Eddie plays on the conscience of the immigrants to make himself look innocent. He is constantly reminding them that it was him that brought them into the country and that they should be thanking him.
Eddie: that the thanks I get? Which I took the blankets off my bed for yiz …
Eddie is still primitive, he does not understand his feelings and he disguises what he is thinking by living his life as a liar. He believes his imagination. Therefore, this means Eddie does not realise his feelings for Catherine as he has constructed an imaginary world where he can suppress his urges; it is this suppression that stops him from telling Catherine how he feels.
This block of emotion forces him to take his anger out on Marco and Rodolpho. Eddie’s suppression is mainly because he is seen as manly and in-charge of everything - his feelings, emotions and family. This is due to the nature of Italian culture. Eddie therefore fantasises about things that are unobtainable and can never happen.
Before Marco and Rodolpho arrived Eddie dictated what happened in the family and when it happened, especially over Catherine. When Catherine starts becoming interested in Rodolpho, Eddie can see that he would have to let her go but cannot. He blames Rodolpho (and Marco) for coming over and ruining the power he had over Catherine and Beatrice, he wants to break them up.
This reaction of his shows how unstable and irrational he is. Rodolpho is the catalyst that makes Eddie realise that he loves Catherine. Eddie is jealous of Rodolpho because Rodolpho can have Catherine. Catherine loves Rodolpho in a way that she can never love Eddie.
Eddie is unsure of Rodolpho and why he wants to be in the country. Marco came to raise money for his family and plans to go back to Italy and be with them. Marco is securely married with his children to feed. Rodolpho wants to live in the country for ever and buy a motorcycle. Rodolpho has blonde hair which is not very typical of an Italian. He is young and carefree, makes dresses, sings songs like Satin Doll, this makes Eddie think that Rodolpho is a homosexual.
In the play, Eddie tries to prove that Rodolpho is gay to Catherine by kissing him, it does not work. He tells her that Rodolpho only wants her for American citizenship.
This is caused by Eddie’s limited ideas of what being a man is about. Italian-American masculine belief of what being a man is about; this is because Eddie is intellectually limited. Protecting your territory and regarding other men as hostile and intruders when they try to cross the boundary is Eddie’s view of what being a man is about.
Eddie’s character is very hard to understand; he says one thing but does another. At the beginning of the play when the two immigrants arrived, he told Catherine and Beatrice that the worse thing that someone can do in their community is tell the authorities about an illegal immigrant, especially, if they are from your family. He points out that the person who does it will be shunned from the community.
The tables turned when he sees that he will have to let Catherine go, if Marco and Rodolpho stay in the country; he tells the immigration officers of them, so that they can go back to Italy. This shows how selfish he is and how much he loves Catherine because he is ready to break one of the strongest unspoken ethics in society for her and risk being an outcast.
The fact that Eddie went to Alferi, a lawyer, shows his erroneous love for Catherine. In the area where they live, people do not approach people of law because a lot of illegal things go on. He normally is against law but now is trying to make the law work in his direction.
Eddie does not go to Alferi with the intention of telling the immigration officers but when he sees that there is no other way of getting rid of them, he did.
Beatrice is Eddie’s wife but in the play, this is not always apparent because he is always thinking about Catherine. Beatrice has never had a child so treats Catherine as her own. There are hints right from the start that she is aware of Eddie’s feelings for Catherine, she tries to confront Eddie about the issue. When Beatrice tells Eddie, he is getting too close to Catherine, he reacts in an explosive and destructive way, this is because he can not handle the truth that he is hearing and he is trying to block it out. Beatrice is trying to manoeuvre round the issue in a safe calm way but in the end, has to come out with what she said a long time ago. She continually tried to be the calming influence. At the end, however, she remains to Eddie, choosing to stay with him rather than attend Catherine’s wedding.’ She is rewarded for this with Eddie’s dying words ‘my B!’
Two different countries are involved in the play, Italy and America. There are lots of cultural differences between the two. In Italy, law is based a lot around honour, keeping your name. When Marco wants to avenge Eddie for what Eddie did, he wants to let him back for telling the immigration officers about him and of his brother. Marco believes in justice this is why he says:
“All the law is not in a book’ because back in Italy it is more about punishing for what is right, about blood and degradation. Unlike America, where justice is not always given, because people always abide strictly by the law whether it is morally right or not.
