When the news of the cousin’s arrival reaches the Carbones Beatrice is disturbed. She hasn’t made the dinner or got the house into shape. Eddie calms her down but she says “looking into his eyes” “I’m worried about you, that’s all I’m worried”. This gives us the impression that she’s worried about Eddie in more ways than just coping with the cousins coming, the relationship between Catherine and Eddie may have been going on some time.
When Catherine tells Eddie about her new opportunity to be a stenographer Eddie is immediately disturbed. He wants her to finish school first and doesn’t feel comfortable with the plumbers and sailors that will see her, this is another instance where Eddie may want Catherine to himself not any other men. Eddie finally gives in after Beatrice pressures him and this is the first and only time Eddie cries. He cries like a child has lost a loved one “for a powerful emotion is on him, a childish one and a knowing fear, and the tears show in his eyes" Straight
after this event Catherine comes out with a cigar and matches. She lights it for him. This could be just someone showing they’re thankful or it could be interpreted differently, with a slight phallic twist. The cigar being the phallic object. He says “Don’t burn yourself. (Just in time she blows out the match. He’s warning her not to hurt herself because of him and we realise that although he may have feelings for Catherine he will not act on them if it affects her in a negative way. Beatrice detects that something and confronts Eddie - “Who’s mad? … I’m not mad …You’re the one is mad.”
As this part of the play continues Eddie glances at his watch anxiously a number of times. He senses that time is running out; Catherine is growing up to fast for him, Beatrice is starting to pressure him and now the cousins (two new Italian men, one single) are about to arrive, Arthur Miller uses this to symbolise that things are moving forward faster than ever before in Eddie’s life.
As soon as the cousins arrive we see Eddie start to change rapidly. As the first scene they are in ends Eddie’s “face is puffed with trouble” Nothing has turned out the way he has planned. Catherine is giving far more attention to Rodolfo than to him and Eddie doesn’t like it. As Catherine is “enthralled” by Rodolfo’s singing Eddie uses the excuse of immigration officers picking them up. He says later that Rodolfo gives him “the heeby-jeebies”, and hints that he’s maybe homosexual as he sings and has platinum blonde hair. This is unfair as the cousins have only just arrived and Eddie didn’t like Catherine’s reaction. He has “a campaign solidified in him” He’s not going to change his mind easily.
Beatrice is annoyed with him because he’s not sleeping with her and not carrying out the husband like acts he’s meant to be. He “turns away” when Catherine’s talking to him and reacts very poorly when Catherine tells him Rodolfo loves her. He “makes an awkward gesture of eroded command” and knows he’s losing if not lost control of his house and family.
Eddie responds to this in the only way he knows. Violence. “He has been unconsciously twisting the newspaper into a tight roll” as he raises the issue of Rodolfo’s effeminate side. This has been an issue for some time and he is letting his feelings out now, unlike ever before. He has bent the rolled paper and it suddenly tears in two” His strength shows through as he snaps. His inability to express him self leads to him confronting Rodolfo but he has to remain inconspicuous so he pretends to teach him boxing.
“he’s terrific! Look at him go! (Rodolfo lands a blow.) ‘At’s it! Now, watch out, here I come, Danish! (He feints with his left hand and lands with his right. It mildly staggers Rodolfo.” Eddie is playing with him, hiding his true motivation. “Marco rises” with the last punch and knows something is going on. He “nods dubiously at him [Eddie]”
To tell Eddie not to mess with Rodolfo Marco uses actions not words like in the Sicilian Code and shows Eddie how strong he is. “Can you lift this chair?” The scene ends as “Marco is face to face with Eddie…the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head – and he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a mile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look.” Marco has challenged Eddie and Eddie has lost, losing more power and dignity (two important factors in an Italian man. Marco will show the same aggression if Eddie shows his towards the brothers again.
When Eddie comes home he is clearly drunk he “takes out a bottle from one pocket…Then another bottle from another pocket, and a third from an inside pocket”. He has smothered his problems, fears and sadness with drink and has obviously meant to do it. He finds Rodolfo and Catherine coming from the bedroom getting dressed. He has lost all inhibitions and “reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth” It appears that he has never lost his feelings for Catherine and is showing them now. It is interesting that the only way for Eddie to actually show his true feelings is when he’s at his worst. Rodolfo naturally reacts and Eddie takes his chance to disgrace Rodolfo; “Rodolfo flies at him in attack. Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him.”. This kiss Eddie is meant to humiliate Rodolfo with Catherine watching. Eddie wants to prove he is a man like a true man should be by kissing her. His other is meant to ridicule Rodolfo and his effeminate personality. But there are other possibilities for him kissing Rodolfo. A lot of people say that if you’re too masculine then you’re not secure with your sexuality. Maybe Eddie, with his inhibitions gone, has feelings for Rodolfo not Catherine, and doesn’t want Rodolfo to love Catherine. Not the other way around.
