While the family were waiting for Beatrice’s cousins, Eddie is telling the story of Vinny Bolzano. The story has a significant importance because this play also has a similar story as Bolzano. Miller uses Eddie as the person who informs the immigration about Beatrice’s cousins (just like the young boy did to his uncle in Bolzano‘s story).Marco appears to be suspicious initially. He is quite stiff towards Eddie and gives him control of when he requires them to leave. There is an instant reaction where Rodolfo is introduced, we can see Catherine is attracted by his appearance, she asked him many questions like “How come he’s so dark and you’re so light, Rodolfo” (you can see how she just addressed the question directly to Rodolfo). Catherine also is astonished, as she said to Beatrice “He’s practically blond!”. Eddie however assumes that he is homosexual because he has blond hair and sings the song “Paper Doll”. Eddie doesn’t understand the law because he doesn’t see the need of obtaining evidence to prove Rodolfo guilty. He just assumes that Rodolfo wants to marry Catherine for the right to stay and become an American citizen. It is difficult for Eddie to express his emotions because he has intimate feelings towards Catherine.
Alfieri’s advice to Eddie was to inform the immigration as to how Beatrice’s cousins entered the country illegally. Initially Eddie is shocked at the advice and says “Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that”. Alfieri also advised Eddie to learn to let Catherine go. He says “The child has to grow up and go away, and the man has to learn to forget.” Eddie does not want to let Catherine go. This could result in two endings, either Eddie snitches on Rodolfo and Marco or lets his niece live her life the way she wants to.
Catherine starts off a conversation about the places where Marco and Rodolfo have been to. Eddie doesn’t seem too convinced when Catherine says they’ve been to Africa, and says “it’s true Eddie”.
Miller uses his stage directions to show that Eddie is only asking Marco about the places they have visited. Then the conversation diverts to Catherine asking Eddie about oranges and lemons growing on trees. Eddie replies directly to Marco. He becomes very aggressive and rude when Rodolfo intervenes. Eddie gets very hostile and snaps back at Rodolfo by saying “I know lemons are green, for Christ’s sake, you see them in the store they’re green sometimes. I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothin’ about lemons.”. Another incident rises when Eddie has a conversation about how he can teach boxing to Rodolfo. Eddie picks on Rodolfo and tries to intimidate and patronise him. They both throw in some light punches but Eddie gets carried away and grazes Rodolfo. Catherine is astonished and Eddie replies “Why? I didn’t hurt him. Did I hurt you kid?”. Marco had realised that Eddie was bothered by Rodolfo. Marco showed his strength towards Eddie by raising the chair over his head. He does this to make Eddie aware that if anything happens to Rodolfo, Eddie will have to pay the consequences. Arthur Miller shows that Marco has had enough and understands what’s going on, the stage directions describes Marco with “a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff”, he also used a simile “the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head”. Eddie then realises what Marco meant, his “grin vanishes as he absorbs his looks.”. This shows us that Marco’s hamartia is Rodolfo.
Eddie was “knocked off for Christmas early”. He comes home drunk and sarcastically makes a comment to Catherine as she was fixing her dress “Rodolfo makin’ you a dress?”. He becomes very irate when he sees Rodolfo in the bedroom doorway, and tells him to get out of the apartment. Catherine being afraid of Eddie, thought she should go as well. Eddie instantly kisses Catherine on the lips and shows that he has deep intimate feelings for her. He then plants a kiss on Rodolfo and starts to “laughs mockingly“, he does this because he’s trying to make a point about Rodolfo’s sexuality. Catherine is terrified and horrified by Eddie’s reaction. Rodolfo is stiff and shocked about the whole situation. Eddie, taking this the wrong way, thought that he was right, that Rodolfo is homosexual as he didn’t push Eddie off of him. Straight after that happened Eddie said “You see?”
Eddie’s second visit to Alfieri comes to light when he is very low about the situation which occurred in the previous scene, as he found out that Rodolfo is going to marry Catherine. But during the kissing scene Rodolfo told Eddie that he was going to marry her, but when Alfieri asked him he said “she told me, yeah. So what do I do?”. This shows Eddie to be deceitful, a liar, and very desperate for a solution. I think Eddie had to lie because he felt ashamed that Catherine didn’t tell him herself that her and Rodolfo would like to get married. This time Alfieri is calmer and advises Eddie to let Catherine go and informs him that “The law is nature. The law is only a word for what has a right to happen.”. At this point we see a phone booth glow. Eddie feels like the phone booth standing alone. He goes over to the phone booth and calls the immigration office. He betrays Rodolfo and Marco.
When Eddie returns home he has a guilty conscience of what he’s done and jumps every time Beatrice says anything. He is paranoid. When Eddie finds out that Rodolfo and Marco are lodged with another two immigrants, he felt terrified as he has just lost the neighbourhood trust and knew that he has made a huge mistake. As soon as the immigration officers came, Catherine and Beatrice knew straight away that Eddie called them up, they were both horrified and upset. Beatrice says “Oh Jesus, Eddie” and “oh, my God, my God”.
Marco responds by spitting in Eddie’s face and Eddie tries to go for Marco. Marco gets into the car and accused Eddie by saying “That one! He killed my children! That one stole the food from my children!”. There is a lot of anger and rage between them. Catherine is seen sobbing. The neighbourhood shows signs of disbelief against Eddie and are not happy with his action. One by one they turn against Eddie and nobody wants to talk to him. The scene ends in the reception room of a prison with Rodolfo, Marco, Catherine and Alfieri. The audience also perceives that Eddie is a selfish man who just wants to look after himself and blame everyone for his faults.
Eddie turns a blind eye and doesn’t want Beatrice to go to Catherine’s wedding. He does not compromise and he is very argumentative. He gives Beatrice an ultimatum and says “Now if that’s more to you than I am, then go. But don’t come back. You be on my side or on their side, that’s all”. Rodolfo comes to warn Eddie to escape from there, as Marco is in the church praying to God, to forgive him for his future sins. Eddie is adamant and will not leave his house. When Marco appears shouting out Eddie’s name, Eddie assumes that he is coming to apologize. However, the fight breaks out between Eddie and Marco. Eddie raises a knife to Marco but Marco in self-defence turns the blade into Eddie. His death proved his weakness for Catherine and that his hamartia was still evident. As well as Alfieri, Eddie also knew that a fight was going to occur and either Marco or himself was going to pay the consequence of their hamartia.
There is a certain feel of tension when Eddie is present with the characters involved and the audience. He is very unpredictable, he is likeable and shows signs of caring in some scenes and sometimes aggressive and violent in other scenes. Overall, Eddie creates apprehension and an un-relaxed atmosphere throughout the whole play. Alfieri, in a way shows signs of mixed feelings about Eddie’s death, we know this because he says “Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better. But the truth is holy, and even as I know how wrong he was, and his death useless, I tremble, for I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory”.
