This demonstrates that Eddie doesn’t like the thought of Catherine attracting attention to herself. He can’t handle knowing that men could be attracted to his niece.
Most of the relationship problems in the Carbone household revolve around Eddie’s inappropriate love for Catherine. The audience know of Eddie’s feelings from the beginning so are aware that Eddie’s relationship with his wife Beatrice must be strained. When Beatrice and Catherine tell Eddie of how Catherine wants to leave school and go to work the conversation becomes heated and tense. Eddie thinks of every reason why she shouldn’t go to work, which leads to Beatrice questioning why he is so overly concerned and stubborn. Eddie says:
“(Somehow sickened) I know that neighbourhood, B., I don’t like it.”
Beatrice says,
“Tell her to take it. (He turns his head away.) You hear me? (She is angered.)”
This is a clear example of Eddie’s possessiveness for Catherine and how Beatrice seemingly doesn’t understand it is because he’s in love with her.
When Beatrice’s cousins arrive from Italy the level of tension increases, as there is an attraction between Catherine and Rodolfo. Even before Catherine and Rodolfo begin dating it is clear that Eddie is not happy with their interactions. Catherine is in the room wearing high heels and Eddie shows her up by saying,
“What’s the heels for, Garbo?”
Here Eddie refers to Catherine as ‘Garbo’, he compares her to an actress and film star around at the time. Catherine is obviously put on the spot and says to Eddie,
“ I figured for tonight- “.
Eddie embarrasses Catherine in front of Rodolfo by saying,
“Do me a favour, will you? Go ahead.”
The stage directions tell us: ‘embarrassed now, angered Catherine goes out into the bedroom. Beatrice watches her go and gets up; in passing, she gives Eddie a cold look, restrained only by strangers, and goes to the table to pour coffee.’
Eddie knew that Catherine wanted to impress Rodolfo with her high heels so he made her feel a fool in front of Rodolfo by calling her ‘Garbo’. This stage direction shows the audience that Beatrice is aware that Catherine has been embarrassed by Eddie’s comment.
Once Rodolfo and Catherine start to date tensions get worse as Eddie begins to crack. When Eddie and Catherine are outside the apartment Eddie tells Catherine that Rodolfo only wants to marry her so that he can become an American citizen. Catherine resents what Eddie’s telling her, she says,
“He loves me!”
Eddie says,
“(Deep with alarm) Don’t say that, for God’s sake! This is the oldest racket in the country-“
Catherine says,
“(Desperately, as though he made his imprint) I don’t believe it! (She rushes to the house.)”
Here Eddie tries to make Catherine think that Rodolfo is using her to become an American citizen and that he doesn’t love her. Eddie says this because he is jealous of their relationship.
The character of Eddie Carbone is a man of actions rather than words. At the end of Act One we see how Eddie can’t articulate his feelings, so he expresses himself through violence. He offers to teach Rodolfo some boxing skills. He teasingly calls Rodolfo ‘Danish’. This seems friendly but, in fact, Eddie is mocking Rodolfo regarding his blond hair. While Eddie is teaching Rodolfo to box, Eddie is lulling Beatrice, Catherine and Rodolfo into a false sense of security. However, the audience is aware of Eddie’s false friendliness. Beatrice’s ignorance of the situation is shown by the stage direction:
‘She senses only comradeship in it now ’.
The ignorance of Beatrice indicates to the audience that the boxing is anything but friendly. Eddie’s foolish action of hitting Rodolfo does little to satisfy his desire for Catherine. Instead he creates distrust between him and Rodolfo’s brother, Marco. This is illustrated by the stage direction given after Eddie hits Rodolfo:
“It mildly staggers Rodolfo. Marco rises”.
Eddie losing control of himself alerted Marco, who stands up to indicate his disapproval to the audience. By doing this, Arthur Miller creates a new tension between the characters Marco and Eddie. Although Rodolfo seems to be very forgiving towards Eddie, we can tell he is still uncomfortable underneath. Rodolfo dismisses Eddie’s punch by claiming,
“I was only surprised.”
At the end of Act One the audience is left in total suspense. We are thinking to ourselves, what will happen? Will more violence break out? Is this the “bloody course” we hear Alfieri talk of at the beginning? The audience is thinking of all these unanswered questions, thus creating more tension.
In Act Two Rodolfo and Catherine go into the bedroom and soon after Eddie comes home early. He shouts out for Beatrice,
“ Beatrice? (He goes to open the kitchen door and looks in.) Beatrice? Beatrice?”
The audience would feel tense because Eddie is looking around the apartment and we know that Catherine is in the bedroom with Rodolfo. The stage direction would add to this tense feeling when he opens the kitchen door. The audience would be fearful for Catherine and Rodolfo if Eddie opens the bedroom door.
Catherine comes out of the bedroom followed by Rodolfo. As soon as the audience see Rodolfo at the bedroom doorway, faced by Eddie, we know there’s going to be trouble. This is shown in the stage direction when Rodolfo appears:
“(Rodolfo appears at the bedroom doorway. Eddie sees him and his arm jerks slightly in shock. Rodolfo nods at him testingly).”
