Discuss Eddie Carbone as a tragic hero
Eddie Carbone is an ordinary man living through our own times unfortunately he has a major character flaw which is his downfall. The Greek philosopher Aristotle described a tragic hero as ‘Is one who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous, moving from happiness to misery through some frailty or error in judgment.’ Eddie does not fall because of pride ego or ambition it is due to a frailty in his character.
The lawyer Mr. Alfieri is a chronic figure doing the chorus of the play and also acting as a bridge between the audience and the characters. He is seen as a bad omen superstition from the community believes if you meet a lawyer it is bad luck. This gives us clues to alert us as the audience to what might happen. This is a lot like the Shakespearian play Macbeth as the witches at the beginning of the play is a bad omen. Eddie is a longshoreman in New York he lives with his wife Beatrice and his young niece Catherine. You can see from the first seen that Eddie is very protective over Catherine His frailty is shown by suggesting her skirt is ‘too short’. Eddie warns the two women to not discuss about the two immigrants that are about too come. Marco and his younger brother Rodolfo arrive to stay at Eddie’s house. Eddie is aware of the attraction between Rodolfo and Catherine. Eddie is also aware that Catherine is wearing high heels and insults her ‘What’s the high heels for, Garbo?’ Eddie tries to brake up the relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo but instead he is parting himself further and further away from his niece this is ironic.
