The View From the Bridge - Eddie's thoughts and motives in the play.

The View From the Bridge

In this essay I am going to write of Eddie’s thoughts and motives in the play.

Eddie is a simple person who is a victim of circumstances but he also contributes to his downfall. I am going to start with his Italian background because I believe that this is one of the most important things that motivates Eddie.

Coming from an Italian background, Eddie believes that the man should be the head of the household and that everything goes by him first concerning his family. You can see that he believes this by the way he talks to Catherine. Catherine is talking to him about her job as a stenographer and he says ''why didn't you ask me before you took a job?'' This shows that he wants Catherine to ask for his permission before accepting the job. He wants her to ask for permission so he feels like he is the boss and because he wasn't consulted first he feels threatened. This is one thing that leads to his downfall because he is trying to be so manly he could not show any emotions, so he kept everything inside and bottled it up.

His Italian background inter links with his 1950's notions of manhood because his Italian background meant that he had to be very manly and be the one who goes of to work. He shows his manliness when he starts to be competitive with Marco and Rodolfo for instance when he starts to teach him how to Box ''well come on, I'll teach you'' and then when Marco showed Eddie that he could pick up a chair with one hand, Eddie looked grumpy because he couldn't do it, he felt like he was overcome. His notions of manhood also lead to his downfall because he was so self indulgent that he could not take Alfieri's advice to let Catherine do what she wanted to do.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Eddies neighbourhood motivates him a lot because he is so concerned about his respect in the neighbourhood he forgets about what he is doing to the people close to him. This is shown when at the final scene he kept on demanding respect ''wiping the neighbourhood with my name like dirty rag; I want my name back Marco, now give me my name and we go together to the wedding'' as a result of this, Eddie died. He was so concerned about what the neighbourhood thought of him because he lived in Brooklyn which was a tough part of downtown New York and it was a close nit community meaning that everyone knew everyone's business and everyone was from the same background as Eddie and had similar jobs so they were probably similar to Eddie, meaning that they cared about what the community thought of them. So when they heard what Marco had said and done to Eddie, they probably thought it would be better not to talk to Eddie, as it might affect them. This would of hurt Eddie knowing what the community thought of him, that's why he was demanding respect and would not back down and I believe this motivated him a lot knowing he had a bad reputation in the community and the only way he could see to get his respect back would be for Marco to say that he was wrong. And as a result of Marco not giving 'Eddie's name back'… Eddie died. Eddie's sense of justice and fairness seemed to motivate him a lot. At the beginning his sense of justice and fairness motivated him in a good way for instance he thought he had to let Marco and Rodolfo stay because it was the right thing to do ''then what the hell. It's an honour' B., I mean it. I was just thinking before, coming home, suppose my father did not come to this country, and I was starving like them over there. And I had people in America who could keep me a couple of months? The man would be honoured to lend me a place to sleep''. This shows his fairness but towards the end his sense justice and fairness seemed to get worse. For instance in the middle of the story he grasses on Marco and Rodolfo.

‘‘Give me the number of the Immigration Bureau. Thanks I want to report something. Illegal Immigrants .Two of them. That's right. Four-forty-one Saxon Street Brooklyn, yeah. Ground floor. Hay? I'm just around the neighbourhood, that's all. Hay?'' Eddie did this because he thought this was the best thing to do for everyone concerned but he was wrong because as a result of this Eddie ended up dead.

I think his secret desire for Catherine motivates him a great deal in a way that he is so protective of her that he does not want her going out or wearing revealing clothes this is shown when he says "I think it's too short" and he didn't like the way she walked "now don't aggravate me Katie you are walking wavy" he probably didn't like the way she walked because it probably got attention from men and Eddie didn't like that because in a way he thought Catherine was his. He also says "you aren’t all the girls" this is Eddie saying you are not all the girls your my girl. He doesn't like the way she walks and dresses and that she is getting a job because all these things show that she is becoming a woman and Eddie doesn't like this, so he is motivated to protect her as much as possible. He was so strict with her as she was growing up, as soon as she saw a boy (Rodolfo) she literally jumped at him. Eddie's secret desire for Catherine is also incorporated in his self interest because all he could think about was himself and he didn't look at how happy Catherine was with Rodolfo, all he cared about was trying to break them up and he tried to do this by phoning the Immigration Bureau but all this caused was Catherine and himself to grow apart and for Catherine to finally see what type of man he was. He was so interested in himself that he kept on demanding respect from Marco "Wiping the neighbourhood with my name Marco, now give me my name and we go together to the wedding" here he was so interested in what other people thought of him that he couldn't see how it was destroying his marriage with Beatrice, his relationship with Catherine that eventually it would destroyed him, all because he was so motivated to thinking only about himself. Finally, also jealousy motivates Eddie to doing outrageous and terrible things because he was jealous of Rodolfo and Catherine's relationship. For instance when he kissed Catherine and Rodolfo "he kisses her on the mouth" and "and suddenly kisses him" I think he does this because he is jealous of what they have together; because of this Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is gay. Eddie thinks if he kisses Rodolfo, Catherine might realise that he is gay. Eddie is jealous because he knows he can not have her so he try's to make sure no one else can but he does not succeed he just drives her away from him. Overall I think that many things motivate Eddie but the most important thing is his secret desire for Catherine but he could never come to terms with the fact that he did not own her. I think this is also why he eventually died because he could not let go and he was so stubborn in his thoughts that he acted out of self-interest and a lust for the girl he never could have.