The play describes the family and life of Eddie Carbone. He is married to Beatrice and has informally adopted his niece, Catherine, a teenager. Two cousins of Beatrice, Marco and Rodolfo, come to live with them. Marco is hard-working, sending money back to his own wife and children, but Rodolfo is younger and Eddie does not consider him either hard-working or responsible. Rodolfo and Catherine become attracted to each other and Eddie’s disapproval of Rodolfo drives Eddie to try and prevent the friendship developing. His attempts become more and more desperate, as his own feelings for Catherine become confused, ending in Eddie referring Marco and Rodolfo to the Immigration Service. Marco is incensed, as he is jailed and prevented from supporting his family. He confronts Eddie and stabs him.
In Alfieri’s opening speech the audience is left in absolutely no doubt that the outcome of the play is inevitable and that nothing could change it. When comparing the feelings of a lawyer describing a case in Italy, to the story he is relating in New York, he says that he was “…powerless as I and watched it run its bloody course” When Eddie appears on stage, Alfieri refers to him in the past tense, “This one’s name was Eddie Carbone”, which tells us not only that Eddie is to die but because he previously said that the end would be “bloody”, that Eddie will die violently. He also introduces the fact that the events of the play take place with a very Italian background – He talks about “in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff at Syracuse, another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint… ” He says this because this case is so Italian, that he almost feels that he could be back in Italy. This Italian perspective also explains why the outcome is inevitable because Italians and especially Sicilian Italians with their mafia overtones are particularly passionate about honour, to the extent that they will kill for it.
In terms of the play’s characters, Marco is an illegal immigrant who came over from Sicily with his brother Rodolfo. He is the stronger of the two brothers, both mentally and physically. On the night of his arrival, Marco explains his worries for his family, saying “…if I stay there they will never grow up. They eat the sunshine.” The only reason he has come to America is to be able to send money back to his family. This good sense of responsibility also gives the impression that he thinks before he acts. He also has a good sense of morality and of justice. Marco is also protective of Rodolfo which is shown when Eddie is teaching Rodolfo how to box and hits him. Marco is quick to show that he is the stronger man, and will defend Rodolfo if necessary. He shows his physical strength when he asks Eddie to lift a chair by one hand from the bottom of the leg. Eddie is unable to but Marco can. This proves that Marco is the strongest of the three men. He is aware of the things that he must do for Eddie and is careful not to annoy him. He also advises Rodolfo to do the same, although Eddie is constantly critical of him. It is only when Eddie informs of Marco’s and Rodolfo’s presence to the Immigration Service that Marco finally loses his temper with Eddie, saying to Alfieri, “He degraded my brother. My blood. He robbed my children, he mocks my work. I work to come here, mister!”. Marco then swears that he will kill Eddie, which sets up the events in the final scene. All of this, I think, contributes to the audience understanding Marcos behaviour in the final scenes.
Rodolfo, being Marco’s brother is also an illegal immigrant. When he enters the play his presence is immediate, especially with Catherine. He is very pleased to be in the USA. We get this impression when he says “this will be the first house I ever walked into in America!” Miller makes him popular to the audience by giving him a lively sense of humour.
Beatrice is a very kind and a very caring woman. She is Eddie’s wife and often the third party when Eddie has an argument with someone, trying to make peace. An example of this is when Rodolfo comes to apologise to Eddie for not asking his permission to marry Catherine. Beatrice is pleading with Eddie to accept the apology. She says, “Eddie, he’s apologising!”. She continues pleading with Eddie even urging him to stay in the house when Marco is coming. She knows that something awful is about to happen and she tries to stop it, but again, it is inevitable and she fails.
Catherine is a bubbly young girl who wants to experience the real world. She is open and always ready to love or be loved. She doesn’t really have much experience of this until she meets Rodolfo. Until now her only real male relationship has been with Eddie. This has been fine until eddies feelings change, when the sexual part of his marriage breaks down and his feelings for Catherine become confused. We hear Beatrice saying “we haven’t made love for 2 weeks” this is how we know that the sexual part of his relationship is breaking down. Eddie has the ability to influence her. This is why she cannot fully see Rodolfo’s real reasons for marrying her. However later on in the play, Rodolfo and Catherine talk and she begins to see that Rodolfo really does love her. “do you think I would carry on my back for the rest of my life, a woman I did not love just to be an American. Is it so wonderful?”.
Eddie has already insulted Rodolfo many times. He calls Rodolfo a “paper doll”, “a weird” and “a canary”. This is because Rodolfo can sing, dance, cook and he can sew. Eddie sees Rodolfo as a bit feminine because Eddie has very narrow views about manliness. He could think that Rodolfo might be homosexual and this could explain why Eddie chooses to kiss Rodolfo in an attempt to draw him away from Catherine.
In the final scenes of the play, Eddie completely throws away all of his moral values to simply stop an engagement between his niece and Beatrice’s cousin. Deep down I think that Eddie knows this is wrong and is even going against Eddies own “code of conduct”. When the immigration officers arrive, we see a scared and regretful look on his face. This is obviously one of the moments when you do something when you are very desperate and you do something that you are going to regret later. This is probably to do with the fact that he has in-appropriate feelings for her. We realise this continually throughout the play but we are convinced when Eddie is at the end of his tether and he kisses Catherine. This could also be seen as a direct challenge to Rodolfo. He also thinks that Rodolfo is only marrying Catherine to get a passport, “Katie he’s only bowin’ to his passport.” He is actually marrying her because he loves her and wants to be with her.
The reason that Eddie is yelling at Marco in the last scene is because Marco disrespected Eddie in front of the whole neighbourhood and said things that are considered very wrong, such as, “That one! He killed my children! That one stole the food from my children”. Personal and family honour, as mentioned before, is very important to the Italians and the Italian culture. Even at the end and a violent confrontation is likely, there is still a chance for Eddie to regain honour if only Marco will apologise. He says to Marco, in front of people around them “maybe he come to apologise to me. Heh, Marco? For what you said about me in front of the neighbourhood.” There is no apology and the violent end plays out.
With the final scene, I get the impression that Miller likes Eddie, I think that he slightly favours Eddie over Rodolfo or Marco. I get this impression from the way that Miller writes that he is a very passionate man and that he is not a man who cannot compromise easily and that he has such strong emotional feelings. This is also shown by the fact that Miller does not allow Marco to have any regret or feel any sorrow.
In Alfieri’s final speech he says “…we settle for half and I like it better.” He also says “The truth is holy”. This means that where the truth is concerned, you cannot, and should not settle for only half. He talks about Eddie never settling for half. “…something perversely pure calls to me from his memory – not purely good but himself purely…” he adds though, that he thinks that it is better to settle for half “…yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be!” he admits, even against his own will that he misses him “I mourn him – I admit it – with a certain…alarm.”
By Alex Jones