Justification for Eddie as a Loveable Character in A View From The Bridge

When Alfieri makes his final speech, he says that he 'will love him' (Eddie) more than his 'sensible clients', referring to the usual longshoremen and their relations mentioned at the beginning of the play. However, it is unlikely that Alfieri means 'love' as in 'loveable', due to the fact that Alfieri says before that this love is because of the fact that Eddie 'allowed himself to be fully known'. This could be referring to the fact that everyone around Eddie can see his love for Catherine e.g. at the end, Beatrice tells Eddie that he 'wants something else' other than Marco's apology (i.e. Catherine), and Alfieri mentions that ?she can?t marry you, can she?? Eddie is also described by Alfieri as ?not purely good?, emphasizing the fact that Alfieri does not see Eddie as loveable. The ?love? referred to could be that Alfieri respects Eddie for allowing the people around him to know his feelings. However, Eddie can?t see the true nature of his own love for his niece, and he cannot admit that his relationship with her goes far beyond father/daughter love.

Eddie may not be loveable in the normal sense of the word, but at the beginning of the play, we can still see him as a likeable man ? an ?average?, flawed person. He cares for Catherine as a daughter, and tells her near the end that he ?only wanted the best? for her (Only Eddie is ?the best?, and nothing else will do?). However, he also acts like a young lover near the beginning of the play when we see Eddie and Catherine together for the first time, the stage directions say that Eddie is ?pleased, and therefore shy about it? when Catherine greets him. He is also overprotective of her, a combined result of the ?wrong kind of love? and the fatherly love he has for her, just before M...

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...nitched to the immigration? they spit on him in the street? The whole neighbourhood was cryin?.? However, after Eddie has finally broken the code in a desperate attempt to get Rodolpho out of the house, we lose sympathy for him, in the same way that Red Hook?s Italian community loses respect for him after his betrayal of his cousins becomes clear to them.

However, Eddie is still a pitiable character. Despite his failure to understand his own love for his niece, he is a normal working man who doesn?t really see why it is wrong to love her so much, and deludes himself, trying to convince himself that what he is doing is right. He may not be the typical ?hero? type of many other writers? playscripts ? unlike a hero, he is not perfect, and has many faults, being unable to see or correct them ? but we can still identify with him and his feelings as a normal working man.