When Rodolfo arrives in the Carbone home, Catherine is instantly drawn to him, which takes her attention away from Eddie, and then results a rivalry between Eddie and Rodolfo to win over Catherine. Catherine’s attraction towards Rodolfo makes Eddie jealous which then leads him to disapprove of Rodolfo. This is shown when Eddie says ‘hat’s a nice kid? He gives me the heebie-jeebies’ This illustrates that Eddie doesn’t like Rodolfo, because Rodolfo is putting himself towards Catherine, and is threaten by Rodolfo. Since Eddie is threaten he tries to make Rodolfo look bad in Catherine’s eyes, by saying to her, “and with that wacky hair; it’s like a chorus girl or sump’m,” here Eddie is trying to put down Eddie in front of Catherine showing he is trying to put down the threat of Rodolfo to their relationship. As Catherine’s and Rodolfo’s relationship starts to bloom, Catherine starts to neglect Eddie.
Now Eddie’s relationship with Catherine is driving him crazy, he still has not realised his suppressed feelings for her, and seems to release them as hatred towards Rodolfo and Marco. It is clear not just to the reader now that he has feelings for Catherine but also to characters. His jealousness causes him to grow blind of his own beliefs and those who care for him. He starts to think about going to the immigration bureau, which would go against all his beliefs made clear by the story about Vinny Bolzaro, and betray his own family. Eddie says ‘You used to be different, Beatrice I'm no different’. It is almost like he is so blinded by his feelings for Catherine that he becomes distant to the people who do care for him like Beatrice. After this we are lead into the inevitability of Eddies death.
In Eddies meeting with Alfieri, he was ask by Alfieri that Catherine can’t marry him, can he? To this Eddie furiously replied “what’re you talking’ about, marry me! I don’t know what the hell you’re talking’ about,” this reply informs us that eddies is furious about being as this question because it would be shameful to have those thoughts about a younger family member and he denies all thoughts to further hide his feelings. Alfieri himself see’s Eddie’s feelings for Catherine, and is scared that Eddie cannot control his feelings, his jealousy, Alfieri says “I was so powerless to stop it “he knew of eddies fate, and knew that eddies beastly envy will get the better of him.
Alfieri is the chorus in the story which is set out like a Greek tragedy. In a Greek tragedy most of the action happens in one place, and in this play most of it is set in the Carbone’s apartment. Greek tragedies also always end in the main character dying and deal with issues such as incest, which are seen in ‘A View from a Bridge’. This contributes to the dramatic effect of the play, so does the layout of the stage. The audience are really involved in the stage as they are the 4th wall to the Carbone’s apartment.
Language is a big thing noticeable in the play. Eddie speaks with a very New York vernacular and as the play goes on his language becomes much duller, as the thought of losing Catherine to Rodolfo depresses him. Rodolfo speaks good English; he is quite poetic and compares Catherine to ‘a bird not allowed to fly’. Marco’s English is quite bad so he is a man of thought and action, not words.
Towards the end of the play Catherine says ‘I just got it. You like it?’. This shows she expects to get his approval. This shows that Eddie inspires the way she acts. Having such control over a young woman suggests that Eddie must enjoy the power of masculinity of having her look up to him.
Eddie is told by Alfieri and by Beatrice that it is obvious that he has feelings for Catherine, but couldn’t have her; however he is still horrified by this and denies it. When he goes out to get revenge on Marco, he is killed by his own knife, this is symbolic for he brought it on himself and it was not Catherine’s fault or anyone else’s.