He begins to see that Catherine is growing up and turning into a woman. Eddie wants to protect her from growing up and is shading her from the world. But here he knows that Catherine would do anything to please him, so he asks her to do him a favor but he doesn’t wait for an answer he quickly changes the subject.
When both Marco and Rodolpho arrive you can instantly see Catherine’s interest in Rodolpho. She starts asking questions about why he hasn’t married.. Eddie’s aware of Catherine and Rodolpho’s attraction towards each other and stops it before it goes further by insulting Catherine and embarrassing her in front of the visitors. Eddie uses Rodolfo´s illegal status against him and exercises his authority over him. He makes Rodolfo stop singing under the pretence that the singing is drawing attention to him and he may get discovered and picked up, to mask his feelings of jealousy and dislike towards him.
(Eddie has risen, with iron control, even a smile. He moves to Catherine)
“What’s the high heels for,Garbo”
Eddie’s jealousy is growing. Catherine is showing more attention to other people than Eddie so instantly we can see that he resorts to embarrassing her in front of Rodolpho and Marco.
Eddie´s hatred for Rodolfo grows and he is acting on his emotions when he tells Catherine, after they have come back from the cinema that Rodolfo is only using her to get his papers so he can stay in America.
“Katie, he´s only bowin´ to his passport
The explosion of jealousy comes when Eddie comes home drunk and finds Catherine and Rodolfo alone after having been in the bedroom together. He is so desperate; he is acting on his emotions and not thinking rationally and tells Rodolpho to leave, so Catherine agrees to go with him and Eddie tells her she isn’t leaving.
“Catherine: Eddie, im not gonna be a baby any more! You-
(He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth)”
Eddie kisses Catherine to show Rodopho that Catherine is his and no one is to touch her and grips Rodolpho and also kisses him to show try and show Catherine that he isn’t ‘normal’and this to Eddie was the last straw.
Eddie approaches Alfieri for help but he is unable to do anything about the marriage because she is her own person to do as she wishes.
“Give me the number of the immigration bureau. Thanks. (he dials) I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them. That’s right. Four-forty-one saxon street, Brooklyn”
Eddie feels he is forced to ring the immigration bureau and all this because of jealousy. His jealousy built up as Catherine became more independent and mature. He realized she was slipping away from his grasp and dislikes it.
Eddie´s own words were,
“You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word you gave away.”
Eddie betrayed his own beliefs, and lost the respect of the whole community and his honor because of jealousy Eddie, who ignored Alferi´s words of warning,
“You won´t have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you,”
And all this because of the protectiveness and jealousy he didn’t want to watch Catherine marrying.
Alfieri is one of the characters that is aware of Eddie’s motives behind his actions. Eddie visits Alfieri twice during the play once at the end of act one when Eddie is beginning to see that Catherine is in love with Rodolpho and Eddie’s jealousy is beginning to climax and also at the beginning of act two when Eddie’s has had enough and his heart tells him to do the wrong thing.
Eddie “you mean to tell me that there’s no law that a guy which he ain’t right can go to work and marry a girl and - ?”
Eddie is speaking to Alfieri and you see that Eddie’s jealousy is greater than ever. He’s telling Alfieri that Rodolpho “ain’t right” implying that he’s gay. Eddie is trying to find anything that will be able to stop the marriage between ‘his’ Catherine and Rodolpho.
Alfieri is aware of why Eddie is visiting him. Alfieri sees that his love for his niece is greater than his love for his wife and Eddie’s jealousy for Rodolpho has forced Eddie to visit Alfieri to find a law that would stop the marriage.
Alfieri “But, Eddie, she’s a woman now”
Eddie “He’s stealing from me!”
Alfieri “She wants to get married, Eddie. She can’t marry you, can she?
Alfieri sees that Eddie looks at Catherine as more than just a niece. Eddie says “He’s stealing from me” implying that Catherine is his but Alfieri then says that
“she cant marry you, can she” so here you know that Alfieri is aware of Eddie’s love for his niece and he sees that sooner or later Eddie was going to do something very stupid because of his love and jealousy towards Catherine and Rodolpho’s relationship.
In Eddies second visit to Alfieri Eddie tries to dig deeper to find something that would stop the marriage. Alfieri’s last words to Eddie were
Alfieri “When the law is wrong it’s because it’s unnatural, but in this case it is natural and a river will drown you if you buck it now. Let her go. And bless her.Somebody had to come for her Eddie sooner or later. You wont have a friend in the world, Eddie ! Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despite you!”
Alfieri sees what Eddie is going to resort too and by saying you wont have a friend in the world he’s trying to worn him off ringing the immigration bureau but Eddie’s love for his niece tells him to do the wrong thing.
