‘A View from the Bridge’, by Arthur Miller, is a play which explores the theme of obsession. Set in 1940s Brooklyn, the play is based upon the lives of the Carbone family and, in particular, focuses upon longshoreman Eddie Carbone’s unhealthy obsession with his seventeen year old niece Catherine. A modern version of a Greek tragedy, the play charts Eddie’s downfall, ending with his tragic demise. Throughout the play, Miller makes effective use of characterisation and key scene to encourage the audience to reflect upon the dangerous, destructive nature of obsession.
Eddie’s obsession with Catherine manifests itself, at the beginning of the play, as mere over-protectiveness. Eddie appears disheartened by the fact that Catherine is no longer a child and reluctant to grant her independence. Her criticises her dress sense and even comments on the way she walks, telling her ‘you been givin’ me the willies the way you walk down the street’. Such remarks suggest that Eddie cannot bear the idea that Catherine may appear attractive to other men but, at this point in the play, the audience sees him simply as a protective father-figure, caring for his niece.
Further evidence of his controlling nature emerges when Eddie initially refuses to allow Catherine to take a job, before agreeing reluctantly. It is Beatrice who prompts Eddie to grant Catherine permission, when she asks him ‘she’s seventeen years old, you gonna keep her in the house all her life? ’ Although Eddie agrees, he seems to feel that if he allows Catherine independence, he’ll lose her altogether. He says ‘and then you’ll move away…And you’ll come visit on Sundays, then once a month, then Christmas…’ By the end of the opening scene, it is clear to the audience that Eddie is certainly protective, but to a somewhat unhealthy degree.
His need to control Catherine is apparent and paves the way for the obsession that comes to light further on in the play. When Beatrice’s cousins, Rodolpho and Marco, arrive from Italy, Eddie’s obsessive nature becomes increasingly apparent. A mutual attraction between Catherine and Rodolpho becomes obvious, much to Eddie’s disgust. Catherine compliments Rodolpho’s singing, saying ‘He’s terrific’ and Eddie quickly demands that Rodolpho stop singing on the premise that he’s being too loud.
Further evidence of Eddie’s obsessive need to control Catherine and limit her attractiveness to others occurs when he orders Catherine to remove her heeled shoes, telling her ‘Do me a favour, will you? Go ahead’. His intention here is not only to humiliate Catherine (and it works – the stage directions tell us she is ‘embarrassed now, angered’) but to show Rodolpho that he has complete control over Catherine. At this point, the audience begins to suspect that Eddie’s obsessive need to control Catherine stems not from fatherly protectiveness, but from darker feelings of inappropriate lust, which Eddie is not himself fully aware of.
Eddie’s efforts fail however and Catherine and Roldopho embark upon a relationship. This development leads to a significant escalation in Eddie’s obsessive need to keep Catherine close. He attempts to undermine the relationship, telling Catherine ‘he’s only bowin’ to his passport’. Rather than creating distance between the two, this attempt backfires and Catherine questions Eddie’s coldness towards Rodolpho, asking him ‘Why don’t you talk to him, Eddie? ’ Eddie’s obsessiveness has wider implications, too.
It becomes clear that his own marriage is suffering as a result of his attraction to Catherine. By this point in the play, Eddie Carbone simply cannot accept that Catherine should choose to spend time with any man but him and we suspect that his obsession will have dire consequences. As the play builds towards its climax, Eddie’s obsessiveness spirals out of control. Breaking the code of honour within his community, he visits a lawyer who comments on the fact that ‘a passion…had moved into his body, like a stranger’.
This ‘passion’ is his obsession with Catherine and Eddie is devastated when he learns that the law cannot help him remove Rodolpho from Catherine’s life. Furious, he tells Alfieri how Rodolpho ‘puts his filthy hands on her like a goddam thief! ’ His words clearly reveal that he considers Catherine to be his property. Already in a state of fury, Eddie’s obsessiveness reaches its peak in a key scene of the play when he returns home and sees Catherine and Rodolpho emerge from the bedroom. The stage directions tell us that ‘as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth’.
Catherine is horrified at this act of complete betrayal but Eddie goes on to kiss Rodolpho too, perhaps in an attempt to suggest Rodolpho is homosexual and to potentially discredit him. At this point in the play, Eddie’s obsession with Catherine has devastated his relationship with her. Blinded by obsession, Eddie does the one thing he resolutely condemned at the beginning of the play: he calls immigration in a desperate attempt to have the cousins removed. We realise that Eddie’s fate is sealed as he makes the call, saying ‘I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them’.
Upon the officers’ arrival, Eddie’s guilt is obvious and he is shunned by the entire community. Catherine no longer has any respect for him, claiming ‘he’s a rat! He belongs in the sewer! ’ With nothing left to lose, he refuses to accept any responsibility for his actions and, in the final scene of the play, Marco murders Eddie with Eddie’s own knife. Ultimately, it is Eddie’s own actions and decisions which have brought him to this point. To conclude, in ‘A View from the Bridge’, Arthur Miller encourages the audience to reflect on the dangerous consequences of obsession.
His characterisation of Eddie Carbone is highly effective as we see how one man – essentially a good man – may be utterly destroyed by his inability to ‘settle for half’. The characterisation of Eddie reveals the central conflict of the play: Eddie is driven by a desire to fulfil his individual needs rather than thinking about the good of others. Miller strives to teach us that it is best to live half-way, to make sacrifices and consider others in your actions. Unfortunately, Eddie fails to learn this and his tragic flaw costs him his life.
