When we see Alfieri on stage after this scene, he discusses the issues that have yet to pass between the family, suggesting that Eddie has an inevitably tragic destiny, which comes as a result of his perverted feelings towards Catherine.
Much later in the play, during the scene where Catherine and Rodolfo are coming home from the cinema, we see a side to Eddie that further emphasises his twisted, incestuous feelings towards his innocent niece. The manner in which he speaks to them pronounces his jealously of Rodolfo more than anything previously said in the play. “Rodolfo. Go inside, will you?” Eddie uses these words as a desperate attempt at trying to get Catherine by herself, and when I doesn’t work the first time, he starts to mildly insult Rodolfo, by saying such things as ‘(smiling unwillingly) Fountains? (Rodolfo smiles at his own naïveté)’ and tries to mock him and his origin. Once Eddie finally manages to be alone with Catherine, his real feelings towards her start to unmeaningly surface.
When hearing her say the she likes Rodolfo, his mood turns from bad to worse. Currently, it seems that as Catherine and Rodolfo’s relationship develops, so too does her relationship with Eddie deteriorate. Eddie tries to use everything he has to change Catherine’s opinion on Rodolfo, such as he has no respect for him despite everything he has helped him with, and saying that ‘he don’t bless me’. Eddie uses the ‘fact’ that Rodolfo doesn’t bless him in the false hope that it might make Catherine think about whether he blesses her, however nothing Eddie could say at this point would make her think differently. Eventually, he starts to make up lies about how Rodolfo reacts, by saying such things as “He don’t respect you,” and “He knows I mind, but it don’t bother him.” But sadly, deep down Eddie knows that nothing he says will change Catherine’s feelings, towards himself or for Rodolfo.
At this point in the play, we can see the first signs of Catherine’s independent feelings blossoming and how the fear and control that Eddie once had over her falling apart. She is able to stand up to Eddie and promote her feelings, no matter what he thinks about them or tries to do to change them. She even has enough confidence built up inside of her to ask Eddie “Why?” when it comes to explaining why he doesn’t like Rodolfo. Before we even reach the second act in the play, we have seen Catherine develop from an innocent little girl that followed orders from her uncle, to a now independent young woman who wants answers from that once domineering uncle.
When Catherine has a conversation with Beatrice about her behaviour in front of Eddie, Beatrice offers Catherine some advice that she not only doesn’t like, but also that comes as a complete shock to her. Beatrice explains to her that Eddie thought that she was possibly ‘jealous or something’ towards Catherine, because of the strong relationship that Eddie and Catherine had, compared to the weak relationship that Eddie and Beatrice share. When Catherine realises what Beatrice is implying, she claims that ‘it’s the first [she’d] thought of it’, however it is clear from the way that she has started talking to Eddie that she has her suspicions.
When we first met Eddie at the beginning of the play, he was a stern but kind husband to Beatrice and uncle to Catherine. He only cared about what was best for his family and tried to offer them the best advice that he could. However, events happened in his life that caused him to stop caring so much about Beatrice and started caring much more about Catherine. Eddie’s unavoidable feelings led him to think about what it was he actually did feel towards Catherine, and it is only at this point in the play that the other characters confront each other with what they think Eddie is feeling – incestuous instincts towards his niece. However, the realisation of his lust is about to make Eddie reconsider his motives for trying to win the heart of his niece.
When we see Eddie’s conversation with Alfieri, we appreciate why losing Catherine to Rodolfo is so difficult for him. Throughout the dialogue in this scene, we are presented with opinions and feelings that Eddie has never spoken of to anyone else, which represents a very strong trust between the two men. One of these feelings is jealousy: “…when I think of that guy layin’ his hands on her, I could – I mean it’s eatin’ me out, Mr. Alfieri, because I struggled for that girl.” Another feeling that Eddie shows is fear for his niece: “…what about it if the only reason for it is to get his papers?” When an audience of the 1930’s would have seen this, they would find it a crime. In America in the time of the Economic Depression, many people were illegally migrating from all over the world to America to seek a better life. If they were caught in America illegally, then they would be immediately deported back to their home country. However, the chance of being deported would have been less if the migrant had married an official citizen of the United States. In this case, if Rodolfo married Catherine then there would be less chance of Rodolfo being sent back to Italy. If someone in the audience then had felt that this was the only reason for Rodolfo’s ‘love’, then they would have been outraged with his actions and felt that he should get what he deserves and be deported.
