Discuss How the Characters Of Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine contribute to the dramatic effects of 'A View From The Bridge'
Discuss How the Characters Of Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine contribute to the dramatic effects of 'A View From The Bridge'
Character Studies
The various characteristics, including the flaws of the characters, act as a great catalyst to the tragedy at hand throughout the play as they portray and describe the characters' emotion and thoughts towards one another.
Catherine
Catherine is a very naïve woman who has not really experienced much of the world, but is eager to. She has grown up in a warm nurturing environment and so has grown into a very innocent and open character. Catherine expresses her innocence by the way she will say what she the thinks without a moment of thought towards the consequences, '(wondrously) How come he's so dark and you're so light, Rodolfo?' By the tone Catherine uses she blatantly shows that she has some sort of attraction to Rodolpho. Judging from the text in where Beatrice says 'Was there ever any fella he liked for you? They' we can see that Catherine's previous relationships have been prevented from going very far most probably by Eddie. Catherine is therefore very inexperienced with relationships and shows this in her not very subtle approach to Rodolfo and how clearly known she makes her feelings for him.
It is most probable that due to Catherine's naivety and immaturity that she does not realise Eddie's passionate feelings towards her. As Surprisingly Catherine genuinely is unaware as to Eddie's passionate feelings for her, and therefore does not realise that his feelings towards her have over-stepped the bounds of fatherly love. As previously she did not believe that their relationship was anymore than that of a father-daughter one, we can tell this by her horrified reaction to Beatrice saying ' You want somethin' else, Eddie, and you can never have her!'.
We see that Catherine is very warm and compassionate, as even after Eddie has rejected Rodolpho and hurt her feelings deeply, she still finds it difficult to reject Eddie 'you think it's easy to turn around and say to a man he's nothin' to you no more?'
During the beginning of the play Catherine is heavily influenced by Eddies thoughts and feelings, as when he tells Catherine that she shouldn't take the job as a stenographer if he had not changed his mind then it is most probable that Catherine would not have taken the job. We also see the extent of Eddies influence over her when he tries to persuade her not to marry Rodolfo, as she begins to doubt Rodolpho's motives for marrying her, we see know this by the uncertainty in her voice, when Eddie tells her that 'he's only bowin' to his passport.' She says 'I don't think he's even thinking about it' and 'Oh, no, Eddie, I don't think so'.
However Catherine finally manages to overcome her doubt in Rodolpho due to the deep trust that she has placed in him, as she gradually distances herself from Eddie and draws Rodolpho closer. When Catherine sleeps with Rodolpho she seems to have a new found sense of independence and appears to have developed a backbone, it is at this point that she completely disconnects herself from Eddie, from this point on Catherine begins to side against Eddie in arguments and go against his word. However it is really when Eddie betrays Rodolfo and Marco that Catherine shows how distant from Eddie she has become since Marco and Rodolphos arrival, as Catherine begins to show an almost sick resentment of Eddie. She becomes spiteful and makes hate-filed remarks such as 'He's a rat!' and 'In the garbage he belongs!'. So Catherine's character now shows a complete contrast to her opening character. And it is not until the final, very dramatic scene where Catherine shows that she still cares about Eddie after all, despite all that has happened when she says 'Eddie, I never meant to do nothing bad to you'.
Beatrice
Beatrice is a loving and caring character, Eddie describes her has having 'too big a heart'. She always seems to be the mediator in the plays many hostile situations. Beatrice can be an assertive character when the situation calls for it; we see an example of this when she defies Eddie's words and says 'Be the way you are' as she believes that this would be beneficial to Catherine and that perhaps with Catherine gone Eddie's incestuous feelings would deteriorate. Beatrice also plays a key role in provoking some of the plays most tense moments and ...
