Is Eddie Carbone a tragic hero?

Before I decide on whether Eddie Carbone is a tragic hero, we must define what the word ‘tragic’ and ‘hero’ actually mean.

‘Tragic’- A tragedy is a type of drama. A tragedy traces the fall of the central figure, the ‘hero’, as he grapples with his destiny. Historically, tragedy started in Ancient Greece. Greek tragedies usually formed on a very important and powerful figure (a king or a prince perhaps) who makes an error or judgement or who has a hamartia (fatal flaw) that leads to his tragic downfall.

In the context of a tragedy, the word ‘hero’ means the central character or protagonist (the hero) whom we admire or respect in some way, but who is flawed or imperfect and where his flawed character contributes to his own downfall. A hero is consequently not a perfect character, not even necessarily a pleasant one. His plight illustrates the cruelty of the world, and how one man faces up to his fate.

It is important that a tragic hero acquires some self-knowledge, that he faces up to his own predicament, with honesty and openness.

Now, in order to find out to what extent Eddie is a tragic hero, we must ask ourselves the following questions: a) do we admire or respect him, b) what is his fatal flaw, c) do we have any sympathy with Eddie, d) is Eddie just pitiable, beneath our contempt, and e) does Eddie ever gain self-knowledge? Does he ever gain any insight into his own character?

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Lets start with the first question. Do we admire or respect Eddie? In some respects the answer is yes, and in others no. Yes we do because he has decided to take on the task of bringing up his niece, for whatever reason (as we never find out the fate of Catherine’s parents), which is still a big responsibility, and not exactly a cheap one either. The money issue is a very well addressed issue in the play and is portrayed well, as when the play is set (post World War II), money was very tight, and adopting a child without government benefits (family or not) is very admirable and respectable. Another respectable and admirable thing he has done is accepting two ‘submarines’ (illegal immigrants effectively) and if he is caught with them he will be fined. Again pops up the money issue where he is putting his money at risk for two people he has never met, and that the only reason he is taking them in is because they are distant relatives of his wife. This shows that at the beginning of the play he is, or seems to be a fairly decent guy. But, on the other hand, as the play progresses, you gradually lose all respect for him. From the very fair and decent guy he is at the beginning of the play, he turns into a bitter, resentful man. He goes from having a gentle fatherly like possessiveness towards Catherine to a highly jealous possessiveness towards Catherine for bitter and selfish reasons. It hints in the play that he has a sexual attraction o Catherine, which he is in self-denial about. Yet the ‘icing on the cake’ for our losing all respect for him is the fact he can’t see what he’s doing, how he’s acting, all the problems he’s caused. Which eventually leads to him turning in the two submarines causing Marco to pick a fight with Eddie, in which Eddie dies, (though that was probably a better fate for Eddie as the Mafia who were a second government effectively in those days wouldn’t have let him off with a quick and easy death).

The second question we must ask, is what is Eddie’s character flaw? Well, he has several character flaws, the first being his deep rooted sexual attraction for Catherine. This becomes evident fairly soon into the play, with the way he acts when she is around. It also leads onto another flaw; his obsessive jealousy and deep resentment of Rodolpho. This is because Rodolpho is hitting it off with Catherine, whom Eddie can’t get anything from, and it has sparked something off inside him, which is also mentally tearing him up. Though what makes it worse is the fact he’s blind about himself. He is unable to confront himself with how he feels about everything. This is why his bitter resentment towards Rodolpho is so great. He won’t accept the fact that he is sexually attracted to Catherine therefore gets jealous and really bitter, even bully Rodolpho because no matter what he is doing, he will be unable to control himself and not even see how hard and harsh he is being on Rodolpho.

Concerning the issue of sympathy towards Eddie, should we have any? It is quite possible that the most sympathetic person would find it hard to be sympathetic towards him. Perhaps if he were emotionally articulate and could confront his problems ‘like a man’ we would feel sorry for him, but as it is, this is not the case, and he is who he is. How can you have any sympathy for a man as bitter and as resentful as him? Personally I don’t have any sympathy for this man. Some may argue saying it’s not his fault he isn’t emotionally articulate, and maybe its true, but it still didn’t give him the right to act the way he did, no need to give out all that resentment, become so possessive of Catherine and bully Rodolpho in the ways he did. He should have known the reality would have been that he would never have got with Catherine whether Rodolpho was there or not, as he was married (not so big a factor) and because Catherine was his niece (a big factor)!

However the answer to the next question is yes. Yes he is pitiable. Yes he is beneath our contempt. We pity him, because if you look at how his life is at the beginning of the play (fairly happy, not much to complain about, it could be better but could also be a lot worse) to how his life is at the end of the play (distressing, a mess, full of unhappiness). It is hard not to pity the guy when you see how quickly his life has flipped one eighty. But, he is beneath our contempt because it is his fault he has ended up in the situation he is in and because of the way his attitude develops, or degenerates through the play. Another thing that puts him beneath our contempt, is the fact he had the audacity to turn in the two submarines because he was jealous, knowing full well what the consequences were, with the mafia not the police.

Does Eddie ever gain any self-knowledge? No. Simple as that, he never gains insight into his own character. Throughout the play, maybe not so at the beginning, but very definitely when the two submarines arrive early on in the play, he was very selfish and very over protective of Catherine. He is very jealous of Rodolpho, and hence bullies him. However Marco makes sure Eddie doesn’t harm Rodolpho physically by showing off how strong he is (and also subtly hinting at how he could beat Eddie in a fight). He does this by showing that he can lift a chair by only one of its legs, whereas Eddie is unable to. Unfortunately Eddie seemingly misses this hint of Marco’s power, and this in turn leads to his death.

All in all, what we can see Eddie is a protagonist whom we all respect to start with, but indeed he has a fatal flaw, which his inability to be emotionally articulate, especially within himself and he becomes a tragic hero as we watch his downfall from the beginning of the play.

So is Eddie Carbone a tragic hero? Yes.