A View from the Bridge
Major characters
Catherine:
Summary:
Catherine is Beatrice’s niece but, following the death of
her mother, she has become essentially an adopted daughter to Beatrice and
Eddie. She has a pivotal role in the play. Events are focused around her and
happen because of her. She is attractive, warm, innocent and eager to learn
things. She is desperate to maintain Eddie’s favour
yet unable to please him. Like Eddie, she does not understand the intensity of
the unspoken relationship existing between them. She ‘walks wavy’ and wears
high heels indicating her burgeoning sexuality which is markedly juxtaposed
with the childish innocence with which still clutches at Eddie. According to
Beatrice, Catherine’s naïve flirtatiousness is partly to blame for Eddie’s
destruction.
She is fascinated by Rodolpho
because he represents another life and another attitude. Catherine has lived a
very sheltered life and knows very little of the outside world – she is amazed
that a captain of a ship can be bribed, is fascinated by the thought that
oranges and lemons can be found on the trees in Italy and asks Rodolpho to ‘Teach [her]’ just before they sleep together. Eddie
sees Rodolpho as using Catherine to escape from his
life of poverty in
Catherine is astounded and wounded at Eddie’s betrayal of
Marco and Rodolpho which rudely awakens her, dragging
her out of the comfortable confines of her world Red Hook. By the end of the
play, Eddie’s terrible jealousy and Rodolpho’s
stories and sexual influence have worked together to enable her to see the
world in a different light; to ask questions that had not occurred to her
before and to make judgments that she could not previously have voiced. As
such, although Miller may in some ways be criticized for portraying ‘flat’ and
undeveloped female characters in this play, it is clear that Catherine does go
through some form of character development. Nonetheless, however, her internal
struggle as a character is far less obvious to us than Eddies and, indeed, she
still serves more as an (albeit oblivious) instrument of his destruction than a
character in her own right.
Quotations:
|
Page No |
Quotation |
Explanation |
|
13 |
Catherine is ‘almost in tears because he disapproves’ of
her skirt and her exciting news easily gets side-lined until p.17 when she
says ‘We didn’t tell him about me yet.’ |
|
|
24 |
Catherine is shocked that ‘Even the Captain?’ has been
bribed and is involved in smuggling immigrants into |
|
|
27 |
When Rodolpho arrived Catherine
says ‘[wondrously] How come he’s so dark and you’re so light, Rodolpho?’ |
|
|
30 |
Catherine asks Rodolpho ‘You
married too?’ even though Beatrice must have told her he was not |
|
|
39 |
She pleads on Rodolpho’s behalf
‘Why don’t you talk to him Eddie? He blesses you and you don’t
talk to him hardly.’ |
|
|
39 |
Confused by Eddie’s treatment of her she asks ‘You mad at
me?’ |
|
|
40 |
When Eddie asks her about her feelings for Rodolpho she ‘[with a blush but holding her ground.]
Yeah, I like him.’ but later ‘[she looks at him for the consequences, smiling
but tense.]’ |
|
|
42 |
She believes that the relationship between her and Rodolpho ‘just seems wrong if he’s [Eddie] against it so
much.’ |
|
|
43 |
Beatrice confronts Catherine with her behaviour: ‘You think
you’re a baby’ ‘You still walk around in front of him in your slip.’ ‘When he
comes home, you throw yourself at him like when you was
twelve years old.’ |
|
|
44 |
Beatrice has a different perspective. She believes that
‘it ain’t only up to him, Katie, you understand.’
Although is this just because she loves Eddie and wants to absolve him partly
of the blame for his confused relationship with Catherine |
|
|
44 |
Catherine is ‘[astonished] when Beatrice says Eddie
believes she is jealous of Catherine. According to Catherine ‘It’s ‘the first
I thought of it.’ but as, Beatrice says, ‘you should have thought of it
before.’ |
|
|
45 |
After learning that she has to change her behaviour to
Eddie [She is at the edge of tears, as if a familiar world had shattered.’ |
|
|
50 |
In comparison to Rodolpho and
Marco’s visit to Africa, Catherine complains that ‘I was never even in |
|
|
54 |
Catherine ‘[flushed with revolt] puts on ‘Paper Doll’ and
says] You wanna dance, Rodolpho?’ |
|
|
59 |
Rodolpho accuses Catherine that she is
‘full of secrets.’ |
|
|
60 |
When discussing whether they could go back to |
|
|
62 |
Of Eddie, Catherine says ‘I want him to be happy; I mean –
I like him Rodolpho’ ‘You think it’s so easy to
turn around and say to a man he’s nothin’ to you no
more.’ ‘I can tell a block away when he’s blue in his mind and just wants to
talk to somebody quiet and nice.’ ‘I can tell … before he even says anything. I know when
his feet hurt him, I mean I know him and now I’m supposed to turn
around and make a stranger out of him? |
|
|
63 |
Just before they sleep together Catherine says ‘Teach me.
I don’t know anything, teach me, Rodolpho, hold me. |
|
|
64 |
When Eddie catches Rodolpho and
Catherine after sleeping together she decides to leave with Rodolpho saying ‘I can’t stay here no more. You know I
can’t.’ |
|
|
78 |
When Beatrice says she can’t go to the wedding because
Eddie won’t let her, Catherine says ‘To hell with Eddie … I want you at the
wedding.’ |
|
|
80 |
To Eddie, after his betrayal, she says ‘You got no more
right to tell nobody nothin’.’ |
|
|
83 |
Catherine exclaims ‘[In horror] B!’ when Beatrice tells
Eddie that he can’t ‘have’ Catherine, finally bringing his feelings out into
the open. |
|