Analysing an Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly.

English Literature – Coursework

In the play, Miller includes a lot of characters with a lot of different views on justice and the law. Alfieri is a lawyer, and his opening speech forms the prologue in which he says that he and most other lawyers are thought of ‘only in connection with disasters’ in his society; he also believes that everyone is ‘suspicious’ of him as he walks down the street. He explains this by saying ‘the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten’ because he is from Sicily like Marco and Rodolpho. Alfieri has strong views on the law and justice as he believes that ‘justice is important here’ so he obviously believes in the job that he is doing. He talks about his society in both of the countries that he has been a citizen in. He is comparing the American society in which he lives now to Sicily when he says ‘this is Red Hook, not Sicily … now we are quite civilised, quite American’ he appreciates the fact that America is more civilised and more modern than Sicily. He says ‘now we settle for half and I like it better’ and this is a general comment about the society in Red Hook and how they no longer just kill someone if they have done something wrong but the law is usually involved. He gives us an insight, in this prologue, into what’s to come later in the play and how he was ‘powerless as [he] watched it run its bloody course’ we don’t truly know what he is talking about at this point, but it all becomes more apparent later in the play. Alfieri recalls previous injustice that he has seen as ‘Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine gun.’ And there were ‘many here who were shot by unjust men’. Alfieri regards this as wrong; he is a lawyer and believes that in discrepancies should be a matter of the law and not for people to take the law into their own hands.

The different characters have their own distinct attitudes to justice and the law. Alfieri is a lawyer so is obviously on the side of the law and believes in getting justice through the justice system an not by taking the law into your own hands. Conversely, Eddie does not believe in the law, when he tells Alfieri that he is not too fond of Marco and Rodolpho and Alfieri suggests telling the immigration bureau Eddie says ‘Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that’ suggesting that even if he wanted to get rid of them for good he wouldn’t use the law to do it. He knows that in his society, betrayal is injustice; the story of Vinny Bolzano is a good illustration of this, when he ‘snitched … on his own uncle!’ the idea of family honour was betrayed so Vinny Bolzano went away and was never seen again. There is irony in this, in that even though Vinny snitched and Eddie is explaining how terrible it is and no one should never do it, he still goes on to do it later in the play. Marco has much the same outlook on the law as Eddie but has to be more involved in it because he is an illegal immigrant. He is always aware of anyone that might report him to the police or the immigration bureau, and as soon as the immigration bureau come he says’ I accuse that one!’ repulsively pointing at Eddie. When Marco breaks free, he spits in Eddies face, this is a form of his own justice, and he has taken the law into his own hands here. Eddie responds to this by also disobeying the law and lunging for Marco whilst shouting ‘I’ll kill you for that, you son of a bitch!’ Eddie is evidently enraged by Marco and his terrible act of hostility towards him.

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Rodolpho is like Marco in that he always has to be aware of the law, but he is not as bothered about it as Marco because he goes out late with Catherine to places in the middle of town where he shouldn’t go. Catherine is also like this because she doesn’t really care where she and Rodolpho go as long as they are having a good time. Unfortunately for Marco, he is the innocent victim of Eddies attempt to get Rodolpho. Out of America though he quickly realises that Eddie is to blame for the appearance of the immigration officers and get slightly annoyed. He feels that justice needs to be brought on him because he "killed his children". If he did something similar in Italy, he would have to pay for the crime by fighting. He comments on America’s judicial system - "I don't understand this country" and eventually he challenges Eddie, but Eddie is already prepared to murder Marco so got his knife out. In the end though, it is Eddie who ends up being killed because Marco is a much better fighter because he has had a lot of practice in his own country.

Eddie is constantly in pursuit of justice in the play because he thinks that the only reason Rodolpho wants to marry Catherine ‘is to get his papers’ this shows us Eddies desire for Catherine because he doesn’t want Rodolpho to marry her because he wants her for himself. Deep down he know that he can’t go ahead with this incestuous relationship even if he wanted to. He gets frustrated when Alfieri informs him that he can’t do anything about the un-provable proposal that Rodolpho only wants to marry for his papers. So, Eddie goes on to question Rodolphos sexuality, saying ‘if you came into the house and you didn’t know who was singin’, you wouldn’t be looking for him you be lookin’ for her’. Here saying Eddie is saying that he has a homosexual voice and how he sews ‘1-2-3 he makes a new dress … you could kiss him he was so sweet’ this brings out Eddies homosexual side because he said he could kiss him. Eddie has his strongest feeling of injustice when Rodolpho arrives. Eddie has been a father-figure to Catherine all her life and "gave her the food out of his mouth". He paid money so that she would meet a higher class of people and there are subtle hints that he is attracted to her as well. It is reasonable for him to feel jealous and malicious towards Rodolpho when he comes to America and decides he wants to marry Catherine. He feels betrayed by Catherine that she has suddenly run off and lives her own life now, this also could be attributed to his fear of Catherine growing up, and that she is not his little baby anymore.

