With the arrival of Beatrice’s cousins imminent, Eddie tells this story of Vinny Bolzano so that everyone, especially Catherine, is aware of the consequences of betrayal.
Vinny was a boy in his mid-teens who informed on his uncle to the Immigration Bureau. The consequences were dire, as betrayal was the worst crime.
“They spit on him in the street, his own father and brothers”
Vinny was publicly humiliated in front of the whole neighbourhood. As a result he went away and was never to be seen again. One’s name was everything and was very hard to retrieve. Eddie asserts:
“You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word you gave away.”
The Sicilian code was unforgiving and isolated traitors. It is Eddie who speaks this line that later describes his own dishonour and the loss of his good name.
Eddie is Catherine’s uncle and has undoubtedly behaved as a father and a friend to her. But the feelings for Catherine are more than he declares and he is unable to express them. Eddie is very protective of Catherine and loves her very much. However, is Eddie being protective because he thinks that Rodolfo is unsuitable or is it because Eddie is jealous of him. Sexual jealousy would account for why Eddie strongly feels that Rodolfo has broken the unwritten code, by being too familiar with a women in a house, in which he is merely a guest. Alfieri says, when asked by Eddie !
“but through the years - there is too much love for the niece”
Alfieri has thoughts that Eddie has ‘too much love’. Eddie does not want to ‘let go’ of Catherine.
Eddie is not entirely satisfied that Rodolfo is an honest man. Eddie questions his sexuality spitefully and goes as far as calling him ‘weird’ and the saying ‘guy ain’t right’. When Catherine and Rodolpho go to the Paramount cinema, Eddie waits for their return. He tells Beatrice that ‘he (Rodolfo) gives me the heeby-jeebies’. Eddie also obsessively rants about Rodolfo’s blonde hair and his singing. In the end Eddie says:
“for that character I didn’t bring her up”.
Eddie goes to Alfieri to seek guidance about the Rodolfo situation. However, there is nothing that the law can do to help Eddie. Alfieri says
“there is nothing illegal about a girl falling in love with an immigrant”
Alfieri can see that there is no way of stopping Eddie on his tragic course
“his eyes were like tunnels”
The stage direction shows that Eddie has ‘a one track’ mind and all that he could see was his little girl being taken from him by who he called ‘a weirdo’. Alfieri advises Eddie in accordance with the American system
“There is only one legal question here …… The manner in which they entered the country”
The relationship problems between Eddie and his wife (Beatrice) are not discussed by Eddie with her. He holds back about speaking about his obsessive emotions towards Catherine which are affecting their marriage. Eddie’s perspective is that the best way of solving their problems are to keep them confined and not discuss them. Beatrice expresses her worries but Eddie refuses to listen to her. Sexual relations have also broken down and not, as Eddie says because of worries about the ‘submarines’, but for many weeks before that.
Eddie restricts the freedom of Catherine for his own selfish reasons. He is obsessed with Catherine and cannot watch her being taken from him. So much so that his wife says:
“What’re you gonna stand over her till she is forty?”
Beatrice says this to Eddie because she can see his obsessive behaviour. The obsessive jealousy gets too much for Eddie, he betrays himself and others and goes against the Sicilian code by informing the Immigration Bureau about Rodolfo’s and Marco’s presence in the country. Eddie was heading this way ever since his jealousy became apparent. He tried stopping himself by talking to Alfieri, but still it was no use. Eddie is the tragic protagonist and, as in Greek tragedy, there is nothing he can do.
Eddie obsession progressed to such an extent that he gave up everything he stood for, his honour and his name to get what he thought was his - Catherine. Eddie exists very much as part of a community. This give him his strength and them brought about his destruction.
Throughout the play, Marco abides by both American law and Sicilian code, except for his entry into the country. But, when he realises what Eddie has done, he feels an overwhelming sense of injustice. Marco, like Eddie is driven by his belief in an impelling code of behaviour. Marco follows the code purely and totally and, as a result, from being a respectable working man he becomes a murderer.
When Marco finally realises that Eddie has betrayed him and his brother he spits on Eddie and calls him a murderer. He talks of his children back at home. At this stage, Eddie has lost his ‘name’ and has gone against everything he professes to believe in, Marco now refers to him as “that one” not a man. Marco wants justice according to the unwritten code and that means death to the transgressor. Eddie has lost everything, including Catherine, and is also about to lose his life.
In the final conflict between Eddie and Marco, they both seeking justice. Eddie wants his ‘name’ back from Marco and Marco wants justice according to the unwritten code. Before Marco comes Eddie knows that without his ‘name’, in the community of Red Hook he is doomed. Eddie has nothing left, and, in order to get his name back he is willing to “have it out”. Eddie’s words about giving away one’s name comes back to haunt him.
“You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away”
Beatrice says that Marco has nothing to give Eddie, but Eddie wants ‘his name’. What Eddie really wants is Catherine, but that is impossible. Eddie now presents himself like a doomed protagonist in a tragedy. Rodolfo says:
“no, Marco, please! Eddie, please, he has children! you will kill a family!”
By the end, both men do not receive justice as they would have wanted. Eddie dies and along with that ‘kills’ the family of Marco. Marco receives justice in accordance to the ‘code’, but in the end he is left with nothing and falls foul of the written law of the land. Eddie does not ‘get’ Catherine and his name dies with him. Informing about Rodolfo and Marco was seen as the right thing according to the US law but ended up creating havoc. But when Eddie’s “eyes were like tunnels” he could see nothing else, not even the consequences of his actions. One man loses his life through the code, the other will lose his life through the judicial law of the land when he is convicted of the murder of Eddie.
At the end of the play, Alfieri says that Eddie should have settled for ‘half’. Alfieri also points out that no judicial system is complete.
Arthur Miller wrote about a subject and plot that he had experienced himself. During World War II, Miller spent nearly two years working in the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Their were a majority of Italians in the workforce.
It was here that Miller familiarised himself with the Italian way of life, Sicilian dramas and the unpredictable moral codes. As a New Yorker whose father came from Europe, he was himself in the same position as Eddie and, though from Poland, Miller familiarised himself with life by the time he wrote the play.
The play has a recurrence of the law and justice and the conflict between them. However, the problem is amplified because of the first generation Americans unwillingness to accept the law. The law, then can do no good and Alfieri’s desperate attempts to explain the law to Eddie and Marco fail completely. Both men are frustrated with the fact that justice is not carried out, in the way they see fit. The community of Red Hook are living by their own laws and the rest of the nation are living by the orthodox laws. Eddie steps outside the laws of Red Hook and informs the Immigration Bureau of the immigrants. This is a triumph by the law of the land but he perishes under the laws of his community.