Beatrice was also one of the characters that were aware of his true feelings behind his motives but she gave the impression of being scared to say anything. Beatrice is seen as a timid person and wouldn’t confront Eddie as he dominates her decisions and in a way scares her. Beatrice leaves the situation to begin with but as Eddie persists to be overprotective and begins interfering with Catherine and Rodolpho’s relationship she tries to make Catherine aware of Eddie’s motives behind his actions.
We see a long duologue between Eddie and Beatrice that makes us realize that Beatrice is aware of Eddie’s motives when Eddie becomes agitated when Catherine is out,
“When he ain’t working. He ain’t supposed to go advertising himself.”
We know Catherine and Rodolpo have been dating for two weeks and are at the pictures when the scene opens. It is clear Eddie’s concern has grown; he pretends he is worried for Rodolpho’s safety, although it is obvious he is only becoming agitated at the thought of them being together out of his sight.
Beatrice senses his distrust and jealousy,
“(Smiling) Ah, go on, you’re just jealous.”
However, she keeps her feelings safe by presenting her thoughts almost as a joke and ignoring the fact she sees that Eddie love’s Catherine really.
She try’s to make Catherine aware of his feelings for her but Catherine is naïve and disillusioned by what Beatrice is trying to tell her.
“But if you act like a baby he’ll b treatin’ you like a baby. Like when he comes home sometimes you throw yourself at him like when you was twelve years old”
Beatrice is trying to tell Catherine that she’s acting flirtatious round him and she’s doing the wrong thing seen as though she’s nearly a grown woman.
Beatrice “Sit down honey, I wanna tell you something. Here sit down. Was there ever any fella he liked for you? There wasn’t was there?”
Catherine “But he says Rodolpho just after his papers”
Beatrice “He’ll say anything. What does he care what he says? If it was a prince came here for you it would be no different. You know that don’t you”
Beatrice is subtlety trying to tell her that Eddie doesn’t want to loose her and his jealousy wont let her go.
Also by saying “if it was a prince that came here for you it would be no different” she’s trying to tell Catherine that he has an attraction for her and that there will never be a man good enough for ‘his Catherine’.
Catherine is Eddie ‘Madonna’ meaning he worships her and loves her. In his eyes he can’t let her go but Catherine can’t understand why.
Eddie’s jealousy then has a detrimental effect on Beatrice and Eddie’s relationship.
Eddie’s love for his niece Catherine interferes with their relationship. Beatrice feels as though she is second best to her own niece.
Eddie’s jealousy has taken over their marriage.
“When am I going to be a wife again?”
“I ain’t been feeling good. They bother me since they came”
In her desperate search to be accepted she even blames herself. From the start we saw how Eddie was in charge of the relationship, but now Beatrice is angered by his lack of attention
“Eddie I want you to cut it out, right now, you hear me.”
In Beatrice’s frustration she has stood up to him. The blatant accusing only frustrates and complicates Eddie’s thoughts, and it becomes clear their relationship is starting to break up. This is just from Eddie’s anger and jealousy toward Catherine and Rodolpho, not only is his marriage breaking apart but his relationship with Catherine is too.
Eddie uses the excuse to cover up the fact he has more love for Catherine than Beatrice and Beatrice feels as though it’s pushing them further apart and is very fed up of not being loved because of Eddie’s jealousy.
Irony is a very important part to the play ‘A View from the Bridge’ and also makes Eddie’s jealousy noticeable.
When Eddie warns Catherine and Beatrice that they must never discuss the ‘submarine’ it is a strong example of prophetic irony because it foretells how Eddie will make his major error in judgment when he betrays Marco and Rodolpho along with the Lipari Cousins. Eddie’s humiliated and publicly accused by Marco.
“Just remember kid you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word you gave away”
This is the warning Eddie gave to Beatrice and Catherine telling them not to mention anything about Rodolpho and Marco to anyone but in the end it was Eddie who went against his own words.
Alfieri was another person who also warned Eddie from doing the wrong thing
“you wont have a friend in the world Eddie”
But Eddie still doesn’t listen to his warning and in the end turns into tragedy in Eddie’s death.
In a view from the bridge Eddie realizes when it’s too late and he’s dying that Beatrice love him and he loves Beatrice. He realizes that it was impossible to keep Catherine as he had tried and it was inevitable that one day he would have to let her go.
Eddie’s secret desire for Catherine is also incorporated in his self interest because all he could think of was himself and he didn’t look at how happy Catherine and Rodolpho were, all he cared about was jealousy an trying to break them up 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 a man he really was.
Eddie jealousy leads to the huge tragedy at the end. Instead of putting his feelings aside for Catherine he left them grow until his outburst of jealousy turned into tragedy and in the end he realizes what a terrible mistake he has made.