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Beatrice
Beatrice is a loving and caring character, Eddie describes her has having 'too big a heart'. She always seems to be the mediator in the plays many hostile situations. Beatrice can be an assertive character when the situation calls for it; we see an example of this when she defies Eddie's words and says 'Be the way you are' as she believes that this would be beneficial to Catherine and that perhaps with Catherine gone Eddie's incestuous feelings would deteriorate. Beatrice also plays a key role in provoking some of the plays most tense moments and dramatic scenes, such as when she says 'When am I gonna be your wife again?' here she creates one of the most tense scenes in the play because she has offended Eddie's manhood and crushed his pride, which Eddie is very protective and sensitive about. In this example we see that Beatrice is in fact quite a strong-willed, resilient character with a good sense of right and wrong.
Beatrice is important in the situation between Catherine and Eddie, as she is the first to realise that there is a situation and attempts to separate Eddie and Catherine, she does this in many ways such as when she warns Catherine saying that 'you can't act the way you act', as Catherine has been acting inappropriately around Eddie like 'You still walk around in front of him in your slip'. Beatrice is the character who creates doubt in Catherine's mind towards Eddie's fatherly love and how inappropriately excessive it is. She is also the character who warns Eddie off Catherine even if it was a little late 'you want somethin' else, Eddie, and you can never have her!'
Beatrice is the mediator in all of Eddie's hostile situations, in this light she also appears to be the peacekeeper, as she is always controlling Eddie's aggressive outbursts and attempting to calm and soothe him, such as when Catherine calls him a rat, in order to control Eddie's anger and due to Beatrice's immense loyalty she gives up even going to Catherine's wedding in order to maintain the peace and to be able to stick with Eddie, this shows us the extent that Beatrice is willing to go to just to uphold the peace. She also displays her loyalty when she stands by him and is willing to stick with him even though he has betrayed his cousins and for Beatrice to stick with him would have been considered shameful despite the fact that this is in actual fact an amazing display of loyalty.
During the play Beatrice seems to be the character who upholds the peace at all costs, as in the play she even goes to the extent of not attending Catherine's wedding just because Eddie does not want her to and because she knows that going will only cause further disarray in their lives. Beatrice also attempts to save Eddie from his incestuous thoughts and feelings and seems to control Eddie and almost be trying to save him from his dark thoughts.
Although at times we do see that Beatrice struggles with the situation and it take sits toll on her usually gentle misdemeanour, as towards the end of the play we see that Beatrice is aggravated with Eddie, as she keeps saying things such as 'what do you want from me?' and 'What do you want now?', despite this slip in character we never really see Beatrice angry.
Eddie
Eddie is the central/ pivotal character in 'A View From The Bridge', in the play Eddie appears to be the protagonist as he provokes all of the plays major dramatic events. Eddie is a man who believes in traditional Italian values; that the male is the breadwinner and head of the household who will always get his way, and that the female raises the children, takes care of the household. The traditional Italian values also affects the way people conduct themselves, as the Italian values strongly oppose betrayal and strongly promote masculinity and Pride, and since it is these values that shape much of Eddie's character we can expect to see these traits in his personality..
Due to Eddies strong beliefs in the Traditional Italian Values it has a great effect on his own life and the lives of those surrounding him, so when Catherine proposes getting a job, Eddie strongly opposes this, perhaps due to his incestuous feelings, whereby he wants to keep Catherine away from other men, however this could also be because of his traditional views whereby the male is the breadwinner, and will provide for the family, and if Catherine too brings in money for the house then Eddie may take it as an assault on his manhood. Also due to Eddie's traditional Italian values he is immensely proud as is expected, and therefore will never admit that he is wrong or admit his unacceptable feelings for Catherine.
We see the darker side of Eddie's possessiveness when Rodolpho and Catherine fall in love, as he becomes so desperate to keep Catherine to himself that he attempts to deceive others against Rodolpho making claims that he is a homosexual who is just exploiting Catherine to use her as his passport. We also see how strong Eddie's feelings for Catherine are and we are confirmed that they are incestuous when he gets drunk and kisses Catherine on the lips, as we know that he is drunk and has therefore lost all of his inhibitions and is expressing his true feelings.
