The climax of the play is a "showdown" and it clearly shows the ignominious consequences that Eddie brought upon himself. Marco believes it is dishonourable to let Eddie live, but has given his word not to kill him. Eddie pulling a knife out means that Marco can see justice done, while keeping his word. Again the action is symbolic of the play's deeper meaning. Eddie literally dies by his own hand, which holds the knife, and is killed by his own weapon; but Eddie also metaphorically destroys himself, over the whole course of the play. And this is what Alfieri introduces to at the play's opening: the sight of a man destroying himself, while those around him are as powerless as a theatre audience to prevent it.
Alfieri's speech at the beginning begins by introducing a lot of concepts which are explored later in the play. He begins with a speech on lawyers and the distrust that originates from it, "You see how uneasily they nod to me? That's because I am a lawyer... a lawyer means the law, and in Sicily ... the law has not been a friendly idea". Both Eddie and Marco allow their personal feelings to affect their idea of justice. They are not strong enough to take an objective view. We see that Alfieri is right, people are not strong enough to execute true justice, their desires and feeling always take a part. This is why it is better to rely on the law, which although flawed offers an objective view. We can see later in the play that both Eddie and Marco turn to the law for help, but the law lets them down, "You mean to tell me that there's no law that a guy which he ain't right can go to work and marry a girl and - ?". These two parts of the play link to show us that the law will often clash with loyalty, and when something interferes with loyalty, one often has to turn to the law for help; however, the law may often deal with the problems too severely. We can see this by the drastic action that Eddie has to take to remove Rodolfo from Catherine’s love.
Alfieri says "This is not God... only God makes justice". The idea that the corporate federal law is inadequate comes out in a few places in the play. One example is when Marco is in jail and talks to Alfieri about what will happen to Eddie. Marco says "all the law is not in a book". This tells us that Italians have many different rules to Americans to do with punishment and believe in getting justice rather than abiding by the law. With this, Miller tries to show the culture clash as Americans believe more in law whereas the Italians believe in justice.
Justice is a very important because it links in with honour. Honour is shown to be very important, especially to the male characters. It means far more to them than the law. To be honourable is to be respected. If you do anything dishonourable, you lose respect. That is why Marco and Eddie are so keen to protect their names and get a 'just' conclusion. Codes of honour bind families and the whole neighbourhood with a sense of community. Everyone should look out for one another, to betray someone is the most dishonourable action imaginable.
At the end of the play, Eddie gets punished for the crime he committed against the community and this is ironic because the Vinny Bolzano story was more about the importance of discreteness and the serious consequences of betrayal than the fact that the boy snitched on his uncle. Eddie talks about justice and punishment in their community and how Vinny deserved his punishment because his crime was so obscene. The idea of justice in the Red Hook community is very different to the American Corporate Federal Law. Within the society there are quite clearly 2 or 3 different types of law: community law, family law and Alfieri`s corporate federal law. Throughout the play it is very clear that the community law is far more important to the characters than the corporate federal law. Perhaps one of the reasons the community distrusts the corporate federal law so much is that it does not appear to be justice.
At the start of the play, Miller establishes early on that Eddie Carbone is a straightforward, hard working longshoreman who is respected in the Italian community of Red Hook. Miller also presents Eddie as a family man, married to wife Beatrice, and acting-father to his niece, Catherine. In the early stages of the play, Miller creates the foundations of Eddie’s major flaw; his over-protectiveness of Catherine, his incestuous yearning and his jealously concerning her. Perhaps one of the reasons why Eddie finds it impossible to admit his love for Catherine is because he knows how dishonourable it is.
Miller shows in the very first part of the play that Eddie and Catherine are very close, as Eddie admires the way she has done her hair, and Catherine always seeks his approval for whatever she does. However, it soon becomes apparent that Eddie is very over-protective of Catherine and he disapproves of her wearing short skirts, waving to men and “walkin’ wavy.”
