Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” is a story that explores the theme of paternal love in the most intriguing manner. The story is introduced by Alfieri, a first-person narrator, who feels disturbed by his community's discomfort with the society’s law (Epstein, 112). The peripheral narrator plays a vital role in Edie’s family affairs and the whole theme of love and sex revolves around him to the extent that his legal action results in Eddie's death. The essay explores how the author captures the events of incest, marital impotence, homosexuality and Catherine’s sexual awakening. To achieve the essay’s objective, the essay provides answers to three vital issues regarding Eddie’s association with Catherine, Rodolpho and his wife, Beatrice.
Eddie’s thought on having sex with his niece
Eddie's feeling for Catherine is one of obsession and desire which goes beyond the pure paternal love. Even though Eddie and Beatrice are not blessed with children and considers Catherine as their daughter, Eddie’s concerns on her short dress and high heels point to a different type of love; sexual affection.
Eddie’s love for Beatrice is proved when Rodolpho, Catherine’s cousin, joins them. Unlike his brother Marco, Catherine is a jovial young man with exceptional vocals. He settles in quickly and finds the freedom of singing while working. His talent brushes Eddie the wrong way when he notices that Rodolpho’s songs attract Beatrice.
Initially, Eddie argues that men don’t sing while working and that the young man could be, and sensationally claims he is, gay. He uses the argument when he asks Alfieri about the legal measure that can be taken to prevent the two from falling in love. However, it is possible that Eddie has thought of having sex with Catherine. When Beatrice protests Eddie’s overprotection, his reaction reveals his inner desire to have sex with Catherine. Eddie fumes that he did not raise Catherine to be stolen by a Sicilian boy.
The situation is more apparent when Beatrice reminds Eddie that they have not had sex for three months, possibly because his mind is occupied with the desire to have sex with Catherine. When the niece walks around, Eddie says, "Katie you are walkin' wavy! I don't like the looks they are giving you…the heads are turnin' like windmills (Miller, 26).” … The statement proves how Eddie’s id part of the mind is occupied with desire and obsession towards his niece.
According to Freudina’s theory of personality and pleasure, Eddie’s ego seems unable to give him a sense of morality (Fairbairn, 137). Besides, his superego is so crowded with the thought of having Catherine all for himself that he sacrifices his reputation and turns in Marco and Rodolpho to the immigration department. When Alfieri realizes that Eddie could be contemplating having sex with his niece, he notes, “but sometimes…there’s too much love, and it goes where it shouldn’t (Miller, 22).” Unfortunately, Eddie’s immense incestuous feeling ends with his untimely death on the arms of the very woman she refused to have sex with because of Catherine.
Eddies’ sexual interest on Rodolpho when he kisses him
Eddie’s sexual interest on Rodolpho can be analyzed by reviewing his comments about him and the status in which he kisses him. When Alfieri confirms to Eddie that he cannot legally stop the relationship between Rodolpho and Catherine, the longshoreman becomes angry and vows to prove that Rodolpho is indeed gay and does not have the moral impetus to date, have sex with and marry Catherine. One would argue that he gets drunk to stifle the standard functionality of the superego which would have stopped him from kissing a man.
The event justifies that Eddie does not have sex appeal towards Rodolpho but is merely jealous of his affection for Catherine (Wissbeck, 163). By kissing Rodolpho, Eddie does not only want to prove to the lawyer that Rodolpho is gay but also wants to humiliate and mock him in the presence of Catherine. Besides, the sex scene proves that Eddie only has sexual desire for Catherine because he kisses her longer to show Rodolpho how much he loves his niece (McHugh et al. 79). According to Freudina’s theory of personality and pleasure, individuals abuse drugs to suppress depression by initiating temporary memory loss.
The theorist argues that a person under the influence of a drug, like alcohol, can have an emotional outburst and act in ways which could not otherwise be possible if such influence did not exist. According to Samuels (52), the theory is applicable in the kissing scene to argue that if Eddie were sexually interested in Rodolpho, he would have kissed him when his id, ego, and superego mindsets are in a stable state.
Why Eddie is not having sex with his wife, Beatrice
Eddie Carbone is a man who suffers the consequences of his choices. When he accepts to stay with Marco and Rodolpho, he does not realize the extent to which such a decision is going to affect his marital affairs. Beatrice is not to blame for Eddie’s decision not to have sex with her because she is a loving wife who forgives his husband on the perceived incest and not only sides with him on Catherine's engagement but also asks him to bless the wedding between Catherine and Rodolpho. Eddie’s desire and obsession for Catherine is the reason for him choosing not to have sex with Catherine for three months (Miller, 20).
Eddie considers Rodolpho a threat to his sexual desire and does not seem to focus on his lack of intercourse with Catherine. When he imagines of Catherine falling in love with Rodolpho, he says, “When I think of that guy layin’ his hands on her I could... (Miller, 51” Alfieri notices that Eddie is sexually blinded and asks him, “She can’t marry you, can she?” Even though the question angers Eddie, it is clear that he desires to have sex only with Catherine at the expense of his loving wife, Beatrice.
According to Freudina’s theory of pleasure, Eddie’s response to Beatrice when she suggests that they should have sex demonstrates that his id mind is full of affection towards Catherine (Freud, 22). He says, “I’ll be alright, B.” That response suggests that he is not all right because he cares too much about Catherine that he does not pay attention to his sexual life with the wife. Eddie’s ego drives him to a point where he feels enraged when Beatrice asks him about Catherine.
According to Miller (149), Eddie calls his wife, “my B” when he has been hit by Marco and does not respond to Catherine’s plea that she never meant to do anything wrong to him. The scene justifies that Catherine was also aware of Eddie’s attraction and that his love for her ended in death.
Conclusion
Arthur Miller managed to confront the concepts of homosexuality, marriage importance, and incest dramatically and fascinatingly. The book, “A View from the Bridge” allows the readers to relate the characters’ view on the theme of love with the contemporary issues in the society. The essay has used Freudian’s theory of pleasure and personality to justify that Eddie has had a thought of having sex with Catherine and to explain why Eddie does not kiss Rodolpho because of sexual attraction. Finally, the essay explains that Eddie's sexual attraction towards Catherine is the reason of him not having sex with his wife, Beatrice.
Works Cited
Epstein, Arthur D. "A Look at A View from the Bridge." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 7.1 (1965): 109-122.
Fairbairn, William Ronald Dodds. Psychoanalytic studies of the personality. Routledge, 2013. 137-152
Freud, Anna. "Ego and id." The Harvard Lectures. Routledge, 2018. 21-35.
McHugh, Cillian, et al. "'Searching for Moral Dumbfounding: Identifying Measurable Indicators of Moral Dumbfounding'. Collabra: Psychology, 3 (1), 23. DOI: http://doi. org/10.1525/collabra. 79." (2017).
Miller, Arthur. A View from the Bridge. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Samuels, Robert. Between philosophy and psychoanalysis: Lacan's reconstruction of Freud. Routledge, 2014. 44-75
Wissbeck, Philip. "A View from the Bridge." The Arthur Miller Journal 12.2 (2017): 163.
