“We settle for half” is a key quotation from Alfieri in this play. It shows a way to avoid a conflict between society and the individual. Eddie has relied his whole life on his moral code which he breaks when he realises he can no longer have Catherine and the code. Eddie is, however, to proud to compromise although he has an abundance of chances to do so. Eddie has relied his whole life on his moral code which he breaks when he realises he can no longer have Catherine and the code.
Eddie is punished for his individuality by society, the fight at the end is much like a pagan ritual devised to discern truth by divine intervention, the crowd circles the two opponents as the accuser and defender fight, the winner will either reclaim his honour or destroy his opponents. Such rituals are have said to take place in ancient Briton and Greece.
Eddie lives in a society where there is a strange type of feudal system; there are mafia dons on top mafia underlings in the middle and longshoremen at the very bottom. It immediately suggests to me that the kiss bestowed upon Rodolpho may have connections with the Mafia as a kiss of death. By reporting Rodolpho to the immigration authorities Eddie has effectively signed his own and Rodolpho’s death warrants. We can relate Eddie to the conventions of the Mafia because of his background as he himself is an Italian-American and by reporting Rodolpho he is effectively denying another what was given to his parents. This play is set in the nineteen-fifties when Gang warfare was rife in which the Mafia played a large part, shown in the very beginning of the play where Eddie explains that Rodolpho and Marco will be given jobs everyday until they pay “them” off. Eddie is a longshoreman, he is worthless to his society because there are hundreds like him, and he works in a place where you work when you are lucky enough to be picked for work. Miller experienced this corruption of the American dream first hand. It is the Sicilian society that allows the lowest man to survive because of the camaraderie between neighbours.
Miller’s use of an unusual stage direction is important “[They are like animals that have torn at one another and broken up without decision, each waiting for the other’s mood.]”. The animalistic language is important in that it keeps referring to beasts and to primitive and animal behaviour shown near the end of the play: Rodolpho’s metaphor of the bird; the simile in the stage directions of the two beasts; and Eddie “By rights they oughta to throw you back into the water”. It shows the animalistic nature of the society both characters are a part of. When Marco kills Eddie it as if he has won the battle and much like in a pack of lions the dominant male now owns the females. This simile helps us to imagine this scene, highlighting it as the characters turn from men to beasts.
This story was built upon a tale Miller heard while working as a longshoreman in Red Hook (where the play is actually set), some say that Elia Kazan is represented in the play by Eddie, the character that we can understand but still reject. Miller criticised Elia Kazan for naming names during the McCarthy trials (or as they were nicknamed “the McCarthy Witch hunts”) but at the same time understood his dilemma. Elia Kazan was given an option and if he didn’t name names then he would never direct films again. Kazan was not only criticised by Miller but by many people who branded him a coward and scoundrel although he claimed he was doing it “out of his own true self”. Like Kazan, Eddie does what he believes is right creating a conflict between society and himself.
