What contribution do Marco and Rodolfo make to the dramatic destruction of the Carbone Family?

One of the main themes of the play is the portrayal of the consequences and effects of outsiders with different moral and ethics being introduced into a small, closed community. Under this theme there are many sub-themes which make it up: the revelation of the extent of Eddie’s love for Catherine; the way they act as a catalyst, indirectly exposing the Beatrice’s jealously for Catherine, as well as her dissatisfaction towards the fertility of her marriage to Eddie, as well as her frustration of the marriage’s shortcoming, and Eddie’s waning attraction towards her; and also the way Marco and Rodolfo deteriorate Eddie’s status and dominative power, and as he tries to regain this he becomes over stubborn, pedantic, and at times irrationally strict, which leads to his eventual destruction.

Our anticipations of tragedy are raised at the start by Alfeiri’s “Bloodbath” soliloquy, but also by the apocryphal section Vinny Bolzano. Everything in the first scenes is of some importance, and the intelligent reader would deduce that this would have some relevance to the play; otherwise Miller would not have had the characters going on about it for over half a page. Vinny Bolzano met his fate because he had tried to use legal justice for his own purposes (although the specific reason was not revealed) but natural justice had decried his own fate. This suggests that if anyone during the play breaks the communities unwritten ethical laws by using legal justice, they too will meet their end by natural justice, which is exactly what happens to Eddie, which is ironic. Also we know Eddie is doomed during his conversation with Alfeiri when he decides to “snitch” on Marco and Rodolfo, using the excuse that it is for Catherine’s own good. This also raises the question of which is stronger; legal justice or natural justice, and in this community natural justice seems to preside which says a lot about the community and those that live there. The extent to which they influence the play depends on how you look at the play. If you look at it as a sequence of scenes and focus on the actions of the characters then they are merely catalysts, and the components for the reaction are already in place. However if you focus on the characters emotions allowing for the possibility of changes in their feelings, attitudes and personalities, the possibility arises that they themselves brought about the family’s destruction, instigating a complex chain reaction, which accelerated beyond control and ended in the only way it could; with the spilling of blood.

This raises the question; what would have happened if Marco and Rodolfo had not come to stay with the Carbones?

Did they as Alfieri suggests in the prologue (“Bloody course”) merely act as a catalyst, were the elements of tragedy already there; Eddies (romantic) love for Catherine, (although it would not yet be a conscious love,) Beatrice’s frustration at their failing marriage, Eddies struggle to retain his status and his name?

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Or were these elements brought about by Marco and Rodolfo themselves? Rodolfo finds more confidence in a freer land, begins taking liberties and becoming more independent of Marco. Catherine falls for his high spirits, his fun loving, independent, care free attitude. Catherine distances herself from Eddie and she herself becomes more independent, and being in a serious relationship herself for the first time, becomes more mature. Eddie longs for his little girl back, and sees she is more mature now. The longing leads to desire, and as she matures he loves her less and less as a girl and more as a woman, until his love becomes all-consuming. The more he tries to take her back the more she resists and the more independent she becomes, and as she listens to him less he becomes afraid of losing his status. As this is happening Beatrice is aware of his love for Catherine; could her jealousy over this be the root of her unsurfaced anger, rather than it stemming from the shortcomings of her marriage and her no longer being a “proper woman”?

Neither view is likely to be entirely correct, but it cannot be denied that they had a significant part in the events that followed.

In fact they were causing a disruption even before their greatly anticipated arrival, with arguments arising over sleeping arrangements, household furnishing and rent. The opening relationship between Catherine and Eddie is first portrayed as similar to the relationship between father and daughter. Eddie reprimands Catherine over the length of her skirt, and from the expression “walking wavy” and his use of “clack” as repeated onomatopoeia we first get the impression the he is not articulate enough to express his feelings accurately, and this may be used against him in arguments with the fast-talking Beatrice and Catherine later in the play. Then the sentence “I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldn’t wave to him no more” shows us that Eddie never intends to be grammatically correct, (this makes no sense) but expresses himself using his tone of voice and the context and general feel of his dialogue; showing that he is an emotional person and speaks emotively; as opposed to Alfieri, who speaks with an air of eloquence and a controlled feel, which gives the impression that he follows his head not his heart. (Of course if this were a real life conversation, it would be ridiculous to make these assumptions as one would be reading too far into the text, but it is a play, and Miller actually intends this opening dialogue to give the reader ideas and to install preconceptions of the characters in as concise a way as possible.)

The opening relationship between Rodolfo and Marco is probably the most constant of all the relationships throughout the play; the only change being Rodolfo’s independence increases fractionally as they settle in. The two brothers are a stronger family unit than the Carbones because Marco has the control and rationalism to be assertive and passive when appropriate whereas Eddie at times lets his emotions govern his actions more than is sensible, and also because their relationship is much less complex and they do not interfere with each others lives, whereas Eddie sometimes tries to play too big a part in Catherine’s life; he does not realise that she does not belong to him. However Marco is clearly in charge and this is shown right from their introduction into the play; he introduces both of them and has a more controlled style of speaking than Rodolfo, only saying what is necessary whereas Rodolfo is both gregarious and voluptuous;

Beatrice; so what kind of work did yiz do?

Marco; whatever there is, anything

Rodolfo; Sometimes they build a house, or if they fix the bridge- Marco is a mason…

Eddie comes more and more to address solely Marco, as he feels Marco will tell him what he needs to know and would answer his questions more directly.

