Eddie argues and questions Rodolpho’s presence in America, ‘If he’s come here to work, then he should work; if he’s come here for a good time then he could fool around’, when Rodolpho appears to be getting closer to Catherine. By inviting Rodolpho to dance with Catherine, she aggravates Eddie. He replies by giving Rodolpho a lesson in boxing. Eddie pretends to be pleased with Rodolpho but the real hostility is not concealed very well and soon becomes evident to all. Marco is not deceived, and rushes to his brother’s aid by conducting a contest in physical strength, the chair lifting challenge. Marco demonstrates traditional masculine characteristics, which makes Eddie feel undermined in his own house, ‘Eddies grin vanishes as he absorbs his look’. Marco has a protective attitude towards his brother and will not allow him to be bullied. This is in the same way that Eddie is protective towards Catherine. He expects her to always agree with him, and he becomes angry when she fails to share his opinions.
Beatrice is emotionally wearied by her husband’s irrational behaviour towards Rodolpho. At first she expresses her feelings openly, ‘I don’t wanna hear no more about it, you understand? Nothin,’ and her annoyance is clear when she asks, ‘What do you want from me? They’ve moved out; what do you want now?’ Beatrice’s open annoyance at her husband is too much for Eddie. He reprimands her: ‘I don’t like it! The way you talk to me and the way you look at me,’ and expects absolute obedience from his wife. Beatrice’s remark, ‘You kept her a baby, you wouldn’t let her go out,’ tells us how possessive Eddie has always been about Catherine. Beatrice has tried to persuade her husband to adopt a more relaxed attitude towards Catherine, ‘I told you a hundred times,’ but Eddie has always seen himself as the man in charge and able to get his own way. When Eddie refers to sex by telling Beatrice there will be no further discussion of their love life, Beatrice accepts what he says and simply agrees with, ‘Okay.’ This could imply that Beatrice is used to agreeing with Eddie and doing as he says, that she is just too tired to argue back. Either way, Eddie is showing that he is the man and whatever he says should be done the right way without anyone arguing with him.
Marco who is man of deliberation and good sense is wiser than Rodolpho, and initially conforms to Eddie’s idea of a ‘real man’. This is particularly shown when ‘he is coming more and more to address Marco only’ during conversations that they have. On the other hand , he is a challenge to Eddie as is shown in the chair incident. He has a traditional Sicilian view of justice, which is clearly shown when he kills Eddie. After the betrayal, Marco is completely transformed from a wise rational man to a primitive thinking savage beast
Rodolpho does not conform to Eddie’s image of masculinity. He tell Beatrice ‘The guy ain’t right’ and ‘the guy is no good’. Eddie is clearly unhappy with the relationship developing between Rodolpho and Catherine. He accuses Rodolpho of acting like a woman than a ‘real’ man, by suspecting that his blond hair is not natural and that his singing at work makes him more like a “chorus girl”. Eddie is intellectually limited and acts by primitive instincts and prejudice. His attempts to justify his suspicions about Rodolpho, all turn out to be futile as it does not distance Catherine away from Rodolpho. Eddie has a primitive view of the purpose of marriage cannot believe that the USA law will allow a young girl to be married to a man who he suspects, ‘ain’t right’. Eddie questions Rodolpho’s sexuality but it tells us more about Eddie’s possessiveness towards Catherine. Instead of being able to see that Rodolpho is a skilful man, Eddie uses his skill as an example of his femininity. Eddie sees this as wrongful and cries out, ‘He’s stealing from me!’ immediately revealing his possessiveness. Alfieri who is omniscient tells him that the law cannot do anything and that he must let Catherine do as she wants. Eddie will not back down nor listen to anybody else’s opinion, and in doing so, he leaves himself with nowhere to go.
The idea of honour is also a part of manliness where Marco and Eddie both naturally assume that they must defend their honour by fighting. Rodolpho is different because he does not share this idea, and this is shown in the scene where he takes Eddie’s hand and kisses it. When Eddie ignores this gesture and Beatrice asks, ‘Only blood is good?’ the answer unfortunately is ‘Yes’. Eddie’s response is revealing when he says, ‘What he does don’t mean nothin’ to nobody!’ Eddie and Marco both believe in the importance of their honour. We see this when Eddie demands he has his ‘name’ back. Eddie was somebody, was respected and honoured by all but now he had lost all this and he has no identity. Faced with the wrath of his community, Eddie is desperate to reclaim his name so that he can be a somebody once again.
Eddie shows open hostility towards Rodolpho when he makes a joke about women in Italy having affairs with other men while their husbands are working in America. Both Marco and Rodolpho make clear that this does not happen very often, ‘Very few surprises’ Rodolpho adds, ‘It’s more strict in our town’. This gives Eddie an opportunity to start criticising Rodolpho. He points out that there are also strict rules in the Italian community in New York and that ‘it ain’t so free here either’.
The many acts of manliness and the hostile behaviour from the male characters towards others lead to aggression, which at the end, escalate as we find out from the happenings at the end of the play. The hostile behaviour used throughout he play lead to death and destruction of a happy family. Eddie was not afraid of showing the two immigrants exactly how he felt about them and this finally lead to his demise and him losing his social identity in the end.