At the same day Eddie gives the good news and says that Beatrice’s cousins are coming. Beatrice thinks that her home doesn’t look pretty enough but Eddie tells her to stop panicking because he thinks that they haven’t seen a house this much pretty. This makes audience feel that the place those people come from must be a very bad place. When Marco and Rodolpho come near the house Rodolpho says that he hasn’t seen a house this big, but the house is a small normal flat.
Rodolpho is a blond person, and being blond is going to make him have some troubles in the future. He is here to work to make some money and to be rich. He has a brother called Marco. Marco is Rodolpho’s bigger brother. He has a family back in Italy; he is here to work to make some money to send it to his family so they can buy medicines for children. The audience feel sorry for Marco’s family because Marco had to leave them there and Marco’s children are ill.
When the two brothers come in to the house Beatrice welcomes them with a happy face, but Eddie doesn’t smile because he finds out that Rodolpho is blond. Eddie thinks that blond people are gay and stupid. This makes audience feel that there is going to be a trouble between these two men in the future.
After the dinner, Rodolpho and Catherine starts sort of flirting by the way they talk to each other and by the way they act. When Eddie sees them like flirting, he gets very angry because he think that he doesn’t know Rodolpho good enough. He doesn’t say anything but he starts saying some thing else to break the conversation between them. This makes audience feel that this little flirting between Rodolpho and Catherine is not making Eddie feel good.
After few weeks Rodolpho and Catherine goes out and comes back late, that makes Eddie go nuts because he thinks that somebody is going to take Catherine away from him. So he tells Marco to tell Rodolpho that he should not come home late. After this Eddie goes to his lawyer Alfieri and tells him that Rodolpho is making him angry by the way he is behaving. But Alfieri tells Eddie that there is nothing he can do about this. Alfieri also tells Eddie that he has to stay calm. This makes audience feel that Eddie is really getting desperate about this Rodolpho problem.
That night after dinner Eddie tells Rodolpho that he wants to teach him how to fight. First Rodolpho doesn’t want to but Beatrice says that Eddie could really teach him. So they start (not-real) fighting, while they are fighting Eddie punches Rodolpho for real and he says sorry but he looks like he is happy about it. And now Eddie is in big trouble because Marco was watching the fight and he looks like he is getting really angry about this not-real fight. So he tells Eddie to raise a chair, Eddie tries but he can’t raise the chair. Marco then starts raising the chair above his head with a smile, which is kind of saying “Don’t you touch my brother again!!!” This makes audience feel that Marco is actually warning Eddie not to touch his brother again.
After that Eddie goes to his lawyer again and tells him that he is going to do something real bad and says that he is going to call the immigration officers to come and take Marco and Rodolpho away. Alfieri tries to stop him but he is very desperate he goes out and calls the immigration officers. When they come and take Rodolpho and Marco away they also find two other immigrants that are in the same flat. While Marco is taken out he starts shouting that Eddie is the responsible for all this. From that time Catherine starts to hate Eddie too and this makes Eddie a bit angrier. This makes audience think that Eddie is going to do anything he can just to hurt Marco and Rodolpho.
After few days the wedding day of Rodolpho and Catherine comes. Catherine tells Beatrice to come but Eddie tells her not to go, this makes Catherine angry and she swears at Eddie. That makes him unbelievably angry and he nearly attacks Catherine. After few minutes Marco comes in front of Eddie’s house (Marco and Rodolpho were released by Alfieri) and shouts his name with a great anger “Eddie Carbone!!!” Eddie runs outside and starts fighting with Marco. Eddie falls and gets his knife out but Marco takes it out of Eddie’s hand and stabs him. Eddie falls over and his last words are “My dear Beatrice”
Eddie’s death makes audience feel sorry for him, Beatrice and Catherine because even if they broke each other’s hearts they still loved each other.
I think Arthur Miller wants us to see the play as a tragedy because a tragedy is a serious medieval narrative or narrative poem written in an elevated style and typically dealing with the downfall of an important or powerful person. And this play has the downfall of Eddie who is the leader of his family.
The End