The fact that Eddie’s arm jerks when he sees Rodolfo demonstrates how shocked and angered he is. Eddie says,
“Pack it up. Go ahead. Get your stuff and get outa here. (Catherine instantly turns and walks towards the bedroom, and Eddie grabs her arm). Where you goin’?”
At this moment the audience would be right on the edge of their seats with alarm and panic wondering if Eddie will use violence towards Rodolfo or even Catherine.
When Eddie tells Catherine that she isn’t going anywhere, Catherine says,
“ Eddie I’m not going to be a baby any more! You-
(He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth.)”
The most shocking part of this stage direction is when it says, ‘and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth’. The audience would be very alarmed as it’s apparent that Catherine is trying to pull away yet Eddie ignores this and kisses her anyway. Catherine’s only reaction to this is to free herself which shows us she is uncomfortable with what Eddie is doing. However, Rodolfo’s reaction is far more verbal and physical. He says,
“Don’t! (He pulls on Eddie’s arm) Stop that! Have respect for her!” Rodolfo shows that he is not afraid of Eddie as he commands Eddie to stop. We know that Rodolfo is angered because exclamation marks are used after everything he says to demonstrate his disbelief. His actions are that he pulls Eddies arm to get him off Catherine. This shows the audience that Rodolfo really does love Catherine as he challenges his biggest threat by physically trying to stop him and ordering Eddie to stop.
Eddie kisses Catherine because he has longed for Catherine and because he cannot express himself through words. Eddie needs to feel like he is the man of the house who is in control. We also see this earlier in the play. A good example is when Eddie hits Rodolfo in the ‘friendly’ boxing lesson. By kissing Catherine he shows the audience, Rodolfo and Catherine that he thinks he can do what he wants. The audience would be at a loss for words, shocked by Eddie’s actions and will have lost all respect for him.
Eddie provokes Rodolfo by saying,
“ Come on, show me! What’re you gonna be? Show me! “. In a wound up state Rodolfo retorts,
“(With tears of rage) Don’t say that to me! (Rodolfo flies at him in attack. Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him.)”
Rodolfo resorts to trying to attack Eddie because he is so angry, and Eddie humiliates him by kissing him, which is done in a violent way. The most shocking thing in this stage direction is that Eddie laughs at Rodolfo before suddenly kissing him.
Catherine’s reaction is very furious. She says,
“ Eddie! Let go, ya hear me! I’ll kill you! Leggo of him! “.
Catherine begins with shouting Eddie’s name to get his attention then she orders him to let go of Rodolfo. Then instead of asking Eddie, ‘ya hear me?’ she states, “ya hear me!” as if to warn him. Catherine is getting more livid and subsequently threatens to kill Eddie and finally orders him to let go of Rodolfo. All of what Catherine says to Eddie is emphasised with exclamation marks thus showing her fury and desperation to the audience and to Eddie. At this point Catherine appears to despise Eddie for what he has done. In the stage direction it says,
‘ She is staring at him in horror ‘. This shows the audience how shocked and upset she is with Eddie. Whereas the way Catherine reacts to what Eddie does to Rodolfo shows her devotion and love for Rodolfo. She threatens to kill Eddie; this shows how angry she is at Eddie and at the same time shows how far she would go for Rodolfo.
Rodolfo doesn’t say anything to Eddie but the stage direction says,
‘ Rodolfo is rigid ‘. He is in a state of humiliation, disbelief and hatred for Eddie.
When Rodolfo first arrives in the Carbone household Eddie makes fun at the fact that Rodolfo sings, makes dresses and has blond hair. He implies that Rodolfo is homosexual because he does all these things. Eddie kisses Rodolfo not only to humiliate him but also to illustrate that Eddie thinks Rodolfo is ‘gay’. He also kisses Rodolfo to show him who is the boss and to degrade him. At this point the audience will also be feeling loathing towards Eddie. The audience will feel strong sympathy for Catherine and Rodolfo and have no respect for Eddie.
Once the violence ends Eddie says,
“(to Catherine) You see? (To Rodolfo) I give you till tomorrow kid. Get outa here. Alone. You hear me? Alone.”
Catherine disagrees with what Eddie has said to Rodolfo so says that she is going to go with him. Eddie says,
“(Indicating Rodolfo with his head) not with that.”
Eddie says to Catherine, “You see?” here we can assume that Eddie is referring to him kissing Rodolfo, hence reinforcing the fact that Eddie thinks Rodolfo is ‘gay’. Again Eddie is homophobic when he calls Rodolfo “that” instead of using his actual name or the word him. At this point the audience learns that there is a strong possibility that Eddie is homophobic, we see that Catherine and Rodolfo are in love and want to get away from Eddie so they can live in peace.
My personal response to this scene was mainly shock and disbelief. I was surprised when Eddie kissed Catherine and I was astounded when he then kissed Rodolfo as well. At this point of the play I was really starting to enjoy the drama and the storyline. I imagined that the play would end with someone dying rather than Eddie betraying his family by going to the immigration officers.