Because Eddie is constantly in pursuit of justice for Rodolpho, he is blind to the injustice he is causing to others, like his wife Beatrice, he is not treating he as a loving husband should. She considers their sexual relationship to be virtually non-existent and she wants to know ‘when am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?’ and Eddie ‘don’t want to talk about it’ even though he knows he is neglecting Beatrice he doesn’t care. On of the reasons for him not treating Beatrice properly could be the fact that he is obsessed with Catherine. His obsessive nature smothers her sometimes; when he kissed her and the proceeded to kiss Rodolpho straight after, her feelings for him must have been changing erratically. From being almost like a father to her, to someone who she is scared of when he is fighting her, then to someone she is disgusted by when he kisses her and Rodolpho.

Although Eddie wants justice for Rodolpho Marco demands justice for Eddie. In a way Marco has more of a right to justice because Eddie is the one who reported them to the immigration bureau but all that Rodolpho had done was to want to marry Eddie’s niece. Neither of these things is illegal but they bring us back to the theme of betrayal and the irony of the Vinny Bolzano story that Eddie told Beatrice and Catherine. Everyone was appalled by what Vinny Bolzano had done but Eddie has just done the same thing to Marco and Rodolpho so they have the right to be angry with him. The two conversations between Eddie and Alfieri, and Marco and Alfieri are quite similar from the point of view of Alfieri. In both conversations he is trying to persuade the individual to do the right and truthful thing; he tries to get them to obey the law. When he is talking to Eddie he ‘can only deal in what’s provable’ and Eddie can not prove that Rodolpho only wants to marry Catherine to become an American citizen but Alfieri suggests ‘the manner in which they entered the country’ is an offence, and they could be arrested for it Eddie declines because he believes that ‘snitching’ should never happen, even on people you don’t like, like Rodolpho. When Alfieri is talking to Marco he is trying to protect Eddie by telling Marco ‘to promise not to kill’ him. He tries to persuade him by telling him that if he does promise he ‘can bail [him] out until [his] hearing comes up’. In the end, Alfieri’s persuasive tactics work and Marco promises but, he does not keep this promise.

In the closing scene of the play the main focus is on Eddie and how badly he wants his ‘name back’ and he is willing to do anything to get it, even kill if he has to. When Rodolpho comes and kisses Eddies hand, it is showing that Rodolpho is ‘willing to settle for half’, which links back to Alfieri's prologue, this demonstrates the fact that Rodolpho knows he has been caught and that Marco will have to go back to Italy but he doesn’t mind as long as he can be friends with the uncle of his bride. Rodolpho, by coming to apologise s really trying to protect Marco because he knows what he is going to do, as later on he says ‘Eddie, please, he has children! You will kill a family!’ we know then that this is leading up to the climax of the play and then the resolution.

First of all Eddie only wants is him to ‘come here and apologise to’ him but later on when Rodolpho does come to apologise his demands change and he now wants his ‘name back’ because Marco publicly shamed him when he shouted ‘I accuse that one’ he also said ‘he killed my children! That one stole the food from my children!’ because Marco will now no longer be able to work in America, he will not be able to earn money to send back to Italy to feed his children. After he shouted this out in the neighbourhood and everyone knows that Eddie Carbone snitched he only wants his name and reputation back. When Marco appears ‘(his eyes are murderous and he cracks his knuckles)’we are given an indication here that Eddie is going to do something to Marco, although he tries to stay positive by saying ‘maybe he come to apologise to me’. After this we are brought to the climax of the play Eddie ‘(lunges for Marco)’ and Marco instantaneously strikes Eddie in return. As the inevitable happens and the knife is plunged into Eddie by Marco and the crowd rush in to separate them Marco has delivered his own justice upon Eddie but with a knife and not using the law like Alfieri suggested he do. This is the climax of the play and has terrible consequences for both of the characters as there search for justice ends simultaneously, because Eddie is dead so can no longer have justice and Marco has killed Eddie so has carried out his own justice. In Alfieri's epilogue he again raises the fact that’ most of the time now we settle for half’ but this is not something which Marco was willing to do, he wanted justice and there was nothing that was going to stop him.

Conclusively, miller communicates strong themes of law and justice in the play. Each character has their own views on what is right and what is wrong. The differences between the Sicilian society and the American society also play a large part. This is shown when Marco says that Eddie ‘would be dead by now’ if he was in Italy because he had snitched on the two brothers. This is probably why Marco wanted to deliver his own justice because that’s what he would do in his own country. Also Eddie hadn’t actually done anything wrong in the eyes of the law, in fact it was commendable by the law because he reported illegal immigrants, and it was the fact that he betrayed relatives that needed justifying.