The community Eddie lives in also sees him as a respectful man. When he takes Beatrice’s illegally immigrated family into his home, Louis believes that Eddie has “a lotta credit comin’” to him. This is because the men he is taking in are not his blood relative, but his wife’s cousins. Marco offers his hand to Eddie, as a sign of gratitude, but Eddie tells him not to thank him.
When, Eddie reports Marco and Rodolfo to the Immigration Bureau, we see another attitude taken toward him. When the Immigration Officers arrest Marco and Rodolfo, Marco spits in Eddie’s face and, in front of the community including Louis, Mike and Lipari, declares that Eddie “killed my children”.
This sees Eddie’s social status being turned upside down. He goes from being one of Red Hook’s most respected longshoreman, to being rejected by the entire community and his niece, who he took in as his own daughter. Catherine calls Eddie a “rat”, and that he belongs in the sewers. Although not abandoned completely by his family, like Vinny Bolzano was. Beatrice stands by Eddie, and although she may not agree with his idea to hand over the immigrants, she is still his wife, and so must continue to support him.
Alfieri’s role in “A View from the Bridge” is of a narrator and provides law advice to Eddie and to Marco when they need it. Alfieri starts the play, as well as ends it. At both points he says, “Now we settle for half, and I like it better.” This is showing how New York has moved on from its criminal roots, and from the days of gangsters like Al Capone. When Alfieri says this, he means that instead of people getting killed for miniscule actions, people have learnt to sort out their disputes legally.
When Alfieri says this at the end of the play, he is referring to the fact that Eddie got killed for telling the Immigration Bureau of Marco and Rodolfo. However, after this he says that “truth is holy”. The word “holy” implies a religious significance, and that truth is the basis of religion.
Religion is also referenced when Marco has been bailed from prison, before being deported, he prays in the local church. This could also be that he is prating for forgiveness before he goes and seeks his revenge against Eddie.
Eddie and the community in which he lives are very protective of their names. When Marco spits in Eddie’s face, and declares that Eddie killed his children, Eddie’s friends and acquaintances refuse to acknowledge or speak to him as they feel that Eddie has betrayed the unspoken rules of living in a community like theirs.
In the final confrontation between Eddie and Marco, Eddie says that Marco has been “wipin’ the neighbourhood with my name like a dirty rag”. Eddie believes that the community will not accept him again, unless Marco retracts his previous words that it was Eddie who informed the Immigration Bureau of Rodolfo and Marco’s illegal presence. The use of the word ‘dirty’ implies that Marco has made his name unclean so that nobody wants him. It is because of the importance of Eddie’s name that Eddie is finally killed by Marco, for if Eddie had not wanted acceptance from his colleagues so badly, the fight would have never happened.
During the play, Catherine matures as she begins to have independence and rebels against her aunt and uncle’s wishes for her. At the beginning of the play, Catherine wishes to be treated like a little girl and so acts like one. When she talks to Beatrice, they talk about she ‘throws’ herself at him and she talks to him when he is “shavin’ in his underwear”. When Catherine realises that she wants to be free from Eddie’s plan of life he had for her, she changes, and matures, into a different woman. She starts going out more with Rodolfo and, when Eddie kisses both her and Rodolfo, she moves out of the family home, to another room, rented out by Beatrice.
This shows the level of conflict that has grown between Eddie and Beatrice throughout the play as she is now directly opposing Eddie’s ideas and approach towards the relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo.
Beatrice and Eddie’s relationship is also strained by the lack of sexual relations between them. Whilst Eddie blames it on Rodolfo and Marco living in his house, Beatrice does not believe him as the relationship has been tense since months before the arrival of the two Italians. Beatrice says to Eddie that it has been “almost three months” since they last had sex. This means that the relationship is not intimate and so there is lacking trust and love between them.
However, after Marco disgraces Eddie, Beatrice continues to support Eddie even though she believes he was wrong to phone the Immigration Bureau. When it is Catherine and Rodolfo’s wedding, Eddie refuses to go and also forbids Beatrice to attend the wedding. Whilst Beatrice wishes to go to the wedding, she does not for she loves Eddie so much that she will do as he says.
When forbidding Beatrice to go to the wedding, Eddie says “You walk out that door to that wedding you ain’t coming back here”. This shows the level of command that Eddie believes he has over Beatrice, and how he thinks that he is the dominant individual in the family.
