As the play commences, Eddie is already demonstrating his authority within the household. When Catherine is showing Eddie her new style of walking, Eddie does not respond in a gentle manner, “Now don’t aggravate me Katie, you’re walkin’ wavy!” this shows how Eddie has strong views on certain things and how protective he is of Catherine. Further, to demonstrate Eddie’s authority, the stage directions in the play show how Catherine ‘was almost in tears because he disapproves.’ This portrays how Eddie’s opinion was considered to be very important in the household. As this scene continues, the audience observes the way in which Eddie acts and how his domineering role in the family creates a fear in the minds of others. When the subject of Rodolfo and Marco arises, Beatrice becomes very reluctant in asking Eddie if they can stay with them. We later find out that she is frightened at what Eddie may do if things do not turn out as planned, ‘I’m just afraid that if it don’t turn out good, you’ll be mad at me.’ Clearly, from his quote, the audience can see what effect Eddie has on Beatrice.
Nonetheless, Eddie’s Sicilian background interlinks with his ideas of manhood as the foundations of his family encourage him to be manly and work to provide for the family. Eddie argues and questions Marco’s and Rodolpho’s presence in America when saying, ‘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’.
Conversely, the sparring of words is supplemented by physical action, known as aggression. Catherine hits at Eddie by inviting Rodolpho to dance with her, immediately aggravating Eddie. Eddie counters this by giving Rodolpho a lesson in boxing. This is no crude beating up; he pretends to be pleased with Rodolpho’s progress but the real hostility is ill- concealed beneath the show of friendly encouragement, and at the end the motive is evident to Rodolpho, when he betrays the relatives and goes against the Sicilian law. Though he protests that he was not hurt only surprised- by a hard blow. Marco, silently watching, is not for a moment deceived. STAGEDIRECTIONS/TENSION/PALPABLE (OBVIOUS)
Eddie’s inability to articulate his feelings leads to explosive situations later on the play. This cause for aggression is kept concealed within each character at the beginning of the play. The aggression is released towards the end of the play when Marco demonstrates conventionally ‘masculine’ characteristics in such a way that Eddie feels threatened. It is the realisation of this aggression that leads to the death of Eddie Carbone.
As Rodolpho resumes dancing with Catherine, Marco initiates a contest in physical strength; the chair lifting challenge- the result is a defeat for Eddie, as Marco ‘raises the chair like a weapon over his head’. We know that Eddie’s hostility is directed towards Rodolpho as Eddie begins ‘sizing up Rodolpho, and there is a concealed suspicion’. This implies that Eddie is already hesitant towards Rodolfo and towards the end of the scene, Eddie has his ‘face puffed up with trouble’ as Catherine is pouring Rodolfo some tea. Eddie is not pleased at how Catherine is treating Rodolfo as it used to be that Eddie would be the one who she would pour tea for but since the arrival of Rodolfo, she has seemed to forget about him. Eddie does not seem to think that he is the man of the household anymore as the attention is not upon him. He feels he is not the dominant character anymore and this later builds up hostility between Eddie and the immigrants.
Marco tends to demonstrate conventionally masculine characteristics, which may make Eddie feel inferior towards Marco, or less of a man; he may feel threatened. In this scene we see that Marco has a protective attitude towards his brother and will not allow him to be bullied. Similarly, Eddie shows this same sort of protection towards Catherine.
Eddie is a very forceful character; he has a somewhat demanding personality that is apparent in his relationship with his wife. He expects her to always agree with him, and he becomes increasingly angry when she fails to share his opinions. Quote. We see an unconcealed example of this, when Eddie first enters the apartment and asks where everyone is, Beatrice does not answer.
Consequently, recent events have taken their toll on her feelings and she is emotionally wearied by her husband’s irrational behaviour. A first she expresses her feelings openly, ‘I don’t wanna hear no more about it, you understand? Nothin,’ and her annoyance is evident 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 to take. He sees himself as the man of the house, the person in charge, and he reprimands her: ‘I don’t like it! The way you talk to me and the way you look at me.’ He expects to get his own way and his wife to obey him. He needs to reassert his authority, to feel the same again.
We learn more about the relationship that existed in the past between Eddie and Catherine. Beatrice’s remark, ‘You kept her a baby, you wouldn’t let her go out,’ tells us how possessive Eddie has always been of Catherine. Beatrice had tried to get 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 of his family and he has always been able to get his way. Now, as his wife points out, it is too late; his need for being the one always in charge has just lead to matters to get worse.
When Eddie refers to sex by telling Beatrice there will be no further discussion of their love life, or rather the lack of love in their life, Beatrice accepts what he says and simply agrees with, ‘Okay’ This could imply that Beatrice is so used to agreeing with Eddie and doing as he says, or we could say 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 is the right way and nobody should dare argue.
We see that Eddie believes that Rodolpho does not conform to this image of masculinity as Eddie says of him, ‘The guy ain’t right’ and ‘the guy is no good’. Eddie is clearly unhappy with the close relationship developing between Rodolpho and Catherine. He accuses Rodolpho of being effeminate, meaning that he acts more 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 attempts to justify his clearly irrational dislike of Rodolpho when he ‘gives me the ‘heebie-jeebies’.
We can say that because he is intellectually limited he acts by instinct and prejudice. He is quite comic in his attempt to explain and justify his suspicions of Rodolpho- protesting that he has fair hair, a high singing voice, and a taste for feminine occupations such as cooking and dress- making. It is all summed up in the conviction that he is homosexual and therefore not a suitable husband for Catherine. Quote Eddie is most at home on a physical level- a big, strong, impulsive man.
However, Eddie has a primitive view and limited people cannot believe that United States 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 than about Rodolpho himself. Instead of being able to see that Rodolpho has the skill to alter a dress, Eddie uses it as an example of his femininity. Eddie sees this as wrongful and cries out, ‘He’s stealing from me!’ immediately revealing his possessiveness. Alfieri tells him that the law cannot do anything and that he must let Catherine do as she wants, but Eddie will not back down; he does not listen to anybody else’s opinion, therefore further driving a wedge between himself and Catherine.
The idea of honour often overlaps with the notion of being a man in the macho sense of the word. Marco and Eddie both naturally assume that they must defend their honour by fighting. Rodolpho is different because he does not share the need for violence to prove his masculinity, 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! In this male world, honour is tied up with acting like a man and fighting to defend one’s name. Eddie and Marco both believe in the importance of their honour. We see this when Eddie demands he has his ‘name’ back. In this area, Eddie is somebody, he was known and he is respected and honoured by all but now he had lost all this and he had no identity. Faced with the wrath of his community, Eddie is desperate to reclaim his name.
We see that 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” says Marco and Rodolpho adds, ‘It’s more strict in our town’ and this gives Eddie an opportunity to start criticising Rodolpho by taking Catherine out without his permission. 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’.
These many acts of manliness and the hostile behaviour from some characters towards others lead to aggression, which at the end, tend to increase as we find out from the result 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 the defeat of him losing his social identity and of his death in the end.
