Eddie Carbone's Transformation

Eddie Carbone is one of the main characters in Arthur Millers ‘A View From A Bridge’. Within the production Eddie is seen as from a warm loving man into an over-protective uncle, jealous over his Nieces own love for an immigrant known as Rodolfo, thus turning into a love triangle and leading to the death of himself. Was this his own fault or was it due to the actions of someone else? Eddie Carbone’s Tragic Hero Qualities: Within the play ‘A View From The Bridge’ Eddie Carbone after being killed can be related as being a ‘tragic hero’.

At the beginning this can be seen in the way he cares for his niece as if she was his own love, when trying to prevent her from taking a job with a big plumbing company he uses quotes such as “What job? She’s gonna finish school” and “I want you to be in a nice office. Maybe a lawyers” as relating to Alfieri, the plays own lawyer.

This to begin with can be one of the reasons to it being down to Eddie himself who caused his downfall, as when Rodolfo comes into the limelight he again over protects and in a way gets jealous when the two fall in love. Eddie immediately presumes that Rodolfo, who in fact is one of many illegal immigrants from Sicily, is only getting together with Catherine so he can get married and become a true citizen.

The View From A Bridge

In doing so this rages Eddie and without thinking calls upon the immigration office to take the family, who is spending there stay at his own home, away.

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Because of this Marco, one of the other immigrants, gets into a scuffle with Eddie resulting in Marco turning Eddies own knife upon him and killing him. This could be one of the first reasons relating Eddie to a tragic hero as he died for what he believed in. Before all of this Beatrice his wife explains to him what he had done and what could happen to the Sicilians, heroically Eddie tries to throw the lead off the immigrants and although failing to turn the tide back, this is seen as one of the more nice things he did.

Eddies relationship and attitude to Rodolfo: Throughout the play Eddie and Rodolfo don’t seem to get on with one another despite a bright entry when it seems to the audience that Eddie is protecting the immigrants from his wife Beatrice, who is annoyed at the fact that they came early, leaving no time to prepare and be the good host. Despite this start, as soon as Rodolfo and Cathy get together tension seems to grip the air and the feud finally starts.

Along with insults over his girlish ‘camp’ looks Eddie also picks upon Rodolfo’s “Paper Doll” singing and what seems to be complete opposite male behaviour, as Eddie quotes “He’s like a chorus girl or sump’m”. As he begins to become more and more protective, Eddie try’s to teach Rodolfo a thing or two about boxing trying to show to Cathy that he’s not a stud unlike himself, leaving the question open to the audience, ‘Does Eddie have a secret love for his own niece?’ After seeming to try to show off to Catherine.

As the play goes on Eddie become more and more agitated resulting in the immigration offices coming, due to the fault of Eddie being to over-protective or in love with Catherine. This seems to be his own fatal flaw, and shows how really domineering Eddie is, not only bossing Beatrice around but also Cathy and her love. Eddies relationship with Catherine: A very stereotypical man he is, Eddie because of judging Rodolfo on his ways of life is hated by Catherine. There attitude towards one another can be seen at the start as Eddie refuses to agree with the fact that she has nearly agreed to a job as a secretary which Eddie sees as “unfit for a women” and “below her standards”.