Eddie Carbone is an American-Sicilian man working in Brooklyn. He works as a longshoreman: carrying crates and goods from the ships. He is quite a large man. His job requires him to be strong and a good worker. In other words he is very masculine. He is an ordinary man. He lives with his wife and niece, whom he treats like a daughter, and like all good men should do, he works every day to provide them with enough money to survive on. Eddie is a man’s man. He lives within a close-knit community of Sicilians and is a well respected member of society. Eddie sees himself as a prime example of how a man should act and look.
The ending of a view from the bridge is fairly predictable from the beginning as it is hinted at by the narrator Alfieri throughout the first scene until the climax at the end of scene one where it becomes evident to us that a fall is about to occur. Many factors contribute to the tragic downfall of Eddie Carbone. However it is his limited understanding of what it means to be a man that is the most prominent. Eddie’s perception of what it means to be a man is also connected with his views of women. Eddie’s forbidden love for Catherine is also one of the main driving forces behind the tragedy. The downfall of Eddie Carbone may have eventually occurred even without Marco and Rodolpho coming over from Italy as his love for Catherine was unnatural. Marcos strong belief in the Sicilian codes of conduct cause him to fight Eddie. Eddie’s limited understanding of what it means to be a man becomes damaged and challenged during the play, he responds terribly to these and doesn’t approve when other men do not act as he believes men should.
In Alfieri’s opening speech he makes it clear that something bad is about to occur. He says ‘Sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. This one’s name was Eddie Carbone…’ This makes it clear that Eddie too is to follow the fate that something bad, but unstoppable is going to happen. Alfieri, like a narrator in a Greek tragedy, characterizes the chorus in the play and he tells the story and suggests eddies downfall throughout the play. ‘There was a future; there was a trouble that would not go away’. Here Alfieri is explaining that even if Rodolpho and Marco hadn’t arrived, Eddie’s love for Catherine would’ve bought a downfall. Especially seeing as his relationship with Beatrice was becomin...
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...ting his name. He says to Marco ‘Now gimme my name!’ Eddie believes that Marco has taken his name. Eddie shouts out to the crowd ‘Maybe he came to apologise to me’. Eddie tries to make the crowd think that it is Marco, who has done wrong by taking Eddie’s name, Marco has damaged Eddie’s pride and Eddie believes he should pay for this.
The biggest factor that drives the tragedy is definitely Eddie’s narrowed view of what it means to be a mean. The cousins coming to America only acted as a catalyst for what was bound to happen between the Carbone family as Eddie’s inappropriate love for Catherine would’ve driven them apart eventually. Rodolpho is like a threat to Eddie as he might take Catherine away from him. Eddie not only has stereotypical views on men but on women too. He believes they should look after the house, stay at home and care for their husbands. He sees men as stronger and more authoritative than women. He therefore believes strongly in men having a reputation. This is what finally causes Eddie and Marco to fight, as Eddie wants his name and reputation back. This is how Eddie’s understanding of what it means to be a man leads to his downfall and so drives the tragedy.
The Jericho Covered Bridge in Kingsville, Maryland was built in 1865 and restored in 1982. The bridge is 100 feet long and cased in cedar planks and timber beams. Legend has it that after the Civil War many lynchings occurred on the bridge. Passersby were supposedly captured on the bridge and hung from the upper rafters. The bridge is very close to my house and I have driven over it several times. The storyteller, age 19, also lives a couple minutes away from the bridge. He has lived in Kingsville, Maryland his entire life. He recalled a dramatic story he had heard from his older brother involving the haunted bridge.
This is a crucial part because he finally committed to not letting alcohol control his life, something that has controlled him since his brother was killed. This was a huge step in Eddie’s character development.
In the same scheme, both in the movie and the book, the father is presented as abusive and alcoholic on many occasions. In words, the book gives a detailed account of the damages inflicted on Eddie by his father’s violence: “he went through his younger years whacked, lashed, and beaten.” (Albom 105) In the film, t...
