Beatrice loves her family enough to support her cousins
Father –daughter love
Eddie and Catherine although uncle niece shares a much closer relationship.
Eddie is very protective of Catherine. He has made a lot of sacrifices to provide Catherine with all that I could, as shown by him telling Alifieri about his experiences ‘hustling’ for work, ‘when the piers were empty in Brooklyn, I went to Hoboken…all over’ Has high hopes for her ‘ I want you to work with different kind of people’ he is proud of her looks calling her ‘Madonna’ but is concerned with the attention she receives: ‘I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you in the candy store.;
Brotherly love between Marco and Rodolfo
Love for a place, Rodolfo and Marco’s love for their homeland
Rodolfo’s affections for America. Catherine says: ‘he’s crazy for New York.’
Then there is romantic love, love between man and woman and this is where things becomes more complexed.
The purest form of love from Catherine, she is clearly in love with Rodolfo and is affectionate with Eddie. But even then – not simple, her innocent affections are partical cause of the tragedy and it is never clear the extend of Rodolfo’s love for her
At heart of Beatrice’s problems is love: Her love for Eddie is no longer returned and is increasingly in conflict with her love for Catherine
Love for family is at the heart of Marco’s anger against Eddie
The most problematic love of them all, however, is Eddie’s improper, and increasing obsessive love for Catherine.
The play shows that love is not always beautiful. It creates the conflict between the characters. It can pain the one who loves and also the person who is loved and those around them. For Eddie, it also causes conflict within himself when he cannot admit to his illicit love for Catherine.
