Eddie is a violent man who hits Rodolpho just because his views are different to his. Eddie’s father moved from Italy to America and Eddie may get his views from him although we are not told this. Eddie is proud and will not let anything bad happen to his family. Eddie is, in the play, unable to communicate his feelings in proper English to the other characters although the language he does use conveys the general meaning: “Katy. You’re walking wavy”. Miller makes Eddie be overprotective of Catherine and so he automatically falls out with Rodolpho as he flirts with Catherine (“I like sugar”) although he is not conventionally manly. Straight away, the audience can tell that there is going to be trouble later on.
In the scene where Eddie hits Rodolpho, an actor playing Eddie ought to let the audience know that he is going to teach Rodolpho what it means to be a man and that he will take great pleasure in hitting Rodolpho. This message should be got across by the pugnacious atmosphere the actor should have about him. If this works the audience should feel the suspense as Eddie “twists the newspaper” and curious when he gets up to teach Rodolpho boxing, when Eddie hits Rodolpho hard the audience should be slightly surprised but many may be angered by Eddie’s deceptive behaviour.
Rodolpho doesn’t conform to Eddie’s image of masculinity as he doesn’t help provide for his brother’s family and he probably dyes his hair blond “like platinum”. Eddie also doesn’t like Rodolpho because he sings in a high voice: “you’d be looking for her” and in public and Eddie thinks it reflects badly on him “They’re laughing at me”. At the beginning of act two when Eddie finds Rodolpho and Catherine alone in the bedroom he kisses Rodolpho and finds no resistance as conformation of his theories.
Marco, however is what Eddie would probably call a real man and this leads to trouble as Marco wants to protect Rodolpho so when Eddie hits Rodolpho he shows Eddie his strength by lifting a chair one handed above him. This causes Eddies “grin to vanish”. After Eddie Informs the immigration bureau of Marco and Rodolpho’s
Illegal presence in his house and as the brothers are taken away Marco spits in Eddies face and tells the whole neighbourhood how Eddie has “killed my (Marco’s) children” and so when he is released on bail Eddie knows he is coming for him and they fight in the street and Eddie is eventually killed.
In Conclusion I believe that manliness hostility and aggression are strongly linked to each other both in the play and in real life.
