A View From The Bridge by J.B. Priestley

A View From The Bridge by J.B. Priestley

"Eddie is doing the best for his family: he is attempting to install

positive values and support Catherine in her life. He is merely

misunderstood"

The reference above about Eddie Carbone is correct; but to a certain

point, meaning it is not correct altogether, because it could be

(successfully) argued that it isn't true. To verify that the above

quotation is true, we need to study the character of Eddie Carbone, to

see whether he is doing the best for his family, rather than for

himself. It is also essential to examine whether he is attempting to

install values and support Catherine for her future life or is he just

doing what he does for his own individual self. After exploring

Eddie's character further, it will become clearer to us what Eddie's

motives are. It is important to see how Eddie behaves in different

situations, and how he handles them; and depending on how people act

towards him and whether they provoke him to behave in the manner that

he does.

One of the main points of subject in 'A View from the Bridge' is

Eddie's masculinity. It is evidently seen that Eddie's masculinity is

very important to him. He has many views of how a man should perform;

it seems that if any men perform differently from him he dislikes

them. The fact that he comes from a Sicilian background is a further

reason for the account of masculinity he presents in 'A View From The

Bridge'. As Eddie comes from a Sicilian background, he believes that

the man should be the leader of the household and rule over women. He

has an idea in his intellect that there is a way to be Italian looking

and a way to b...

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... her life, he wouldn't do things like kiss her on the mouth

or try to set up barriers between her and her man just because Eddie

dislikes him. It can be said that he is not doing the best for his

family in any case seeing that he is too concerned about his respect

from the neighbourhood and his rank in the household that he doesn't

identify what he is doing to his family and the way in which he is

hurting them. The words that match Eddie Carbone adequately are

selfish, ignorant and self-centred, this is because in 'A View From

The Bridge' all he too concerned about himself and anything he does is

for his gain and no one else's. From all of the preceeding points I

have put forward in this essay, it can be clearly understood that

Eddie is not doing the best for his family at all and he is without

doubt not misunderstood.