Examine the role played by the
female characters in act one of the play and evaluate the effect they have on
the audience.
The women roles in this play are
important, the actions and saying of these women gives different effects on the
audience. Some shows that they are independent and challenges male power, while
others may show that women rely on men to support them. Female characters in
this play have the power to create sympathy and make the audience feel sorry
for them.
All women in those days were housewives,
their job was to clean the house, cook, clean and look after the children. They
had the lowest status in the house while the men had the highest which meant
they had the power to control what goes on around them. In the play “A view
from the bridge” many of the female characters relied on men to support them.
The main character with the highest status in this play was clearly Eddie. He
was the one who promised Catherine’s mother “on her death bed”. Even though
Catherine’s mother was Beatrice’s sister it was the man, Eddie that made the
promise to look after her, this was because Eddie had the highest status, he
was the one who takes care of the family and he was the one who brings money
into the house. “I’m just afraid if it don’t turn out good you’ll be mad at me”
shows that Beatrice doesn’t want to intentionally upset Eddie and only wants to
keep him happy therefore she will do anything to keep him satisfied. The reason
for this is if Eddie is unhappy with her and therefore leaves her, Beatrice will
have nothing because she had relied on people her whole life, her parents when
she was younger and Eddie went she was older. So if Eddie did leave her she
wouldn’t be able to support herself due to the lack of jobs for women, this
makes it obvious to the audience that women did rely on men to support
them.
“I’m going with him, Eddie”
demonstrates that Catherine starts to fight against Eddie for what she wants.
She stood up for herself and went against the man who support her and brought
her up. She challenges him and therefore gained power to control over her own
life. At the beginning of the play Catherine was offered a job which was rare
for a woman, but Eddie didn’t approve of it because he didn’t want to loose his
power and control “look did I ever ask you for money?” proves that Eddie was
offended by the fact that Catherine used money as an excuse to go to work. The
reason for this was because Eddie wanted me the man who brought in the money
and food the person which supported his family which therefore gives him the
power to make decisions and control everything to the way he wanted them to be.
Beatrice was the main female character, who always goes against Eddie in order
to achieve what she wants. “Look, I’m sick and tired of it, I’m sick and tired
of it!” shows that Beatrice challenged male power when she thought that what
Eddie doing was wrong therefore, she is doing what she can to fight for what
she thinks is fair for everyone, not just herself. The repetition of “I’m sick
and tired of it” shows that’s she really meant it, that she was angry and
possibly raising her voice with Eddie. When Eddie realized that he was no
longer in control he demanded for his “respect” back and told Beatrice that he
doesn’t like “the way she talked to him and the way she looks at him” he knew
that he was loosing control and tried to claim his power back. “She is my niece
and I am responsible for her”
The women in this play had the power
to create sympathy which was built from the inevitability and the tragedy of the
catastrophic events that happened that couldn’t be controlled. The old women
that Alfieri went to see acted like an oracle. She was able to see into the
future and knew what would happen exactly but both her and Alfieri was
powerless to stop anything from happening to change the future. Alfieri saw “every step coming, step after
step” even being an “intelligent man” like himself, he was “powerless to stop
it”. Additionally the fact the Marco’s wife was back in
However, the most effective point was Rodolpho who challenges to our stereotype of a man. He was described by Eddie as a “weird”. “He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses...” those were a type of things that men did not do, therefore he seemed different from all the locals. Not only had that he had “blonde” hair, which was unusually for where they lived in. From the way he acted and they way he talked people therefore assumed that he was a “weird”