How Does Carbone Present Eddie's Relationship In A View From The Bridge

A view from a bridge is a play set in the early 50’s in New York near the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a dramatic tragedy and it is here we’re introduced to Eddie Carbone and his niece, Catherine. In the play the audience is able to observe their relationship and watch it change throughout the play. Towards the start of the play we perceive a normal fatherly-daughterly relationship, where occasionally we may think Eddie is slightly over protective but at this point there is nothing abnormal about it. But as the play progresses we begin to see a different side to Eddie and also a different perspective of his obsessive feelings for Catherine. The feelings Eddie portrays for Catherine are clearly deeper than a parental love and when it becomes apparent

For example he says, ‘You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things’. When in truth she is only a year off being a legal adult at the age of 17. We see Catherine acting childish especially towards the start of the play when she walks around the house in her slip and Beatrice comments on it, ‘you’re a grown woman and you’re in the same house with a grown man’. Beatrice says this to Catherine as she is trying to warn her about Eddie’s feelings for her and even though he’s taken on a father figure he’s not her father and she needs to act less immature around him. It is clear Catherine is very reliant on Eddie and cares a great deal about his opinion. But throughout the play this changes a great deal especially when she chooses Rodolpho over Eddie, she becomes a stronger

We see this when Rodolpho plays paper doll, ‘I’m gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own, A doll that other fellows cannot steal.’ The lyrics show that the paper doll is actually Catherine and that Rodolpho is going to take her away from Eddie. Eddie feels uneasy when Rodolpho sings this because it here we see Eddie treat Catherine as if she’s her possession and he doesn’t like the idea of Rodolpho taking her away from him. He also turns cold to Catherine at times for example, ‘What’s the high heels for, Garbo?’ Here Eddie actually tries to put Catherine down and infantalise her to stop her looking attractive to Rodolpho. This hurts Catherine as she is at this point in time in the middle of still wanting Eddies approval but being more independent. Rodolpho also brings up the issue of Eddie treating Catherine like possession when he says, ‘You are not a horse, a gift, a favour for a poor immigrant’. He tries to make the point that he sees Catherine for her whereas Eddie sees her as possession. In terms of 1950s America, this quotation actually shows that Rodolpho treats Catherine differently to how other women are treated by men in that society: for example, Eddie treats Beatrice with disrespect and does not value her views or opinions, this is not the case for