How Does Arthur Miller Present Family Relationships in the Carbone Household in This Section of Act 1?

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Beatrice is Eddie’s wife and is loving and caring throughout and at the beginning of the play they are both presented as having a loving and close relationship, showing gratitude whenever anyone helps her or her family, ‘(She turns and grabs Eddie’s face in her hand.) Mmm! You’re and angle! God’ll bless you.’ However the audience are given hints by Miller about problems in their relationships near the beginning of the play like when Beatrice tells Catherine not to change herself when she goes to work, Miller makes Eddie reply to Beatrice ‘strangely and quickly resentful’. The audience then begins to realize that all is not going well between the two and what we can infer is that Catherine is coming between Eddie and Beatrice and that she is the source of the problems. We can also infer that Miller perhaps, is hinting out a perfect example of a love triangle here, ‘Eddie is standing facing the two seated women, first Beatrice smiles, then Catherine, for a powerful emotion is on him…’. Another hint laid by Miller is that further on in the text ‘Eddie turns to Beatrice, who has been avoiding his gaze’ this implies that Beatrice is becoming suspicious and possibly jealous of Catherine and his relationship and behaviour.

The audience is starting to notice that Beatrice is becoming jealous of Eddies feelings for Catherine, this is clearly illustrated further in Act 1 of the play when she confronts Eddie about ‘When am I going to be a wife again, Eddie?’ Beatrice and Eddie’s deteriorating marriage may be another result of Eddie’s incestuous feelings for her niece so she is forcing Eddie to accept the uncomfortable truth that ‘there’s too much love for the niece’. During the conversation about Catherine’s new job, Beatrice says, ‘I don’t understand you; she’s seventeen years old you gonna keep her in the house all her life?’ This comment from Beatrice to Eddie tells the audience that he is too protective and too possessive of Catherine and he should be able to see that she is old enough to look after herself. However this also suggests that it is the beginning of Beatrice’s response to Eddie and Catherine’s relationship, and we (as the audience) can infer that if Eddie stops being too protective then he can spend more time and take more of an interest in Beatrice which is shown later on in the play.

In conclusion, many family relationships are represented in this extract of ‘A View from the Bridge’ and can help the audience discover what might happen in the passage later on in the play, the audience might start to think what is going to happen between the relationship between Eddie and Catherine or whether the marriage between Beatrice and Eddie will fall apart.