Eddie’s opinion about Rodolfo is made perfectly clear in this scene. He says to Alfieri what it is he thinks of him and his actions. The most prominent opinion is that “he ain’t right”, implying that Rodolfo is a homosexual and that the only reason he is marrying Catherine is in fact to get his American citizenship papers. This opinion has not just been made clear in this seen though. Throughout the play we see Eddie making comments to other characters about Rodolfo’s sexual orientation, such as when he is complaining about how late Catherine and Rodolfo’s date has taken, he says to Beatrice that he “just hope[s] that’s his regular hair, that’s all”. In the 1930’s, it was not very common for males to get their hair coloured, so if a man did then it was considered that there was something ‘nor right’ about them. Another opinion is that “even if he’s a punk” he should still let Catherine go and “wish her luck”. If Eddie were to do this, then he would not forgive himself and regret it for the rest of his life. This is why Eddie never gives up in his fight to keep Catherine for himself.
The opening of Act Two highlights the extent to which Catherine and Eddie’s relationship has deteriorated and how painful this is for Catherine. We are first presented with this when Catherine gives into Rodolfo’s emotional prompts and she tells him why she wants to move to Italy. She says to Rodolfo, “I’m afraid of Eddie here”. This is the first time throughout the entire play that Catherine has admitted to being scared of Eddie, because she knows how angry she is at Rodolfo for loving her, and also how jealous he is that he can’t have her as his own. Even though she knows deep down why she is afraid of him, she doesn’t tell Rodolfo why. She says, “I don’t know!” and tries to get Rodolfo to leave the subject alone, however he refuses. We see how painful it is for Catherine that her relationship with Eddie has broken down when she speaks of their history, “I’ve been here all my life… Every day I saw him when he left in the morning and when he came home at night. You think it’s easy to turn around and say to a man he’s nothing to you no more?” and eventually breaks down into a fit of tears.
Eddie has been there for Catherine ever since her mother died when she was a little girl. Eddie has been like a father to her, providing for her every need and trying his best to show her what is right and what is wrong. It is especially hard for Catherine because she knows that it is Eddie who has broken down their once outstanding relationship because of his pure jealousy and incestuous lust. If she could have her own way, then they would still be friends like they once were, but it is now too late because Eddie has been blinded by jealousy, anger and perverted sexual urges. It is more painful for Catherine than anyone else because she knows that it’s not her fault that their relationship has broken down, and also that she could have done something to stop this from happening.
Up to this position in the play, there has not been a point where Eddie has given into his violent urges and acted upon impulse towards Rodolfo and Catherine. However, the climax of increasing tension between the characters is shown when Eddie is ‘possessed’ by his own rage and jealousy and his kisses both Catherine and Rodolfo. This shows us Eddie desperately trying to do two things – the first of these (the kiss towards Catherine) is trying to see if she would respond positively towards him, possibly by kissing him back or not resisting, just to see if she still loved him, or even if she felt the same way towards him. However, when she forces him away from her, he directs his sexual attention to Rodolfo. The second thing that Eddie tries to do is show that Rodolfo is actually homosexual, and he thinks that by kissing him it will make him admit it. If he didn’t admit it, then he would still kiss him back, which would also prove his sexual orientation. When Rodolfo does not return Eddie’s ‘passion’ to him, he demands that he leave the country. Because Eddie cannot prove that Rodolfo doesn’t feel loving feelings towards Catherine, he demands that he leaves the country alone (“Get outa here. Alone. You hear me? Alone”) as a final attempt to break him and Catherine apart.
