Throughout the play we can also see how Italian men have strong sense of masculinity (It is an Italian-American norm for the men to provide for their families and for the women to look after the family also the most dominating males tend to be the strongest and therefore most masculine males) in the play. The sense of masculinity amongst Italian- American men maybe more so than in other cultures. This is shown when Marco challenges Eddie’s masculinity when he asks him whether he can lift a chair with only one hand to show that he is stronger than Eddie and therefore Marco appears as the more dominating figure. This is also shown by Eddies envy towards his niece when she is offered a job as a receptionist as Eddie feels his position as the breadwinner is being challenged.
The sense of masculinity amongst Italian men makes them want to be the most powerful person within their household. For example all of the men in the play show that they have a responsibility to provide for their families; this is shown by Eddie when he implies that he does not want Catherine to work, instead he wants her to stay on at school and that he can provide for the family just as he has been doing. This is also shown by Marco when he implies that he has a responsibility to work so that he can feed his starving family back home. Both of these characters have implied that they have to stand strong because they have their needy families resting on their shoulders.
At the beginning of the play Arthur Miller introduces us to Italian community values so that we can understand why the community acts so seriously to events which would not have been acted upon so seriously in our communities. Towards the start of Act 1 Eddie Carbone and his wife Beatrice Carbone talk about the seriousness of snitching on illegal immigrants. They use the example of Vinny Bolzano an Italian American who lived in their neighbourhood. Beatrice: “oh it was terrible. He had 5 brothers and the old father. And they grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him down the stairs - three flights his head was bouncin’ like a coconut. And they spit on him in the street, his own father, and his brothers. The whole neighbourhood was cryin’”; Eddie: Him? You’ll never see him no more, a guy do a thing like that? How’s he gonna show his face? Just remember kid, you can easily get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away. Arthur introduces community and family values such as honour, loyalty and masculinity towards the start of the play to allow the audience to understand why they treat certain circumstances more seriously than others.
Dramatic devices
Miller uses language to show how different characters are positioned on the social hierarchy and from categorising the characters into a hierarchy we can compare their values. For example Eddie uses colloquial language whereas Alfieri uses standard English. This allows the audience to create the assumption that Alfieri is the more important character in the society and therefore has very different values to that of Eddie. An example of a value or normality that Alfieri would have would be to settle his issues through the legal system whereas Eddie would be more likely to settle it through violence. This is important in teaching the audience that community values are not shared by everyone in the community.
Character Analysis
In this section I will analyse Eddie’s and Alfieri’s, Catherine’s Beatrice’s, Rodolfo’s and Marco’s personalities and symbolic actions. Arthur Miller shows how characters/the community react to certain features of other characters
This will help us understand what the audience learns about the Italian community because depending on whether the community or character representing the community acts positively or negatively we will be able to assume whether the feature is valued or not valued.
Eddie
There are moments in the text where the audience is given the idea that Eddie's love for Catherine may not be normal. For example, Catherine lighting Eddie's cigar in the living room (page 15) makes Eddie feel unusual pleasure. In this event Eddie mistakes Catherine’s affection for love. Even though Eddie seems unable to understand his feelings for his niece it becomes clear that he realises his feelings at the end of the play this is also the time when other characters become aware of eddies true feelings and intentions.
Eddie does not realise his feelings for Catherine because he has suppressed them. This is what makes Eddie act irrationally by transferring his love for Catherine into hate for Rodolfo. This hatred is fuelled by him thinking that Rodolfo is gay and has no real feelings for Catherine. When Eddie fails to win Catherine over he attempts to get revenge on Rodolfo even if it means him betraying the Italian-American community and Marco whom he has nothing against by snitching on the two brothers to the immigration bureau. Eddie does not restrain himself from these acts because he because he has blocked himself off from his community and family and therefore he will do anything to protect his interests even if it is at the expense of others.
Alfieri
Alfieri represents the bridge between American law and Italian-American laws/values. Alfieri is an Italian-American who is well-educated and who studies and respects American laws but is still loyal to Italian values. Alfieri is presented as the character who is stuck in between the poor Italian neighbourhood on one side of Brooklyn bridge and the wealthy communities on the other side of the bridge .From this point, Alfieri tries to persuade Eddie to stick to his Italian values but also do it within the American law.
Rodolfo
Unlike Beatrice and Catherine, who talk together about their thoughts and feelings, Rodolfo reveals little about himself. There are many questions left unanswered at the end of the play. These are about his sexuality and his love for Catherine. This may be because Rodolfo has a very feminine character and a great desire to become an American citizen.
Catherine
The drama in the play is all focused around Catherine; the two men Eddie and Rodolfo both compete for her love. However, she has a very childish character which makes the audience wonder whether she really understands why Eddie is behaving so irrationally and whether Rodolfo really loves her.
Conclusion
From the analysis and research I have done, in specific the character analysis section, I have come to the conclusion that throughout the course of the play Arthur Miller tries to teach the audience these things about the Italian-American community.
- That the Italian-American community is very closely knit; they like to stick together and protect one another.
- The male role in your average Italian-American community is as the breadwinner and the female role is to be a home-maker.
- The Italian-American community prides itself for taking illegal immigrants under it wings.
I have also realised that Arthur Miller teaches the audience about the Italian-American community very subtle way without the audience knowing. To do this he gives examples of what happens to those that are un-loyal to the community and then describes the consequence. He also creates male characters that act feminine and shows how people react negatively towards them.