The effects of Rodolfo on Eddie and the rest of his family are shown in the “Paper Doll” scene. It becomes apparent that Eddie and Catherine’s relationship is already changing; they are having a serious argument with emotions running high as opposed to the start where they were merely petty squabbles and all in good nature, and neither were particularly angry, more frustrated. However, the argument in the “Paper Doll” scene is more serious, and we get the feel that if they had not been entertaining Marco and Rodolfo it would have escaladed into an all out battle; “she (Beatrice) gives Eddie a cold look, restrained only by the strangers, and goes to the table to pour coffee.

This is misleading, as it would seem that Marco and Rodolfo were preventing the situation becoming worse. Although this was partly true the argument had originally stemmed from Catherine’s discomfort at Eddie’s interactions with the two brothers.

The effect of Rodolfo on Marco is shown during the song itself, because although it is only a song and the words are not being spoken my Rodolfo himself, it gives Eddie the idea that Rodolfo is after Catherine. After the repetition of “flirty” Eddie can take no more and has to stop Rodolfo, claiming it was to prevent his discovery. Eddie is flushed, but quickly regains control. Eddie is later suspicious of Rodolfo’s intentions, but Rodolfo does not pick this up and continues flirting with Catherine (not out of contempt of Eddie but because of his developing attraction towards Catherine).

Rodolfo calls Catherine beautiful, and when she asks if he wants sugar he says he likes sugar very much, purposefully ambiguous as sugar can mean romance, which is strange as he is not entirely fluent in the language and may suggest Rodolfo is more intelligent than he is letting on.

During this scene some of the character’s emotions are shown through their physical actions, leaving out to “make coffee” when the tension gets too high, and standing up, e.g. when Eddie stands up he is showing his discomfort with Rodolfo’s singing, when Marco stands up he is exerting control over Rodolfo as being taller gives him more status, and also because he is very protective of Rodolfo and is standing up for him, (metaphorically speaking; he is not

”Standing up for him” because Rodolfo tells him to stand up!)

In the boxing scene, Catherine is angry at Eddie for interfering with Marco and Rodolfo too much; “But I understood, Marco, that you was both coming to make a livin’ for your family”, and she asks Rodolfo to dance, as if she was doing it to get back at Eddie. Rodolfo tries to refuse out of respect for Eddie, showing that he is not purposefully upsetting him, so Rodolfo’s part in Eddie’s destruction is shown is indirect and passive; the opposite to Marco’s. Eddie “freezes” as she asks, showing his obvious discomfort. He sees Catherine as pure and innocent, and thinks her and Rodolfo being together would tarnish that. As they dance, Eddie makes an indirect comment voicing his discomfort for the amount of money they were spending. He then expressed the opinion that Rodolfo was too talented and did not belong at the waterfront, and there is a dramatic moment as this breaks up the dancing. Eddie tried to work the “boxing lesson” facade into the conversation by inviting Marco to come to watch the boxing with him. Marco is the only one who realises Eddie’s intentions are not to teach Rodolfo boxing but to prove Eddie’superiority and also to have a jab at him, and Marco has to prove himself against Eddie to put him in his place, hence the chair incident, and Marco holding the chair like a weapon is a casual threat for Eddie to behave more appropriately.

This scene is like a competition of honour between Marco, Rodolfo and Eddie. There are two possible winners, and one rather obvious loser. Marco’s glare of triumph seems to suggest he has come off best from the scene; having proved that he is the strongest of the three. However, after Rodolfo has been shown that Eddie is stronger than him, he asks Catherine to dance, as if trying to prove that although Eddie is stronger it does not matter to him or Catherine, and he is the one who goes back to Catherine when the fight ends.

Whichever way you look at it Eddie has come off worse. He has been disgraced by Marco in the chair incident, and as both men think strength reflects status he will feel threatened as the head of the household. He has also lost to Rodolfo because Catherine’s romantic affection is directed towards Rodolfo.

Miller uses this scene to show how Eddie’s world is changing; his “baby” Catherine is being taken by Rodolfo and his strength and status (but not yet his name) by Marco. At this point the audience starts to realise the inevitability of the family’s destruction.

The exact moment where Catherine and Eddie’s relationship deteriorates completely and falls apart is the kissing scene. Before he kissed her Catherine is expressing her emotions for Eddie, how well she knows him and how close they are. In the dialogue before the kiss she feels sorry for him and expressed her emotions and love towards him. Rodolfo interrupts their kissing, and they argue. Catherine takes Eddie’s side, and tells Rodolfo to wait outside, not because she favours Eddie but because she fears for their safety and wants them to leave the house, physically and metaphysically speaking. Again Rodolfo acts as a catalyst and makes the situation worse. When Eddie kissed Rodolfo to prove his feebleness and inadequacy Catherine realises the animal Eddie has become, and the audience sense his destruction is imminent.

Beatrice is only influenced indirectly with the two brothers by the effect they have on the other two members of the family. Beatrice is an innocent victim in a tragic catastrophe, and her only possible ulterior motive for Catherine and Rodolfo to get married, apart from her altruistic desire for their happiness, is that she senses Eddies attraction towards Catherine and wishes for her to be out of the way so they can continue their marriage; she expresses that she wishes everything to be as it was before they arrived; “Now we gonna be like it never happened”. She is being naïve because she cannot see that Eddie has changed and so things could never be as they were before. Eddie accuses Beatrice of having changed, and she insists that she is not different. Is she right? Eddie claims she now “jumps” him all the time about everything, could this be due to her jealousy and frustration over Eddies love for Catherine and their failing marriage?

In summary, the two brothers played different, though both probably equally important parts in the family’s destruction; Rodolfo mostly passive, Marco mostly direct (he was the one who actually killed Eddie). However like in all Shakespearean tragedies there is hope at the end in the marriage of Rodolfo and Catherine.