What do we learn about the character of Eddie from stage directions, the narrator and dramatic devices?

Marco and Rodolpho’s arrival threatens Eddie in a big way as Marco is the man of his house so they have conflict’s about that and Eddie is protective of Catherine and sees Rodolpho as a threat to the relationship they have. Marco does conflict with Eddie in a big scene at the end of act 1 “Catherine and Rodolpho stop dancing as Marco raises the chair over his head” Previously to this Rodolpho and Catherine were dancing and Eddie had, had a boxing match against Rodolpho. Marco then has a chair lifting match with Eddie, as Eddie fails Marco takes this opportunity to show that he can out power Eddie and shows that he can beat him, this would have caused the audience to see that Eddie is now faced with a bit of humiliation and to see how ‘the man of the house’ responds to this new threat. Eddie responds to Rodolpho’s move in on Catherine by boxing him and trying to beat him up, but not to make it look to obvious.

Section 2                                                                          Alfieri’s part in the play is to be the chorus, Narrator and to carry the play on. He is used as a dramatic device to portray a by-standers view opinion on the occurrences in the play and in this way he relates to the audience.

        This play is written in the style of a Greek tragedy and Eddie is the Greek tragic hero as his pitfalls in his character let him down and lead to his demise. His pitfalls in his character are mainly his jealousy about Catherine and this indirectly leads to his death.

Alfieri is good at interacting to the audience as he is set apart from the main occurrences in the play. In his own pool of light and is set of from the main part of the stage. “We all love somebody, the wife, the kids every man’s got some body to love heh….?”  Alfieri relates to the audience as he talks to Eddie about love. This would cause the audience to feel close to Eddie as they can relate to his anger and pain. He is a  chorus to the play as he brings on new scenes and acts. He shows Eddie’s dark side as he plots against Marco and Rodolpho, this shows his pitfalls in his character. Alfieri helps as much he can but Eddie is too arrogant for him as he is just talking to Alfieri to tell him more than as a consult. “This is my last word, Eddie, Take it or not. Morally and legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it, she is a free agent”, Alfieri tries to stop Eddie dead in his tracks, but Eddie’s pitfalls let him down as he is way too stubborn and will just carry on with his plans and heed no notice to Alfieri's warnings.                         I think Eddie’s character is portrayed as an “Italian man of the house” stereotype but has a Greek tragic hero as his pitfalls in his character we learn this leads to his downfall. Alfieri helps us to learn about Eddie’s dark side and brings it to light and has it put back in his face, this also shows us eddies downfalls clearly in the “man of the house” way. We learn that Eddie is basically a stereotype with feelings as he is predictable except when he is drunk but then he is a wild uncontrollable person. He is definitely a ‘tragic man of the house’.