From the other character’s point of view through the play, Eddie was a nice and decent man who has a nice wife and a nice niece. To Catherine, Eddie is her guardian, her father. She always trusted and cared about Eddie, and she doesn’t want to see him sad or worried. She never realized that Eddie loved her the wrong way and jealous towards Rodolpho’s relationship with her. According to Beatrice, she is still acting like a child when she is around Eddie: sitting on the edge of the bath tub when he’s shaving and walking around in her slips. At the point where the drunken Eddie kissed her and Rodolpho, Catherine felt rage and anger toward Eddie, maybe even hatred. She doesn’t understand why Eddie was so opposed to Rodolpho and reported them to the immigration bureau. She told Beatrice “What are you scared of? He’s a rat! He belongs in the sewer!” But it shows that Catherine still cares about Eddie and never expected a tragic ending like this when she says “Eddie, I never meant to do nothing bad to you” when he dies.
Compared to the young Catherine, Beatrice has a much more mature view on Eddie. She was always loyal to Eddie, from the beginning to the very end when he dies. She is very much likeable with Catherine, but has a more mature mind and a better view of matters. She sensed that Eddie’s love toward Catherine was more than pure father and daughter love, and he even has sexual desire for Catherine. At the end of the play she shouted “You want something else, Eddie, and you can never have her!” She was upset that Eddie hasn’t had close relationship with her in a long time, and therefore realizes the problem sooner than anyone else. She talks to Catherine and Eddie, hoping to talk them to understanding, but apparently it didn’t work. However, Beatrice was always loyal to Eddie, even after he betrayed Marco and Rodolpho, and his improper love with Catherine. She replied to Catherine if Eddie belongs to the garbage, “Then we all belong to the garbage.” Eddie dies in her arms at the end.
Marco and Rodolpho were both grateful to Eddie when they first arrived his house. Marco even felt a little awe in him, and thought he was a nice and reliable man as he was willing to take risk to cover for them. He respected him and considered him as a good man. As Catherine and Rodolpho’s relationship develops, Marco senses trouble and feels wary toward Eddie. At the end of act one, he raises a chair over his head like a weapon as a warning to Eddie, warning him not to mess up with his brother, Rodolpho. Rodolpho also senses that something is wrong, and he decided to avoid disrespecting Eddie as much as possible, since he is the guardian of Catherine. But after the kiss, Rodolpho felt confusion and anger toward him, because he did not understand why he did it, and it was a huge disrespect to him, an insult to do such thing. When Marco knew Eddie had betrayed them and reported them to the immigration bureau, he considered him a murderer, because going back to Italy meant no jobs, no money, and no way to support his family. He felt hatred and he spat in Eddie’s face publically to show his anger. As the relationship between Marco and Eddie gets tense, Rodolpho sense Eddie is a dangerous character, and it is better to avoid him. He did not want him dead, because he is Catherine’s uncle, and he is going to soon marry Catherine. At the end of the play, as Eddie was determined to get his name back, he pulls out his knife and lunges to Marco, but Marco being so much stronger than Eddie, uses Eddie’s knife against himself. He felt that Eddie deserves to die, and justice has been done.
As in Miller’s attitude toward Eddie, he said “I had originally conceived Eddie as a phenomenon, a rather awesome fact of existence.” Suggesting that Eddie is rather unique character. “Consequently, he had appeared as a kind of illogical sport”, “that however one might dislike this man, who does all sorts of frightful things.” He suggested that the aim to create Eddie in the first place was that “in the end one feels pity for him and the kind of wonder” He is using Eddie as a special case in the real society and so that people can wonder and realize the real justice and problems in real life.
Eddie Carbone, the tragic character in “A view from the bridge”, had brought us many things to think about. There are people who loved him, cared about him, people who hated him. Some might argue that everything he did was motivated by love, love toward his niece, even if it’s wrong.