“Believe me, Eddie; you got a lotta credit comin’ to you”. Eddies neighborhood motivates him a lot because he is so concerned about his respect in the neighborhood he forgets about what he is doing to the people close to him. This is shown when at the final scene he kept on demanding respect. Eddie says:
''wipin the neighborhood with my name like dirty rag ; I want my name back Marco , now gimme my name and we go together to the wedding''. As a result of this Eddie died.
Loss of popularity is Eddie’s central worry which directed him to death. He is so concerned about what the neighborhood thinks of him because he lives in Brooklyn which is a tough part of downtown New York and it was close nit, meaning that they care about what the community thinks of them. When they heard what Marco had said and done to Eddie, they probably thought it would be better not to talk to Eddie, as it might affect them.
It is these thoughts that hurt Eddie (knowing what the community thought of him) and lead to his decline. That's why he was demanding respect and would not back down. I believe this motivated him a lot, knowing he had a bad reputation in the community and the only way he could see to get his respect back would be for Marco to say that he was wrong. As a result of Marco not giving 'Eddie's name back' Eddie died
Eddie is respected in his neighborhood and many people look up to him. Louis says:
“Believe me, Eddie; you got a lotta credit comin’ to you”. Eddie acted according to the Italian code of conduct which is about being respected but when Marco spat at Eddie’s face, Eddie evidently felt insulted that he’d lost all respect that the neighborhood had for him. Eddie shouts:
“I want my name!”
Eddie’s notions of manhood also lead to his downfall because of his unwillingness to compromise and because of his self indulgence. He could not take Alfieri's advice to let Catherine do what she wanted to do. Alfieri Proclaims:
“Eddie she’s a big girl now, let her go”
Eddie’s aspiration for Catherine is a key factor leading to his downfall. I think his secret desire for Catherine motivates him a great deal. He is so protective of her that he does not want her going out or wearing revealing clothes. This is shown when he says:
"I think it's too short" and he doesn’t like the way she walked. He says:
"now don't aggravate me Katie you are walkin wavy" He probably didn't like the way she walked because it probably got attention from men and Eddie didn't like that because in a way he thought Catherine was his. He also says:
"you ain't all the girls" This is Eddie saying you are not all the girls, you’re my girl. He doesn't like the way she walks and dresses and that she is getting a job because all these things show that she is becoming a woman and Eddie doesn't like this, so he is motivated to protect her as much as possible. He was very strict with her as she was growing up. As soon as she saw a boy (Rodolfo) she literally jumped at him.
Eddie's secret desire for Catherine is also incorporated in his self interest. His incestuous feelings towards Catherine and stubbornness were the main reasons for his gradual downfall. All he could think about was himself and he didn't look at how happy Catherine was with Rodolfo. All he cared about was trying to break them up and he tried to do this by phoning the Immigration Bureau but all this caused was Catherine and himself to grow apart and for Catherine to finally see what type of man he was. He is so interested in himself that he keeps on demanding respect from Marco:
"Wipin the neighbourhood with my name Marco, now gimme my name and we go together to the wedding" Eddie’s was only interested about what the society thought of him. He becomes so interested in himself only that he doesn’t realize that his relationship with Beatrice is gradually evaporating.
As I have mentioned before, all the characters were responsible for Eddie Carbone’s death, starting with Catherine. Throughout the play, Catherine wasn’t conscious about the overly close feelings that Eddie had for her, causing her to say and do things that would aggravate Eddie unintentionally. When Rodolfo sang “Paper Doll”, it left Catherine utterly thrilled. She says:
“Leave him finish, it’s beautiful! He’s terrific! It’s terrific, Rodolfo”. Catherine praises Rodolfo as if meaning to get Eddie jealous and envious. Catherine offers Rodolfo to dance. Catherine says:
“You wanna dance Rodolfo?” Catherine doesn’t see any harm in asking him to dance but she should have been more thoughtful and to think about what she will say before she speaks. She then makes things worse. Beatrice encourages Rodolfo by saying:
“Go ahead, dance, Rodolfo”. It was comments like this that Beatrice says at awkward moments that drove Eddie insane, making her blameworthy. The physical, sexual part of the Carbone’s marriage has broken down and, despite challenging Eddie over this, Beatrice is unable to express herself, let alone make him admit his weakness to himself, and she remains powerless as a result. Beatrice was the one who originally invited Marco and Rodolfo but without Eddie’s consent.
