When Eddie offers to let Beatrice’s cousins stay he conveys the image of himself being very munificent and generous. However his appearance suddenly changes, when he finds out that they are coming one week early and reminds Beatrice not to let them sleep in her bed. He says “Listen, as long as they know where they’re gonna sleep”, “Beatrice all I’m worried about is you got such a heart that I’ll end up on the floor with you”. This shows that he doesn’t trust Marco and Rudolfo one bit as he encourages Beatrice not to let them manipulate her by letting them sleep on the bed. In this part of the play he seems as if he is suspicious of Marco and Rudolfo even before they have arrived and explains himself to Catherine by saying “The less you trust, the less you’ll be sorry”. This shows that Eddie doesn’t trust people easily and is very suspicious about people he doesn’t know.
Soon Catherine becomes very anxious and begins to ask questions about Marco and Rodolfo getting caught and ‘snitched on’. He then begins to tell a story about a boy who lived next door to them many years ago named Vinny Bolzano who ‘snitched’ on his uncle to the immigration. He was then beaten and thrown out of his own home and his family was disgraced. Eddie then gives his own opinion on the matter and says “Him? You’ll never see him no more, a guy do a thing like that? How’s he gonna show his face”. This shows that Eddie is disgusted even by the thought of telling on a fellow Italian and also warns Catherine not to. This also shows that he feels strongly about the ‘Italian law’ as he knows that death is the consequence for committing such a crime.
As Marco and Rodolfo arrive Eddie, is very homely and welcoming as he assures them that there is plenty of room for them, and immediately tells Catherine to make the supper, in order to maintain the good hospitality. Catherine then asks Rodolfo a question “How come he’s so dark and you’re so light, Rodolfo?” which shows the first sign of flattery from Catherine. Catherine also shows that she is amazed by Rodolfo’s good looks as she says to Beatrice “He’s practically blonde”. Eddie then exposes the first sign of jealousy and this is easily established and acknowledged by the reader, as Eddie clearly cannot bear to see Catherine trying to flirt with Rodolfo. This becomes apparent as soon as Catherine and Beatrice begin to baffle about Rodolfo’s good looks, as he quickly interferer’s and says to Catherine “How’s the coffee doin”.
As the play progresses it becomes more and more apparent that Eddie has more feelings for Catherine then we first imagined. This is because after the first sign of jealousy towards Rodolfo form Eddie, he becomes increasingly desperate to persuade Catherine that he is not right for her and that Rodolfo just wants to use her. An example of this is when it comes to a point that Eddie is so desperate for Catherine not to marry him he says “He don’t respect you…Katie, he’s only blowin’ to his passport… That’s right he marries you and he’s got the right to be an American citizen”. As you can see from this quote Eddie builds up such desperation for his love for Catherine he tries to conjure up lies in order to put Rodolfo down.
Soon Eddie becomes very childish and naïve as he begins to try and insult Rodolfo. This occurs when Rodolfo says, “Once we went to Yugoslavia” and Eddie replies “They pay all right on them boats?”. This quote tells us that Eddie is trying to imply that Rodolfo didn’t get paid much and is trying to insult him by asking how much they pay, as he knows it’s a lower class job. Catherine then decides that she’s had enough and decides to leave the house with Rodolfo. In a desperate attempt to prevent her from leaving he grabs her and kisses her. This is the first real sign of Eddie actually loving her and soon this desperation is turned anger and jealousy as Eddie attacks Rodolfo. They escape and Catherine returns to inform him that there wedding will be on Saturday. Feeling sorry for himself, Eddie replies “Okay I only wanted the best for you, Katie. I hope you know that” and tries to act like he cared for her well being but instead he cannot admit that he loves her.
Beatrice then discovers that Eddie has feelings for Catherine and says, “You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!”. Eddie trying not to let Beatrice degrade him says, “That’s what you think of me- that I would have such a thoughts?”. This shows that Eddie is in denial about his love for Catherine and tries to ask a rhetorical question in order to persuade Beatrice that he is not lying. Subsequently Eddie is in such a bad state, as Beatrice knows the truth that he turns his desperation in to anger towards Marco. He then lunges towards Marco and tries to kill him when Marco grabs his arm and stabs Eddie with his own knife.
In synopsis I think that Eddie started of as an average and kind Italian-American but as the play progressed his love for Catherine took over. I also cogitate that Arthur Miller is trying to express how someone’s feeling towards something can be changed by love and jealousy. This is because at the beginning of the play Eddie was degrading a boy named Vinny Bolzano for ‘snitching’ on his uncle and due his love for Catherine and his jealousy towards Marco and Rodolfo executed something that he clearly was disgraced by.
Overall I believe that Eddie Carbone committed what the Italians call the ‘ultimate crime’, telling the immigration on a fellow Italian just because of his love for Catherine. He also became very naïve and desperate in order to degrade Rodolfo as he tried insulting him and also tried persuading Catherine that he just wants to marry her to gain legal citizenship in America. This just shows how an average Italian committed the one crime that he was utterly disgraced by due to his love for Catherine.