The Marco And Rodolpho

The following sample essay on Marco And Rodolpho. In what ways do the three main male characters in “A View from the Bridge” demonstrate differing kinds of Masculinity to the audience? Eddie Carbone is a longshoremen, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Beatrice and his niece Catherine, who he has brought up since her mother has died. Eddie loves Catherine more than a niece; he wants to keep her as a child forever so she will never leave him.

Beatrice’s cousins (two Sicilian brothers) arrive at Eddie’s apartment, it has taken some time to get them into the country and they must not be known by the Immigration Bureau or they will be deported.

At first Eddie likes Marco, the oldest of the brothers, because of his attitude to making money to send back to his family. Something that a “real” man should do, look after and protect their family, this is the same reason why he dislikes Rodolpho because he doesn’t act the way a “real” man does and is unmarried (afraid that he might take away Catherine).

Things start to go wrong for Eddie after the arrival of Marco and Rodolpho, Catherine starts to go out late at night and Eddie disproves of this and when he knows that Catherine and Rodolpho are going out with each other he is furious and dislikes them together because he doesn’t like the way Rodolpho acts. Because of the way he acts, he is being laughed at, at the piers where he sings, and because he lives in Eddies house, Eddie is finding it embarrassing too.

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After a long period of time, Eddie, desperate and afraid finally calls the immigration bureau and tells them the presence of Marco and Rodolpho; the two brothers are caught and taken to a cell. When Marco is bailed, he heads straight for Eddie and kills him because in a Sicilian community you never betray members of your community and if you do, the result is death. Masculinity is the actions and quality of a man; in the play all three characters are important because they are three very different types of man. Between them, they cause tension, fights and arguments.

“Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaws, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over his head – and he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look. ” If one of the characters didn’t act the way they did, e. g. Rodolpho doesn’t sing, cook, make dresses etc then Eddie and Rodolpho wouldn’t have the conflict between them and Eddie couldn’t say that he was gay for an excuse that Catherine can’t marry him.

The tension is reliant on all the characters, and if anyone of them change, then all the tension is lost. Eddie is stubborn, arrogant and is driven by his beliefs. He thinks that everything evolves around him. His belief is very traditional and believes that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and a man should work and look after their family, not sing, cook or make dresses. Eddie thinks that Rodolpho should be more like a “real” man and stop acting like a woman, since cooking is a woman’s job.

He thinks that he should be more like his brother, Marco or a bit like himself because he finds it hard to believe that a man would do these kinds of things in the 50’s. Eddie treats Catherine and Beatrice like any man would in the 50’s, his respect is important to him in front of Catherine and Beatrice but more importantly the whole neighbourhood. “Beatrice: Why! What do you want? ” “Eddie: I want my respect. Didn’t you ever hear of that? From my wife? Eddie demonstrates the type of man he is to the audience during the whiskey bottle scene.