In the quotation above Alfieri says “…And now we are quite civilized, quite American …”. He says this because the Americans have a law, which is written down on paper so it is a fixed law that can only be changed by the government. At the beginning of the play Alfieri says that he no longer has to keep a pistol in his filing cabinet this is because the law makes him fell safer and so he knows that he doesn’t need a gun to keep him safe. But in this case the Sicilians will have to settle for half because it will be against the American law to take care of a serious situation by themselves, which is what they would do. Then because of this there is a culture clash.
The first time settling for half is brought up in the play is by the character Alfieri in his opening speech. This has been said because in this situation he is talking about the Sicilian law. The Sicilian law being that things are taken into their own hands rather than the government doing something about it, this is why the two men that Alfieri walks past give him an uneasy nod because he associated with the law/government. And the law is associated with bad things happening and is not a friendly idea. Also most if not all the Sicilian laws aren’t written down so if it is broken it is dealt with the way the person feels fit, since they take the law into their own hands. But because the Sicilians/Italians are in America they can’t go to the extent that they could back at home in Sicily/Italy, but just because they are in America it doesn’t mean that the Sicilian law doesn’t apply because it still does in the ghettos of America as is seen in the play at various stages. Because the Sicilians have their own law they don’t settle for half they go to the full extent of trying to sort things out.
Near the beginning of the play on page 13 Eddie is talking about Vinny Bolzano and how he was a snitch and he starts talking about him not wanting a snitch in the household about his cousins, Marco and Rodolpho. He becomes a snitch at the end when he tells the immigration bureau about his cousins, it is ironic and this makes the play even more tragic.
When Catherine starts to like Rodolpho, Eddie doesn’t want to settle for half because the thought of Rodolpho being Catherine’s husband doesn’t please him at all. Because of that reason Eddie talks to Catherine about Rodolpho and keeps giving her reasons not to go with him. Eddie is giving her all those reasons because he cannot settle for half and he wants Catherine to himself. Also because Eddie wants Catherine so much he tries to make up any excuse he can just get to her. Then at a later stage on about page 32 Eddie goes to Alfieri to ask for help because he still can’t settle for half so he trying to see if he can get rid of Rodolpho by any means possible.
Even though Eddie has tried many things to try and get rid of Rodolpho there is a short scene at the end of act one when Eddie sort of teaches Rodolpho how to box, but this is really to show that Eddie is superior to Rodolpho, this could possibly scare Rodolpho. Eddie is even more annoyed because Rodolpho has just come into his house and taken Catherine away from him, but yet Eddie has brought Catherine up from when she was a little girl.
Another area where Eddie cannot bear settling for half is at the beginning of act two on page 47 Eddie is trying to show how woman/girl like Rodolpho really is because even a man of Eddie’s position would want to kiss him. The reason why Eddie is finding it hard to settle for half is because he loves Catherine too much. He loves her as much as he does because he has brought her up since she was a child so he has become attached to her as Alfieri says on pages 34-35.
On page 50 Eddie informs the immigration bureau because he isn’t going to settle for half so he thinks that the only way out is to get rid of him for good. In this situation Eddie has obeyed the American law instead of the Sicilian law.
On page 62 Eddie’s love for Catherine is brought out into the open so you might think that he is going to give up but he sees it, as he has got nothing to lose.
Near the end of the play Miller has established that Eddie has lost everything so Eddie thinks that there isn’t much point in settling for half because Catherine and Rodolfo are off to get married so Eddie has lost Catherine. That is why he keeps urging Marco on to have a fight with him because Eddie knows that he going to lose the fight.
To enhance the tragedy Eddie is the main tragic protagonist. Eddie’s actions have brought this upon himself that is why he is still holding the knife in his hand once he has been stabbed. If Eddie had settled for half then he would still be alive and because he didn’t the tragic consequence of it was that he ended up dying.
In Alfieri’s last speech in the play he says that something about Eddie was perversely pure. The thing about Eddie that was perversely pure was his love for Catherine. It perverse because Catherine was Eddie’s niece but his love for her was totally pure, and because Eddie knew that he couldn’t have her he thought that there was no point in living so that was why he had that fight with Marco.
