Eddies Manipulative Boxing Lessons for Rodolfo

Later on, when Rodolfo and Catherine still haven’t lost interest in each other, Eddie pretended to teach Rodolfo how to box, but is actually trying to humiliate his weakness and lack of masculinity, and he challenges his manliness in terms of strength that Eddie has but Rodolpho lacks. It is unbearable for Eddie not to punch Rodolpho because he thinks he is gay from his attitude and do things that longshoremen do not do. He punches Rodolfo and hurts him.

He believes Rodolpho to be an unsuitable match for Catherine and is trying to protect her from effeminate opportunist. His prejudice against Rodolpho is because he is not conventionally manly. After all the attempts that Eddie has tried, he fails to change Catherine’s mind, so he has no other choice but to snitch to the Immigration Bureau. He creates a fictional fantasy world where his absurd decisions make sense. He loses all respect and must confront Marco to regain his name.

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“Now gimme my name and we go together to the wedding.” Eddie exists very much as a part of the community and this gives him his strength and brings about his destruction. As Alfieri says: “he is a victim of a passion that has moved into his body like a stranger. ”

Although Eddie seems unable to understand his feeling for his niece until the end of the play, other characters are aware. Beatrice is the first to express his possibility in her conversation with Catharine. Alfieri also realizes Eddie’s feelings until Beatrice clearly articulates his desires in the conclusion of the play: “you want somethin’ else Eddie and you can never have her.

” His conflict with Rodolpho also shows Eddie’s disapproval of the modern values, criticizing Rodolpho for his carefree attitude to life, spending his pay on “a snappy new jacket … records” Eddie’s determination to impose his traditional values youth immersed in American culture and modern values is doomed to failure as his attitude are shown to be backward and inappropriate and will never be accepted.

Eddie is keen to find any excuse to try and tear Rodolpho and Catherine apart, accusing Rodolpho of being “a weird” and then claiming that he is “looking for his break,” using Catherine to get his American citizenship. Ironically, Eddie’s effort to keep the couples apart only bring them closer together and serve to ostracise himself from Catherine. It also forces Catherine to become independent from Eddie and make her own decisions, saying “I think I can’t stay here no more… I’m not gonna be a baby anymore!”. Catherine comes to think of Eddie as a “rat” who “comes when nobody’s lookin” and poisons decent people.”

Eddie’s relationship with his wife also becomes tenuous, as Beatrice is anxious for Catherine to gain her independence while Eddie is striving for her to remain a “baby” under his influence. This creates a lot of tension between them. It is aggravated by the fact that Eddie expects Beatrice to “believe” him, saying “If I tell you that guy ain’t right, don’t tell me he is right.” Beatrice’s resistance to Eddie’s claims about Rodolpho leads Eddie to think that he has lost his “respect”. It is only at the end when Eddie comes to the realization that it is Beatrice and not Catherine who is most important in his life.

By ringing Immigration Bureau, Eddie’s downfall is secured as Marco is set against Eddie, spitting into Eddie’s face and calling him an “animal” and the killer of his children. However, it is Eddie’s refusal to admit his mistakes and that he has disgraced his name by ringing Immigration Bureau that brings about the final confrontation between Eddie and Marco. Marco wants retribution against Eddie for forcing him to go back to Italy, ruining his family’s chances of ever escaping poverty.

While it is Marco that kills Eddie, it is the knife that Eddie drew that is the instrument for his death, signifying self-destruction. Eddie’s downfall is brought about through his own failings and mistakes, rather than the mistakes of others having an impact on him. In A view from the Bridge, Eddie is portrayed as an over-protective, obsessive man, who does not know the boundaries and who’s logic is flawed when it comes t his feelings. He lives in a bubble, where he expects to get what he desires, thus keeping him away from reality. Only at the end does the bubble burst as he acknowledges his mistake in his last moment. His death in Beatrice’s arms justifies how he still values and seeks redemption and forgiveness from his wife after all he did.