Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge

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Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's The View From The Bridge Eddie is a simple person who is a victim of circumstances but he also contributes to his downfall. I am going to start with his Sicilian background because I believe that this is one of the most important things that motivates Eddie. Coming from a Sicilian background Eddie believed that the man should be the leader of the household and that everything goes by him first concerning his family and that he should be very manly and stand up for those close to him. You can see that he believes this by the way he talks to Catherine. Catherine is talking to him about her job as a stenographer and he says ''why didn't you ask me before you took a job ?'' this shows that he wants Catherine to ask for his permission before accepting the job. He wants her to ask for permission so he feels like he is the boss and because he wasn't consulted first he feels threatened. This is one thing that lead to his downfall because he was trying to be so manly he could not show any emotions, so he kept everything inside and bottled it up. His Sicilian background inter links with his 1950's notions of manhood because his Sicilian background meant that he had to be very manly and be the one who goes of to work. He shows his manliness when he starts to be competitive with Marco and Rodolfo for instance when he starts to teach him Boxing ''well come on , I'll teach you'' and then when Marco showed Eddie that he could pick up a chair with one hand, Eddie looked grumpy because he couldn't do it, he felt like he was beaten. His notions of manhood also lead to his downfall because he was so self indulgent that he could not take Alfieri's advice to let Catherine do what she wanted to do. Eddies neighbourhood motivates him a lot because he is so concerned about his respect in the neighbourhood he forgets about what he is

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