Then Eddie keeps on warning Catherine and Beatrice that they must not say a word about the two illegal immigrants (Beatrice’s cousins) coming to stay at their apartment. This is the place where Eddie warns Catherine ‘You can quicker get back a million dollars than a word you gave away’. This gives us the indication that Eddie is not foolish but actually quite clever. This also makes us wonder that if he is so desperate to tell the women not to snitch on Beatrice’s cousins, will he snitch himself?
When Rodolfo starts taking Catherine out, Eddie starts getting worried and here we start to feel that maybe Eddie is being over protective. He uses the excuse that if Rodolfo really loved her he would ask Eddie before taking Catherine out. He also says that Rodolfo is after American citizenship and starts saying that he buys records, clothes etc just to win Catherine’s heart and so in turn gain American citizenship. Eddie, of course, could be right but the way he tells Catherine again and again even after she has told him to stop makes us wonder if this is all because of Eddy’s baffled jealousy about Catherine liking Rodolfo. This is also the point from where Eddie really starts to go downhill and Catherine starts to mature and act more like a grown up adult. Eddie also starts having rows with Beatrice and she asks him ‘When am I gonna to be a wife again, Eddie?’ signalling that the marriage was beginning to descend into turmoil.
Then Eddie decides to seek Alfieri’s advice and so visits him in his office. When he goes there he explains to Alfieri what the problem is but when Alfieri tells him that he can do nothing about Catherine marrying Rodolfo except telling the immigration authorities about the manner in which they entered the country. Instead of saying ‘No’ as a straight answer he says ‘You mean-?’ which gives us an indication that he might snitch on them himself which in turn would result in a conflict. He then starts to abuse Rodolfo by calling him a son-of-a-bitch punk by which we then realise that Eddie is really serious and might do anything to stop Rodolfo marrying Catherine.
When Eddie tells Rodolfo to have boxing match with him he does that to show to him that he (Eddie) is tough and to show to Catherine that Rodolfo is a naïve, weak boy who can’t do anything to defend himself, it was mainly to embarrass Rodolfo in front of Catherine. But when Marco realises what is going on he steps up and shows Eddie that he is stronger than him and a force to be reckoned with by lifting up the chair with one hand, a thing which Eddie cannot do.
Later when Catherine tells Rodolfo about Eddy’s suspicion about him and that if it was true, Rodolfo gets furious that she would even suggest a thing like that and it make us somehow believe Rodolfo and we believe that he is not after an American citizenship.
When Catherine goes to the bedroom with Rodolfo we know that she has fully matured into an adult and she is not acting like the baby she used to act like at the beginning of the play.
When Eddie returns home drunk, he realises what the pair of them have been up to and tells Rodolfo to leave. When Catherine tries to follow him he stops her and kisses her and as Rodolfo tries to intervene he pins him and kisses him too showing how weak and helpless he is against Eddie and he embarrasses him in front of Catherine.
Eddie then goes to Alfieri and when Alfieri tells him sternly there is nothing he can do about it he goes to the telephone box and tells on them, which becomes the icing on the cake for the tragedy.
When Catherine comes to tell Beatrice to come to the wedding she says no because Eddie tells her to, which shows us that she is a good wife obeying him even after all bad the things he has done.
Then when Eddie meets Marco on the street the tragedy (i.e. Eddy’s death) happens and we sort of feel sorry for the anti-hero Eddie Carbone. Although he did a bad thing, if we had been in the same position as Eddie we might have done the same thing because the problem that faced Eddie was an emotional one and making decisions for these kind of problems is not easy and as Alfieri says ‘And so I mourn him- I admit it -with a certain… alarm.’
