The next example we acquire is when Katie gets the opportunity to go to work. I feel sympathetic towards Katie that she has to go to such lengths to obtain Eddie’s approval. His defence is that he doesn’t want her walking past plumbers every morning and night. In my opinion this is not an adequate argument. Surely Eddie should be proud of his niece. Beatrice then comes into the conversation and tries to sway Eddie’s decision. It eventually works.
This part of the play presents two contradicting emotions to its audience. The couple (Eddie and Beatrice) discuss the prospect of taking in Beatrice’s cousins from Sicily. Eddie doesn’t hesitate in replying. He declares that he would gladly take them in because he knows from past experience what it’s like to be starving. Beatrice is ecstatic and tells Eddie he’s an Angel. But the audience, although impressed and sympathetic might wonder about Eddies motive for declaring his discontented childhood. Did he want Beatrice and Catherine to think more of him?
Beatrice describes the horrifying proceedings that took place when illegal immigrants were staying with neighbours of theirs. She says at one point in her story ‘their heads were bouncing like coconuts’, which refers to the two brothers heads as they were dragged down the stairs. The audience may feel shocked to know that some people would ‘ship’ their own family to immigration. I also felt extremely sympathetic towards the two brothers.
One out of two parts of the play when I felt sorry for Eddie was when he says ‘what, are you mad at me lately’ to Beatrice. You can imagine him looking all sheepish and downtrodden. He obviously feels as though everyone is angry with him but is unsure why, as in his eyes he’s only trying to protect his family.
Marco and Rodolfo arrive from Sicily and are welcomed with opened arms. Marco tells us a lot about his character by describing his family and the poor conditions they’re living in. He states, “What can I do? The older one’s sick in his chest. My wife she feeds them from her own mouth. They eat the sunshine” By saying this he is showing his sensitive and caring side. He also mentions coming to America to make money to send back to his family, so (like Eddie) he is thought of as the main ‘bread winner’ of his family. Could Eddie find it a struggle having someone of equal or higher status living under his roof?
Rodolfo then narrates a story of the most memorable moment in his life; this also gives away a lot of information about his character. He informs us that he got to perform in a hotel because the entertainer was ill. He boasts about how he sang without a single mistake. This shows us that Rodolfo loves being the centre of attention and is probably a keen romantic. From his speech I also gained that he’s the type of person who’s not afraid to show his feelings.
Rodolfo is then persuaded by Katie to sing for them. Rodolfo isn’t hesitant and he gets up and begins to sing. Katie was obviously enjoying it. I got the impression that she really liked him. Eddie then firmly tells Rodolfo to stop singing. This was infuriating to the audience, as Eddie obviously picked up on the fact that Katie liked Rodolfo. Also he was probably jealous of the attention Rodolfo was getting. After all Eddie is used to being the only man around the house and he is used to getting attention off of Katie.
Beatrice makes a comment that acquires the audience pondering over whether Eddie fancies Catherine. All through the play Eddie has been trying to stop her from seeing other men or even walking past them, so the audience already had slight suspicions. But Beatrice’s remark about them not having sex for three months makes the audience wonder even more about whether Eddie has sexual feelings for his niece. Beatrice also asks “When am I going to be a wife again Eddie?” Which made me feel sorry for Beatrice as she obviously loves him very much and can’t grasp why he doesn’t love her the same way.
This section of the play, backs up any past evidence of Eddie fancying Katie. Rodolfo offers to take Katie to Times Square one evening. Eddie doesn’t allow them to go. He seems jealous and probably is, but he attempts to disguise his jealousy as concern for Rodolfo’s well being. He says it’s because immigration might catch them, but the audience suspect otherwise. I again felt tremendously irritated by Eddie’s behaviour. I also think this is when Beatrice picks up on Eddies feelings for Katie.
I felt incredibly bothered by Eddie’s actions in this section of the play, because he punches Rodolfo. He makes a blatant attempt to disguise it as an accident, which was easily done, as he was play fighting with Rodolfo. Marco sees through Eddies attempt and is angry. He cunningly threatens Eddie by lifting up a chair with one hand over his head, this shows his strength, and he then asks Eddie if he can do it. He says it as if to tell Eddie to leave his brother alone, or he’ll have him to deal with. Eddie tries to lift the chair but doesn’t manage it. I think this is the first time in the play Eddie finds it a strain having a stronger male figure in his house.
Alfieri is a key character in the play as he is very prophetic and predicts that there will be a tragic outcome. When Eddie visits Alfieri regarding legally preventing Rodolfo seeing Katie, Alfieri advises him to ‘let them be’. Eddie is defiant and ignores Alfieri’s advice and ships Rodolfo and Marco anonymously to immigration.
Immigration arrives at the house and both Rodolfo and Marco are arrested. At this point I felt exceptionally upset as Katie and Rodolfo had found love and Marco was working to feed his family. Eddie had hit a new low, this was unforgivable.
Luckily Rodolfo was allowed to stay in the country as he was getting married to Catherine and becoming a citizen. But Marco was going to be sent back, so from this Eddie gained nothing but hatred from his family, as they all suspected and knew it was him. Marco was UN describingly furious with Eddie and threatened to kill him.
Eddie tried to explain his actions to Katie by saying that Rodolfo was trying to use her for a passport. This upset Katie and I was upset for her too. Eddie should not have interfered.
The tragic and inevitable ending comes on Katie and Rudolf’s wedding day. Eddie does everything in his power to prevent Beatrice from attending her nieces wedding. Rodolfo tries to apologise to Eddie, which I thought was a nice gesture but in my opinion Rodolfo wasn’t in the wrong. To that Eddie replies, “It’s not Rodolfo that’s stolen my name, It’s Marco” He then demands to see Marco. It’s at this point in the play where Eddie cracks. Before, he made his feelings known without being too upfront and obvious, but now he seems to erupt like a volcano and makes his hatred for Marco and Rodolfo known. In an attempt to prevent Eddie from locating Marco, Beatrice brings up the subject of Eddies true feelings for Katie. Beatrice knows this is a touchy subject and is certain this is the reason why Eddie has been acting so bizarrely the past couple of months. Eddie is outraged that his wife would think of him like that. He just replies by saying “Is that what you think of me, huh?” Then rapidly changing the subject back to Marco he storms off in a rage to track him down.
Eddie finds Marco and demands Marco apologises to him. Marco refuses and declares that Eddie should be apologising to him. A brawl commences and the tragic ending we had been waiting for, for the duration of the play comes to a head. Marco stabs Eddie in front of several spectators. Despite what Eddie had done Katie still kneels at his frozen body weeping, as does Beatrice. I think this is when you feel most upset for Eddie since although he made a mistake or two, in my opinion he didn’t deserve to loose his life for it. I also felt sorry for Beatrice because she lost her husband and also for Katie because she had lost yet another father figure.