A View from the Bridge- Catherine and Eddie's Relationship
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- Category: English: Plays
- Date Submitted: 04/12/2011 01:19 PM
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A View from the Bridge- Eddie and Catherine’s relationship
Miller uses relationships in the play ‘A view from the Bridge’ to allow the audience to feel as though they can relate to the characters. He uses Eddie and Beatrice to represent stability and normality so as to show that, with a cruel twist of fate, this could happen to anyone. He uses Catherine and Eddie’s relationship to highlight the fact that their marriage is starting to fall apart yet their love for each other is unconditional and we soon see that the strength of love between the characters leads to Eddie’s tragic, yet inevitable death.
In the opening scene of the play, in the words of Alfieri, Eddie is ‘a husky, slightly overweight longshoreman’ – in other words, normal. At first when Eddie gets home form work we see that Catherine is excited to see him as she exclaims ‘ Hi Eddie!’ the way a little child would do. He is ‘pleased’ about this level of affection and when he says ‘Where you goin’ all dressed up?’ he just seems like an overprotective father. Considering the fact that she’s not his own child, the audience see this as an acceptable way to react but as the scene continues, we realise that he sees her as much more than his niece. Catherine, instead of just shrugging the question off runs ‘her hands all over her skirt’ and asks him ‘you like it?’ which is clearly flirtatious and instantly uncomfortable for the audience to watch. When he tells her ;’ you look like one of them girls’ it is suggesting that he views her as ‘one of the girls,’ not just his niece.
We get another glimpse of Eddie’s overprotective nature towards Catherine in the conversation about her job. His tone of voice towards her is very blunt as he asks her questions in a ‘strangely nervous’ way. ‘Where’s the job? What company?’- It’s almost as if he doesn’t want her to take the job because she’d be far away from him. His defensive reactions to what she says seem illogical and irrelevant to the audience but it seems he...
Miller uses relationships in the play ‘A view from the Bridge’ to allow the audience to feel as though they can relate to the characters. He uses Eddie and Beatrice to represent stability and normality so as to show that, with a cruel twist of fate, this could happen to anyone. He uses Catherine and Eddie’s relationship to highlight the fact that their marriage is starting to fall apart yet their love for each other is unconditional and we soon see that the strength of love between the characters leads to Eddie’s tragic, yet inevitable death.
In the opening scene of the play, in the words of Alfieri, Eddie is ‘a husky, slightly overweight longshoreman’ – in other words, normal. At first when Eddie gets home form work we see that Catherine is excited to see him as she exclaims ‘ Hi Eddie!’ the way a little child would do. He is ‘pleased’ about this level of affection and when he says ‘Where you goin’ all dressed up?’ he just seems like an overprotective father. Considering the fact that she’s not his own child, the audience see this as an acceptable way to react but as the scene continues, we realise that he sees her as much more than his niece. Catherine, instead of just shrugging the question off runs ‘her hands all over her skirt’ and asks him ‘you like it?’ which is clearly flirtatious and instantly uncomfortable for the audience to watch. When he tells her ;’ you look like one of them girls’ it is suggesting that he views her as ‘one of the girls,’ not just his niece.
We get another glimpse of Eddie’s overprotective nature towards Catherine in the conversation about her job. His tone of voice towards her is very blunt as he asks her questions in a ‘strangely nervous’ way. ‘Where’s the job? What company?’- It’s almost as if he doesn’t want her to take the job because she’d be far away from him. His defensive reactions to what she says seem illogical and irrelevant to the audience but it seems he...