In the small area where the Carbone and the immigrants live, there is a network of Italian people living there, so, a lot of things happen in the community and the community is solidly against the law, as there are many illegal immigrants in the area, so telling the immigration office is breaking the code of the community and culture.
Eddie and most of the people in the community are immigrants, who have not become accustomed to the American way of life or culture and are still living as though they are in Italy. Justice is very important in the area and they do not always follow the immigration rules and betrayal of people who tell the immigration officers. Keeping your name in the community is vital because it means keeping your respect and dignity.
Eddie chooses to turn against the community and abide by the American state laws, even though he does not believe in them. He therefore loses respect from everyone; towards the end of the play, Eddie is constantly saying ‘I want my name back.’ But it is not his name; it’s Catherine, which he wants from Rodolpho. In the play, the community rules are stronger than the American law. This was a major cause of Eddie’s death.
There were many times Eddie could have avoided his death. Instead of keeping his feelings to himself and seem; like a ‘true man’, he could have said that he loved Catherine. This also may have still meant conflict in the family but it could have avoided the tragic death because as Beatrice said ‘the truth is not as bad as blood.’
Eddie is very arrogant and so did not want to take Rodolpho’s apology. He wanted to be the bigger man, if he had, he would be alive, but he would not ‘settle for half’ even though Eddie was in the wrong by telling the immigration office, his pride would not allow him to accept an apology.
In the play, the audience feels sympathy in different ways for different characters. Eddie is a sad case because he’s so wrapped up in his fantasy world that he cannot see the things that are really going on in reality, around him. He is very self-destructive and a hazard to himself. People mainly feel sorry for Beatrice because of her love and care of Eddie; helping him calm down when he is angry. He does not seem to acknowledge her. She always tries to reconcile any situation and bring peace but does not get anything in return. Catherine, because she is under the control of Eddie and is trying to grow, but is not being allowed to grow because he is always stopping her.
Also Marco because his character is very responsible and focussed, he is looking out for his brother. Marco has strong thoughts about justice and what is right and because of Eddie, he was deported.
In a View from the Bridge, the death of Eddie was caused by a number of things arising mainly from Eddie’s character. Unlike the other characters in the play, Eddie acted irrationally and was very self-centred. At times his actions were motivated by his own desires and wishes, as Alfieri said,
“Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better. Even as I know how wrong he was and his death useless, I tremble, for I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory...” He said this because Eddie did not want to settle for half, he wanted everything, including Catherine, even though this is not possible.
This quote also refers to the two different cultures and countries, Italians (and immigrants) are expecting to have everything and their way of life is different, unlike the Americans, who “settle for half” and know that they cannot expect to have everything. An example of this is in the difference between the justice laws, Americans would settle for winning half but the Italians want to win it all.
In Eddie’s case in particular, this was said because Eddie showed his full character, his true self and this meant all his emotions and feelings were on show, unrestrained. Unlike the other characters that only showed half of their character and kept it controlled, Eddie was himself at the expense of his family and himself, he was making ideas in his head to justify his thoughts and actions.
Eddie was condescended to the fantasy world when he saw Catherine as his lover and could not see that this could never be possible and because of this, he was driven to lose control of his actions. It was this incestuous love that made him resort to measures of protecting his identity and his name in the community. His acts were wild because he acted fully on his instincts. Eddie believed in loyalty to family and community but it was this same loyalty that made him become disloyal to Rodolpho and Marco and break the community code.
His tragic death was caused by unending conflict between the two cultures. Electing the American or Italian way of life would have made life easier. For this, he is an outcaste in his society. If Eddie had accepted the fact, he could never have controlled Catherine as ‘his territory’ forever, maybe, he would still be alive.
Eddie was motivated by obsession of something he cannot have, Catherine. Eddie knew, he cannot have Catherine and cannot see life living without her. So accepts his death. This is symbolised with his own knife stabbing him to death. From this, it was clear that Eddie was responsible for his own death with little help from Marco, to try and regain ‘his name’. It was all these problems he mainly insinuated that caused his death allowing him to be shattered and enduring the torture and hell he made for himself.