Marco was responsible for Eddie’s death as well. Eddie was trying to teach Rodolfo how to box. I think that Eddie was trying to harm Rodolfo without making it blatant so Marco defends Rodolfo and warns Eddie. Marco uses Eddie’s own tactics of which is sending a certain message through to someone else without making it obvious. Marco plays the same game and subconsciously warns Eddie. Marco says:
“Can you lift this chair?” Eddie tries but fails several times but Marco succeeds. Marco could have prevented Eddie’s death by speaking to Rodolfo about his relationship with Catherine. A brother-to-brother discussion might of helped. Marco’s rage gets the better of him and overcomes his patience when he spits at Eddie in front of the neighborhood. This is a heavy blow to Eddie’s popularity.
Rodolfo was more cautious about what he says and more aware of the situation but nevertheless still a cause leading to Eddie Carbone’s death. But he still made mistakes. For a start, he took Catherine out without Eddie’s permission. He then has sex with her under Eddie’s roof (“he slowly walks her to the bedroom”). Italy is a Catholic country meaning that sex before marriage is terrible.
Alfieri is similar to Beatrice. He attempts many times to compromise with Eddie as a friend not a lawyer but Eddie is too stubborn, resulting to his death. Alfieri tries making Marco promise that he wouldn’t physically hurt Eddie but Marco arrogantly refuses. Marco says:
“He knows such a promise is dishonorable”. Marco’s pride for himself and his loyalty to the Italian code of conduct is too strong. Alfieri still bails Marco.
Eddie himself could have made numerous changes to the way he was treating his family which might have prevented his death. His jealousy and incestuous feelings towards Catherine lead to his decline. When Catherine asks Rodolfo to dance, Eddie evidently disapproves. “Eddie freezes” in evident disapproval. Eddie outwardly doesn’t settle for half. Eddie was too over protective. He says:
''Why didn't you ask me before you took a job ?'', “I know that neighborhood, B., I don’t like it” His over protectiveness progressively penetrated his relationship with her. His feelings for Catherine begin to interfere with his relationship with Beatrice. Beatrice realizes. She says:
“What’s the matter, Eddie, you don’t like me, heh?”
Eddie does not act in accordance with the expectations of society. Eddie clearly does not understand how a father-to-daughter relationship works. It is every father’s duty to be protective of his child but Eddie’s protectiveness went beyond the limits. Caring for your child makes him/her feel loved but Eddie unintentionally gave the reverse effect. Eddie has a problem with nearly everything that Catherine does. He says:
“Now don’t aggravate me, Katie, you are walkin’ wavy!” and “I mean like when you stand here by the window, wavin’ outside”. Eddie is still treating her like a child, he is finding it very difficult to let go of her. He says:
“It’s not wonderful. You’ll never get nowheres unless you finish school. You can’t take no job”. Eddie’s refusal was too instant.
The Italian code of honour in the Italian/ American community represents respect for others and to have pride for yourself and for your family. Eddie was too devoted to the Italian code of honour which leads to his downfall. I think that the author tries to imply that when the Italian code of Conduct breaks down, the family breaks down with it, leading to the death of a family. I think that Arthur Miller himself knows a lot about the Italian code of conduct and he wishes to share this knowledge with the readers. I think that he is trying to point out that if one person only in a family breaks the Italian code of conduct, the family will go down with it.
Eddie believes that the man should be the leader of the household and that everything concerning the family should go by him first. He also tries to give the impression that he is very manly and stands up for those who are close to him. You can see that he believes this by the way he talks to Catherine. Catherine is talking to him about her job as a stenographer and he says ''why didn't you ask me before you took a job ?'' This shows that he wants Catherine to ask for his permission before accepting the job. He wants her to ask for permission so he feels like he is the boss and because he wasn't consulted first he feels threatened. This is a key cause to his eventual decline.
Ultimately, Eddie himself was the most important factor in his decline. Jealousy motivates Eddie to doing outrageous and terrible things because he was jealous of Rodolfo and Catherine's relationship. For instance, when he kisses Catherine and Rodolfo "he kisses her on the mouth" and "and suddenly kisses him". I think he does this because he is jealous of what they have together. Because of this Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is gay. Eddie thinks if he kisses Rodolfo, Catherine might realize that he is gay. Eddie is jealous because he knows he can not have her so he tries to make sure no one else can but he does not succeed, he just drives her away from him.
