is, and this is shown when Marco lifts the chair to show that he is stronger than Eddie. Marco also shows the audience that he is more masculine than Eddie because he doesn’t try to continually show his strength to the other characters like Eddie does, and when Eddie breaks the honour code by telling immigration about Marco and Rodolfo, Marco shows the audience again that he is stronger than Eddie because he wins the fight and kills Eddie. At this point the audience do not dislike Marco, even though he has killed Eddie, as Marco claims that Eddie, by telling immigration about them, has killed his wife and children, so Marco sees it as masculine to kill Eddie in retaliation to Eddie killing his family. Eddie’s views on masculinity, and his actions against those who are different to them, eventually lead to his own death, after he loses Catherine, Beatrice, and his name, so it could be argued that he had no choice but to fight to the death.
Throughout the play, the Arthur Miller (the playwright) has carefully selected his language to make the audience view the characters exactly how he wants them to be viewed. For example, he wants us to view Eddie as a strong and caring character, although Miller has also made it clear that he has a low education. He has done this by making Eddie have poor communication skills, and Miller shows us this clearly as he can’t hold an argument and he often breaks in the middle of his sentences and sometimes completely forgets what he is talking about if he is interrupted. For example, when he goes to Alfieri to see if there is anything the law can do to stop Catherine and Rodolfo marrying, every time Eddie is interrupted he has to repeat himself to remember what he is saying and he says ‘Listen to me a minute!’ in frustration that he cannot communicate his ideas effectively, and Miller could have done this purposely to possibly make the audience feel sorry for Eddie towards the end of the play, possibly because he only attacked Marco because he was unable to express his feelings in any other way. Miller has intentionally contrasted Eddie with Marco and Rodolfo, as the audience gets the impression that they are competent of expressing what they think, and so Miller could also have done this purposely as well, as this could make the audience think that both Marco and Rodolfo are more masculine than Eddie because of this quality. Miller may possibly be trying to show the audience that every man shows his masculinity in one way or another, and possibly that the most important quality of all is communication, as the one character who lacks this in the play is Eddie, and the lack of this skill leads to his death.
In the play ‘A View from the Bridge’ the playwright Arthur Miller has shown how masculinity, and how people view it, can lead to hostility and aggression, and he has used Eddie, the protagonist, to help show these ideas to the audience. Overall, Miller has done this very effectively, as Eddie’s death at the end of the play shows the audience where a man’s opinion and a lack of communication can end.