To an audience watching this particular scene when the play first was released in theatres, they would be not only shocked by Eddie’s actions, but also repulsed, because in the early nineteen hundreds, homosexuality was highly frowned upon and seen as a disgusting global epidemic that spread sexually transmitted infections (STIs). To people then, if someone was a homosexual then they were lower than them. Eddie’s actions would have very dramatically impaired their opinion of Eddie, making them think of him as a more disgraceful person.
Strangely, affect the kiss, the relationship between Catherine and Eddie has not been completely destroyed, however it is almost totally gone. By the end of the play, their relationship (along with Eddie) is dead. The action that breaks it completely is Eddie telephone call to the Immigration Office; a manoeuvre that he hoped would get Rodolfo out of his life for good, but ended up having drastic consequences that no one would have imagined happening.
At this point in the play and at this point in Eddie’s mind, he is willing to do anything to get rid of Rodolfo so that he can claim Catherine for himself. He is even willing to break all of the ethical rules of immigrated families and tell the authorities on ‘one of his own kind’.
If I were in charge of directing this scene on stage, I would need to make sure that the actors playing the characters were able to cover a wide range of emotions because the final scenes features emotional roller-coasters for all characters. When Eddie calls the Immigration Office, I would cast the lighting so that it was dark, and try to have Eddie talking in a phone box in the middle of the stage, with half of his face covered in light and the other half shrouded by the dark. By doing this, it would show the audience how two-faced Eddie really is and how evil he has turned from a once good person.
When Catherine discovers what it is that Eddie has done to Rodolfo, and to Marco as well, she realises that there is no longer any kind of relationship between her and Eddie, and all that she feels for him is anger, hate, and what once was pity has now turned into disgust and loathing. She sees him as “a rat! He belongs in the sewer!… He bites people when they sleep! He comes when nobody’s lookin’ and poisons decent people! In the garbage he belongs!” She wants everyone to know what kind of person she is and what he can do with his manipulative, but not to mention confused and twisted, mind.
The first time that Catherine announced her and Rodolfo’s engagement, she wished more than anything for Eddie to put his issues behind him and bless them as a couple, and she also wished for him to go to their wedding without a grudge. But, because of the actions that Eddie has carried out, and because of the words he has spoken, Catherine only wishes now for him to stay as far away from her as possible.
At the end of the play, Catherine decided many things about Eddie Carbone (this is shown in all its entirety when Catherine doesn’t say a word when Eddie is stabbed, and it is only when he is clearly dying that she apologises for her actions). The first of these is that he is not worth anyone’s trouble, because if you give him any effort of your own, he’ll turn it against you and throw it back in your face. Another conclusion that Catherine came to about Eddie is that he is a sick, mentally twisted and perverted human being, who can’t accept it if something is taken away from him unwillingly. But the most important decision that Catherine has made about Eddie is that he cannot let the ones he loves leave his so called ‘parentally guiding’ grasp. If he does lose a loved one, be it by death, moving location or to another man, he will try everything he can to try and get them back. This feeling of Catherine is what motivates the entire story and what causes Eddie to go to the extremes that he finally did go to.
In Conclusion…
Throughout the play, we see the character Eddie Carbone deteriorate as a husband, as an uncle and also as a human being. We realise what type of person he really is when he finds out that his niece is in love with another man and he gradually loses all sagacious control over his thoughts, words and actions. His wife may be the first person to notice how obvious his incestuous feelings have become, but it is not long before Marco, Rodolfo and unfortunately Catherine notice them too. The four major events that happen after this group realisation (the destruction of Catherine and Eddie’s relationship, the kisses from Eddie to Catherine and Rodolfo, the barging in of the immigration officers and the climactic death of Eddie) are all caused by Eddie’s irate actions and debauched feelings.
The relationship between Eddie and Catherine was always doomed to end in tragedy, because from the first instance we see them speak together, there is clearly some friction and frustration between the two. This friction is made a lot more prominent as the story develops, and by comparing the monstrous creature the Eddie has turned into at the end of the play to the once innocent and protective person that Eddie once was at the beginning, it is easy to see how much difference simple emotions such as jealousy, lust, passion, hate and anger can do to a man and to those around him who he loves.
