Ellen Taylor 11E
Examine the relationship between Eddie and Catherine before and after the arrival of Marco and Rodolfo in Act 1 of ‘A View from the Bridge’
The very first conversation between main characters in A View From the Bridge establishes and reveals much about each individual, their roles in the play and the relationships between them. At first glance, the reader is only aware of what appears to be a happy family environment, although even at such an early stage in the play there are hints of possible problems and tensions. It is clear that Eddie is the character of authority in the house. He has Catherine rallying around him and in this first scene we notice that she is always searching for his approval. She is so desperate to be comforted by his affection and support that when Eddie negatively comments on the way she walks, she is “almost in tears” which conveys her as a naïve and vulnerable child. This 17-year-old girl reduces herself to a baby for Eddie, as she knows this pleases him and is herself reliant on his affection. This unnatural closeness between the two of them first alerts the audience to potential problems.
Eddie’s unusual behaviour around Catherine is also questionable. When Catherine eagerly greets him at the start of the play the stage directions describe Eddies odd reaction. He is “pleased and therefore shy about it”. As Catherine’s father figure it appears peculiar that he would be shy around her, which gives the audience the first impression that his love for her is not like that of a father. Eddie is over-protective of Catherine and we can see this through his obsessive attention to Catherine’s appearance. He describes her skirt as “too short”, says she is “walkin’ wavy” and wholly disapproves of her new job. His over concern is due to the fact that he is afraid of losing ‘his’ girl. He knows that if Catherine were to go to work she would meet new people and no longer depend upon him. He is scared of her becoming a woman and attracting the attention of other men because it would mean she was not his little girl anymore. It is clear that he is very possessive of Catherine. He says that she “is not all the girls” implying that she is his girl. He also calls her “Madonna” tenderly which translates from Eddie’s native Italian language into ‘my lady’. At the start of the play it is clear that Eddie and Catherine’s relationship is unnatural as they are sharing the type of intimacy that only lovers would share.