Not taking Alfieri’s advice, Eddie decides to call the immigration office on the cousins. “A phone booth begins to glow on the opposite side of the stage; a faint lonely blue” This symbolises his feelings and personality at this moment entirely. He is desperate, he has no one to turn to and this colour on the, otherwise dark, stage is the only way out. He “slowly hangs up” now realising what he has done, he almost at once starts to regret his action even though he wanted to do them from the very start. At home “he moves about restlessly…biting his lip”, anxiously waiting for the inevitable knocks on the door. This is the time when he is most vulnerable; he is waiting for something he shouldn’t be waiting for, and trying to conceal any glimpses of his actual self. His armour cracks a bit when he Beatrice asks what more does he wants. “I want my respect!”
When Eddie hears of Catherine and Rodolfo’s wedding is very soon he realises his mistake, but knows he can’t change it now. Eddie rapidly tries to find a solution where he isn’t implicated, but it’s too late. “a knock on the door...Another knock” Beatrice has realised but still Eddie is very defensive “What’re you looking at!” Catherine has as well and “with a sob of fury” she runs away. Eddie doesn’t want to know he’s responsible and denies everything. “Pugnaciously, furious, he steps toward Beatrice, What’s the matter with you… What’s the matter with you…What’re you, accusin’ me?” Marco knows now also and “spits into eddies face…Eddie with an enraged cry, lunges for Marco” He accuses Marco of betraying his trust and being ungrateful. “You gonna apologise to me, Marco!, Marco!” Each one trying to gain he upper hand in an immature clash of strength, honour and the Sicilian Code.
“There is a pause of darkness” could mean that there will be a trouble soon. Miller’s use of not only stage directions but stage effects makes him the imaginative and brilliant Director he was. Eddie desperately tries to keep some dignity by refusing to run, even facing death he is trying to save himself. He is so deluded that he’s prepared to “pick up the table and fling it” at Catherine. When warned by Rodolfo that Eddie is coming he still persuades himself that Marco should apologise to him, still afraid to face the truth like a man. Another truth he has to face is Catherine. “you want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!” Eddie reacts to this, again, defensively. He can’t and doesn’t want to deal with it no matter what. He is “shocked, horrified, his fists clenching”.
The stage direction “Marco appears outside, walking towards the door from a distant point” is similar to the clock counting down. Marco is coming, nothing can change it. In the final and fatal scene the Greek tragedy is completed. Eddie has so many emotions now, bottled up in side but he can’t express himself, the only thing left is to fulfil the Sicilian code: be a man, retain your humour.
“He is incensing himself and little bits of laughter even escape him as his eyes are murderous and he cracks his knuckles in his hands with a strange sort of relaxation” He is on the verge of insanity, his emotions, some years old, for Catherine, Beatrice, The cousins, Tony and Louis, everyone are about to be released.
“Eddie springs a knife into his hand” a dirty thing to do, dishonourable, but he keeps his knife like a life line, like a channel for his feelings. “Marco grabs his arm, turning the blade inward and pressing it home” Eddie’s feelings from all his life are what kill him, the knife symbolises them and his delusion. “Eddie, the knife still in his hand, falls to his knees before Marco” He could be surrendering, knowing he is beaten; or praying, like Marco before Eddie will after seeking some forgiveness.
Beatrice is the only one that stands by him; she acts like a blanket covering him from humiliation and the community. She fulfils her typical role perfectly: a good wife till death. She ends it in a way, putting Eddie in darkness as if the play had ended.
Eddie has changed for the worse; he started out as a mild mannered longshoreman, a good home and family, good morals. But since the arrival of the cousins he became jealous of either Catherine or Rodolfo, or both for having the relationship he could never have with either of them. He betrays the Sicilian Code, breaks his masculine demeanour. His feelings are so mixed u by the end that he cannot deal with them and they lead him to his death. Arthur Miller’s stage directions make this play so much more alive. They give life to the smallest things, the way Eddie smiles, the way people look at him. With out them it would be difficult to see the changes in him. In Alfieri’s closing speech he states that the truth is better than anything, better than dying. It is ironic that Eddie died because of the truths he’d been avoiding. Alfieri says that it is “better to settle for half”, better to have something not nothing. He mourns Eddie and this persuades the audience to mourn him, disregarding all the flaws that killed him.