We again see Eddie's desperation and how strong his feelings are for Catherine we he goes against his Traditional Italian male views, and reports Marco and Rodolpho, this shows us how intensely deep his feelings for Catherine are as he is going to against all his morals and principles just for her, even after he has demonstrated how badly he would be treated after doing something like this in his story of Vinny Bolzano.
When Eddie kisses Rodolpho it reveals much about his persona that we would potentially have not known, some people say that Eddie did this out of his confused sexual feelings, others say that Eddie is mocking Rodolpho or making fun of the fact that Rodolpho is supposedly homosexual, however I believe that the true meaning of the kiss was that it was the kiss of death, almost a mark of what Eddie was going to do.
Throughout the play we such much jealousy in Eddie's character, particularly because of his relationship with Catherine, and out of this jealousy comes his desperation, as he will clearly stop at nothing in order to keep Catherine withdrawn along with him, as he makes weak excuses as to why Catherine and Rodolpho shouldn't go places together, such as 'I don't want her hanging around times square, see? It's full of tramps'.
I will now talk about the main themes featured in 'A View From The Bridge', the characters which display them most and how this contributes to the dramatic scenes of the play.
In 'A View from the Bridge' the theme of masculinity or pride is quite a prominent one, one which often leads to violence and aggression, it is the reason that a large proportion of the dramatic scenes of the play come about. The pride in this play is as a direct result of the traditional Italian male views of characters such as Eddie and Marco. Eddie's view of masculinity is shaped by his traditional Italian male views this is also the case with Marco, as he too follows strictly to the guidelines of the traditional Italian mail views.
Masculinity in the play triangulates around the three main male characters Marco Rodolpho and Eddie, Rodolpho is an example of what Eddie considers to be the exact opposite of masculine, as Eddie says that 'he hasn't got my name he's just a punk, it's Marco I want' and Marco seems to be almost Eddie's rival, as tension has been increasing between them since the chair scene. However Eddie and Marco are the characters who this theme applies to the most as we see masculinity in both characters and also elements of pride
Eddie believes that it is not masculine to reveal his emotions which is as a direct result of his traditional Italian mail views, although in actual fact this is rather a stereotypical point of view nor is it masculine to back down from a challenge, and so leads to tension in the chair scene when neither will back down due to their immense pride, as Eddie believes that a man being physically strong is an important part of masculinity.
Eddie believes that manliness consists of knowing ones boundaries and protecting ones territory in which other men considered intruders, it is this view of masculinity that ultimately leads to his death. Due to Eddie's beliefs in traditional Italian male views he believes that Rodolpho is an actual fact not a proper man as he does not conform to Eddie's stereo typical view of what a man should be, and Eddie believes that these are strict guidelines to which all males should adhere.
When Beatrice calls Eddie's masculinity into question 'when am I gonna be a wife again' Eddie becomes extremely offended and angry and he tells Beatrice that she must never ever call his masculinity into question again, this creates a very dramatic scene in which the theme of masculinity is explored in great depth.
Eddie's death was avoidable if he hadn't been so proud and kept on about how Marco had his name. If he had not done this then maybe he would have survived the play and all the problems may have been resolved. However due to the fact that he wanted to shame Marco and regain his pride, his death came about
Eddie is unsettled by Rodolpho's behaviour as he doesn't regard him to be a 'real man' as he regards what most of Rodolpho does as feminine activities such as dancing cooking, singing and making dresses.
Sexual Jealousy is a theme in 'A View From The Bridge' which is quite frequent and appears many times throughout the play. The first time it appears is in the very first scene with Catherine tells Eddie that she's been offered a job as a stenographer with a plumbing company, immediately we see Eddie's over protectiveness of Catherine and if we examine the text carefully we pick up hints that shows that perhaps Eddie's feelings and over protectiveness are beyond the normal bounds of fatherly love, Eddie tries to discourage Catherine from accepting the job, as he is trying to selfishly keep her to himself, he makes weak excuses for why she shouldn't go out with Rodolpho and why she shouldn't take the job surrounded by men 'I don't like the neighborhood over there'.
