A View from the Bridge - Arthur Miller

In “A View From The Bridge” by Arthur Miller, the hero, Eddie Carbone, has an obsessive love for his niece, Catherine. Eddie becomes jealous when Catherine begins a relationship with his wife’s cousin, an illegal immigrant whom Eddie has brought into his home. This begins a series of events that lead to Eddie's tragic death. Eddie Carbone is a tragic hero who gains our sympathy despite his flaws.
Eddie Carbone has many positive qualities that are evident from the start of the play. He leads a very simple life and is hardworking:

“He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived.”

Miller’s language, combined with the structure of the sentence, tells us that Eddie is a good man who works hard for a living. He is a straightforward person who does things as part of a routine.
Another of Eddie’s positive qualities is his caring nature, seen when he speaks to Catherine:

“Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed,
I’m responsible for you. You’re a baby,
you don’t understand these things.”

Eddie acts as a father-figure towards Catherine and takes his responsibilities seriously. He looks out for her and thinks he knows what is best for her.
Eddie continues to show admirable qualities when he allows two family members, illegal Italian immigrants, to live in his house. His wife, Beatrice, is ecstatic:

“You’re an angel! God’ll bless you…you’ll see,
you’ll get a blessing for this!”

Eddie is considered a kind, generous, hard working man who loves his family and wants what is best for them. However, this quote is ironic in that it says he will get a “blessing” for taking in Marco and Rodolfo, the two immigrants, but in fact he gets killed at the end.
However, Eddie, like most ordinary people, has negative qualities that we should condemn. As the play continues and Eddie sees that Rodolfo and Catherine are forming a strong relationship, we begin to see his feelings:

“I ain’t starting nothin’ but I ain’t gonna stand around lookin’ at that. For that character I didn’t bring her up.”

Eddie is jealous of the couple’s developing relationship and has a low opinion of Rodolfo. He cannot even say his name, instead treating him like an object. Eddie is over-protective of Catherine and seems to think that she belongs to him and deserves a better man.
This side of Eddie is further highlighted when Beatrice realises his inappropriate love for Catherine and claims that Eddie has become insensitive to her needs:

“When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?”

The physical side of their marriage has broken down because Eddie has become obsessive about Catherine and Beatrice has been ignored. Beatrice is trying to make Eddie realise what he is doing, but Eddie cannot see the truth.
The act that we condemn most in Eddie, however, is the betrayal of his family when he reports the immigrants to the authorities. Alfieri, Eddie’s lawyer, had already warned him against this action:

“You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understood will turn against you even the ones who feel the same will despise you!”

Alfieri‘s warning is true: when Eddie‘s betrayal becomes known to his family and friends they turn against him. Eddie cannot see what he is doing wrong, he is so jealous of Rodolfo and oblivious to his own inappropriate love for Catherine.
Like all tragic heroes, Eddie has a fatal flaw in his character which is responsible for the chain of events that lead to his tragic death. This flaw is his obsessive love for Catherine and the catalyst that brings this out in him is Rodolfo and Catherine’s developing relationship. Eddie seeks advice from Alfieri, to which Alfieri comments:

“His eyes were like tunnels: I saw that it was only a passion that had moved into his body like a stranger.”

Alfieri can predict what is going to happen to Eddie; he can see Eddie is not acting like himself, but “like a stranger,” as if possessed by someone else.
The death of Eddie at the end of the play is inevitable. After Marco and Rodolfo are arrested and the community has turned against Eddie, he pleads: “I want my name back.” This is what makes the ending inevitable as we can see that he is not going to give up fighting to regain his respect and as a result he is killed.
Eddie’s death evokes a mixture of emotions: his death is deserved in so far as Eddie will not risk losing Catherine and he is the one who brings a knife to fight Marco. Although Eddie’s death is deserved, however, we do feel sympathy for him because he only does what he believes is right and cannot see the error in his ways. Alfieri puts it perfectly at the end of the play:

“… he allowed himself to be wholly known and for that I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients.”

Eddie did not follow rules and fought for what he believed in. He was devoted to Catherine, but lost his respect through betraying his family in order to have Catherine for himself. Ultimately the two emotions that we feel for Eddie are admiration and sympathy.
Eddie is a good example of a tragic hero as he began as a simple, hard working, family man but became a jealous man who betrayed his family. However, in doing so he died for what he believed in. This play can be called a tragedy because in spite of Eddie’s death, he wins back his respect from Catherine, Beatrice and the community for fighting for what he believed in.

Once again thank you for reading this review!