In the extract Eddie’s love becomes slightly unnatural when he refers to Catherine as Madonna. The stage directions show that a powerful emotion has come over Eddie and yet he is afraid of his feelings, and this supports the unnaturality of Eddie and Catherine’s relationship. Then Eddie proves that he still sees her as a baby and not as a grown woman when he says that he never figured that she would grow up. When Catherine lights Eddie’s cigar, we can see that she is just being helpful and that she sees him as a fatherly figure in her life, but in those times, lighting a man’s cigar was a sign of affection, and Catherine shouldn’t have lit it for him. We would have expected Beatrice to do this, as she is Eddie’s wife. Miller uses language, stage directions and actions throughout the extract to represent the unnaturality of Eddie and Catherine’s relationship. This is another reason why this part of the play is such a fascinating place to return to. We can see clear differences in Eddie and Catherine’s relationship between this scene and the end. It is interesting to compare them, and see how they were, and what they became throughout the course of the play. In the beginning, Catherine is innocent and doesn’t see the potentially incestuous side of her close relationship with Eddie, but as she matures and becomes more independent she realises how blind she’d been the whole time. Throughout the play, Miller deliberately makes Eddie and Catherine's relationship change into a more distant relationship, as Rodolfo's relationship with Catherine strengthens simultaneously.
A pivotal moment is when Eddie rings the immigration bureau as when Catherine finds out that he has betrayed the immigrants she stares at Eddie in 'a realized horror' and is furious at him for doing this. The next time she sees Eddie she calls him a 'rat', from this the audience can see that Catherine has absolutely grown up and no longer worries about Eddie's opinions. Rodolfo is a crucial character as his arrival is what makes Catherine change. Beatrice is also an important character as she makes Catherine see that her relationship with Eddie isn't right but Catherine is 'moved at the prospect'. Overall, their relationship begins by being very close and ends up being distant and spiteful as Eddie is unable to portray his emotions.
Eddie seems to have problems with his emotions as he never wants to face Beatrice or talk to her. Their conversations are broken, showing tension, and Eddie continually looks at his watch showing anxiety and suggesting that he doesn’t want to talk. There are pauses which show awkwardness between them. Eddie changes the subject onto Catherine, showing he wants to talk about her and enjoys talking with her, but when he has to talk with Beatrice, he keeps his words as short as possible and usually ducks out of their conversations. When Catherine goes to get Eddie’s cigar, The stage directions say Beatrice has been avoiding Eddie’s gaze, suggesting she sees how he feels about Catherine and how differently he behaves when he is with Catherine compared to her. Beatrice’s last speech is quite short and blunt, and as soon as Eddie talks to her, she busies herself with clearing the table so she can leave the room. Eddie and Beatrice’s lack of communication, as well as Eddie’s continuous neglecting of their relationship, and rejection of conversation causes the problems between them. It is ironic that the extract ends with Beatrice and the book ends with Eddie dying in Beatrice’s arms, finally showing his love for her, even though it’s too late.
Perhaps Eddie’s tension in the extract comes from the anxiety of arrival of the cousins. They don’t know when they will arrive, so Eddie keeps looking at his watch, and Beatrice is anxious to present themselves well, so she frets about the presentation of their apartment and the food in the beginning, but during the extract she doesn’t seem as concerned, because she says “I only got fish, I hate to spoil it, if they ate already. I’ll wait, it only takes a few minutes, I could broil it.” This shows how she and Eddie aren’t happy because usually a wife would obey her husband or be more than happy to serve him, but Beatrice doesn’t jump up to do what Eddie asks.
Eddie’s class of people resent immigrants because they take the jobs because they have to repay the syndicate. So maybe Eddie could be anxious that he won’t have as much work because of Marco and Rodolfo.
Overall, the extract is a fascinating moment to return to because this is where the first hints are of what will happen later. For example, Catherine says “You sound like I’m goin’ a million miles!” and she means this as a physical distance but by the end of the play she is emotionally detached from him, so she is emotionally a million miles away from Eddie. We also see the first tension between Eddie and Beatrice in this extract, leading to her confrontation of him later when she asks “When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?” and we see how he refuses to face her and their problems. I think Miller planned the plot very carefully and in doing so made this a fascinating moment to return to.
By Kati Christova