We see Eddie's sexual jealousy of Catherine as soon as Marco and Rodolpho arrive, when Catherine passes the comment '(wondrously) how come he's so dark and youe so light, Rodolpho?' we see how due to Eddie's sexual jealousy he has already developed a dislike for Rodolpho and we see him only really addressing Marco from this point on. The most dramatic incident involving sexual jealousy is perhaps the scene where Catherine and Rodolpho have sexual intercourse, when Eddie returns from his work as a longshoreman and finds out that Catherine and Rodolpho had sex he flies into a fit of rage and orders Rodolpho to leave his house and then because he's drunk and is lost all his inhibitions he kisses Catherine on the lips.
Eddie is sexually jealous of Catherine and Rodolpho, it is this along with his pride that lead to his eventual death.
Beatrice may also show signs of sexual jealousy when we see her trying to rush Catherine into marriage and get her out of the house, however this is ambiguous as Beatrice may just care deeply for Catherine and Eddie, and she is hoping that Eddie will soon lose his feelings for her.
In 'A View From The Bridge' we see how the boundary between protectiveness and possessiveness is constantly crossed and blurred, as Eddie passes constantly between possessiveness and protectiveness. Although Eddie is technically not Catherine's father he still fulfills the parental role, simply by the act that he is the one who has raised her.
Eddie takes his parental role very seriously "I'm responsible for you", however despite this he still betrays his responsibility as a father and a role model to care for Catherine as he doesn't accept the fact or allow her to mature.
Eddie's possessiveness rather than protectiveness can be shown when he allows his emotional and sexual feelings to influence his behaviour, when he kisses Catherine while drunk and when he has lost all his inhibitions.
The line dividing protectiveness and possessiveness is blurred when Eddie talks about Catherine 'walking wavy' this can be taken as either of the two values however it is safe to say that this is quite an inappropriate remark, to be making to your child.
Beatrice and Marco are examples of characters in 'A View From The Bridge' who fulfil the parental role well, as Marco struggles to feed his children and Beatrice is always a very supporting and nurturing character whatever the situation.
In 'A View From The Bridge' we're shown how due to the characters traditional Italian male views, there is a wide berth between justice and the law and the characters in the play see them differently, some such as Alfieri see them as being one, whereas others such as Eddie try and use both to his advantage. In the play we are shown how the boundaries are not always clearly distinguishable between justice and the law and we see how sometimes the two can come into conflict with each other.
We see an example of when a character takes the law into their own hands when Eddie feels that it is necessary as the law does not protect Catherine from seeing Rodolfo's supposedly unjust reasons for dating Catherine, so Eddie feels forced into a compromising situation in which he must take this so called justice into his own hands
We again see how Eddie manipulates and uses when beneficial to him both justice and the law, as he reports Marco and Rodolpho to the immigration officers, when what he's doing would be considered unjust by people who adhere to the traditional Italian male values as Eddie does, however he is desperate to maintain Catherine and his grasp over her, and when he feels it is beneficial to him he uses Justice to try and take revenge on Marco and get back 'my name'.
Betrayal and loyalty is also a theme in the play which we see in both of these contrasting aspects in many of the characters in the play, a good example of this is Eddie, although he expresses very strong feelings about betrayal and loyalty, and the consequences to those who betray their family or friends in his re-telling of the story of Vinny Bolzano.
Many characters feature loyalty, in the play, such as Beatrice to Eddie when she didn't attend Catherine's wedding in order to remain loyal to Eddie, although here in a way she had to be disloyal to Catherine and almost betray her, she did this merely in the interest of keeping the peace. So we see that sometimes to maintain one loyalty you have to lose another. Eddie also shows signs of loyalty as at the start of the play he is loyal and hard-working towards his family, just the same as Marco.
However we also see for Eddie that he betrays his own family merely for his jealousy, and reports them for illegally immigrating to the country, it is in this that Eddie deceives us, as due to the Traditional Italian values he has, we came to expect him to be a loyal character, however he sows us the worst betrayal, which leads to much more drama and ultimately his death.
Thomas Bartlett
