Beatrice stays in her home as a housewife and takes great pride in keeping her house pristine and presentable. When she begins to talk about where her cousins will be sleeping she begins to worry about what they will think of their home, “I thought it was gonna be next week! I was gonna clean the walls, I was gonna wax the floors. (She stands disturbed)
Eddie is a hard-working longshoreman. He is forty, bulky and slightly overweight. Eddie likes to be respected in the community around him and takes great pride in furthering this respect for himself. This is why he tries to keep up appearances with his wife and has already taken in his niece as if she were his own daughter. He believes in the American dream and believes that Catherine is better than everyone else in the neighbourhood. That is the reason why Eddie has put her through school and has sent her for extra lessons with a stenographer so that she can get a better job and escape the slums around her.
But then one day when Catherine comes home and tells him excitedly that she has found a job, he tries to find different reasons of why she shouldn’t go to work. He tells her that she should finish school but she counters that argument with that she has nothing left to learn, and all he has to say to that is, “That ain’t what I wanted,” as if he had some sort of over all plan for Catherine’s life for her. This is the first indication to us that Catherine wants to move away from Eddie.
Later on in the play it becomes even further apparent that there is tension between Eddie and Catherine, and find out that Eddie actually has feelings towards Catherine and doesn’t want hr to leave him. When Eddie discovers that Catherine is having a relationship with Rodolfo he becomes almost infuriated and does everything in his power to try and split them up. Eddie tries to make people believe that Rodolfo does not conform to his image of masculinity and tells people that, “The guy ain’t right” and, “the guy is no good.” Eddie is extremely unhappy about the close relationship blossoming between them and accuses Rodolfo of acting more like a woman than a “real” man.
Eddie even goes as far as seeking legal advice from Alfieri the lawyer to see if there are any legal reasons why Catherine and Rodolfo should not get married. Alfieri tries to explain to him that he shouldn’t interfere with their affairs, and should accept that they are together.
Unfortunately, Alfieri inadvertently gives Eddie the idea to tip off the immigration authorities about how Marco and Rodolfo entered the country illegally. We know that Eddie takes this idea as a serious one when instead of saying no immediately he says, “You mean-?” which gives us an indication that he might report them himself which in turn would result in them being expelled from the country.
Eddie is also looking for a confrontation with Rodolfo, he starts hurling abuse at him and calls him a, “son-of-a-bitch punk, by which time we then realize that Eddie is really serious and might do anything to stop Rodolfo marrying Catherine.
As we near the ending of the play, as it reaches the climax, the characters have all realised what Eddie has done. Yet he still continues to ridicule Marco and Rodolfo. When, in the final act, after Eddie’s relatives don’t want to have anything to do with him, and he is described as a, “broken-man,” he is still too proud to realise the huge mistakes that he has done and the injustices he has brought against others.
We also have an inkling that there is only one possible outcome to this whole mass of unfortunate events and that Eddie will die a public and messy death. This is because as a reader we can see how both Marco and Eddie are both too proud to back down or, “settle for half,” and they both continue to challenge each other, and Eddie announces, “I want my name Marco!” which is the main point of the play which is about pride, male prowess and social standing in the community around them.