In the novel, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, the author capitalizes upon society’s expectation of a character to emphasize the struggle to achieving his goals. Ian, one of the central characters in the plot line, is heavily impacted by these expectations, which hold a substantial influence upon his decision’s regarding his future. To teenagers an expectation: a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future, is nothing but a restriction upon them. Ian believes he is contained within these expectations; to the point where he does not wish to follow this given path. In a time of adolescence, teenagers are compelled by the strong desire to denounce that which is expected of them; Ian is no exception to this. Societies expectations create a negative influence upon Ian’s struggles to achieve his goals. These effects are due to the following expectations: to leave Struan for a superior education, to obtain the opportunity to become successful; to strive for a medical career, since he excels at the trade already; and to settle into a happy relationship, to raise a family.
Prior to meeting the five people that he meets in heaven, he feels as if his life is worthless and has no meaning. Physically he is not in good shape, “His left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane to get around”(2, paragraph 1). He feels stuck at a place with a job that he absolutely hates, “He cursed his father for dying and for trapping him in the very life he’d been trying to escape: a life that, as he heard the old man laughing from the grave, apparently now was good enough for him”(128, paragraph 1). The one and only love of his life has died, “I lost everything. I lost the only woman I ever loved”(173, paragraph 9). The triumphs bring Eddie down and make him feel as if his life did not go as he had planned.
d. Marguerite - Although Eddie was a miserable man throughout the course of his existence, his love, Marguerite was the one thing that made him happy. After she died, Eddie felt empty and lost without her. When he meets Marguerite in heaven she explains to him that, even after death, she had always loved Eddie. Eddie learns that although life may end love is forever.
Eddie is not doing the best for his family at all and he is without
Eddie was average in school, but he loved to read. His schoolmates shunned Eddie because he was effeminate and shy. He had no friends. In 1944 Eddies brother Henry mysteriously died. ( In the Beginning)
By the end of the play, we see Claudio’s transformation from being an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated grow into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for. The wedding dance of Claudio and Hero along with Beatrice and Benedict shows how order is now restored in the city of Messina, and order given to the life of Claudio.
Everyone Eddie met in heaven taught him something about his life. They were all connected to him in different ways, whether it was someone close to him once, or a complete stranger. Somehow, all of their lives had crossed Eddie’s and helped make him the person that he had become. When you think about this lesson, you truly understand. One decision causes an effect, maybe on your life or maybe on someone else’s life. That effect will cause something else. It’s what I think of as a ripple effect. Everything happens for a reason, and all of the events that lead up to our “now” makes us who we are.
In the last part of the play, just before Rodolfo enters, Catherine, Eddie and Beatrice have been quarrelling about the wedding. Eddie doesn't want Catherine to get married to Rodolfo because we learnt at the start of the play that Eddie thinks that Rodolfo 'isn't right'. This scene is the start of where all the tension builds up, when Eddie tells Beatrice not to go to Catherine's wedding, but betrays him and plans to go. As soon as Rodolfo comes in, Eddie's reaction towards him makes us feel tense as if something is going to be said. Miller succeeds in building up the tension when Rodolfo says that Marco is 'praying in the church'.
Eddie’s betrayal caused Marco to betray in turn, despite the fact that Marco’s actions were risky and selfish. Catherine points out how selfish killing Eddie would be when she says; “You got a wife and kids, Marco. You could be workin’ till the hearing comes up, instead of layin’ around here.” If Marco were to be caught and arrested, then he would most likely be jailed for a long time, and therefore unable to send his wife and kids money, causing them hardship and poverty. He is simply thinking about his immediate family: his brother, and his family name, and is not seeing the bigger picture.
"He was as good a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and
He works hard and has a good job. These good points help us to forgive him more for his bad points however there are quite a lot of them. He is over protective of his niece, Catherine, in her increasing maturity. "I don't like the looks they are giving you in the candy store" "You're a baby" It is I believe this urge to protect Catherine, which makes him try to keep her from discovering independence. Catherine rapidly becomes attracted toward Rodolfo; this makes Eddie increasingly sensitive to
It is the story of a man named Eddie who for almost his whole life was the