Eddie - I aint been feeling good. They bother me since they came.
Beatrice - its almost three months you don’t feel good; they’re only here a couple a
weeks. Its three months, Eddie”.
: This shows the reader that Eddie and Beatrice haven’t had sex for a long time, and eddies excuse is that Beatrice’s cousins are annoying him. But that only accounts for the last two weeks; it does not excuse him from all of the time before. It is small conversations like these that show that their marriage is going down the drain. By the end of the play, we can note that Beatrice has clocked onto the fact that Eddie has more intimate love for Catherine then herself, and makes this knowledge clear to Eddie when she says heatedly:
“Eddie – don’t bother me!
Beatrice – you want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!”
: This was almost the symbolic blow out of their flame. It was when Eddie realised that Beatrice had realised his sick and twisted love for his niece.
Eddie and Catherine never actually discussed their other-than-family relationship, mainly because Catherine was too young and innocent, and Eddie did not want Catherine to know. Therefore it was obvious, even to him that he was never actually going to get her. A major factor to Eddie was the fact that this was meant to remain a secret; and he did not realise that everyone around him knew of his love for Catherine. I know this because of one of Alfieri and Eddie’s conversations:
“Alfieri – she wants to get married, Eddie. She can’t marry you, can she?
Eddie – (furiously) What’re you talking about, marry me! I don’t know what you’re
talking about”
: This basically shows how Eddie denies every accusation made about his desire for Catherine's heart. Soon Eddie tries to turn this desire into action when he finds Catherine come out of her bedroom half undressed in the middle of the day:
“Rodolfo – there’s nobody here now. Come inside. Come. (He is leading her towards the
Bedrooms.) And don’t cry any more.
Lights rise on the street. In a moment Eddie appears. He is unsteady, drunk. He mounts the stairs. He enters the apartment, looks round, takes out a bottle from one pocket, puts it on the table. Then another from another pocket, and a third from an inside pocket. He sees the pattern and cloth, goes over to it and touches it, and turns toward upstage.
Eddie – Beatrice? (He goes to the open kitchen door and looks in.) Beatrice? Beatrice?
Catherine enters from bedroom; under his gaze she adjust her dress
Catherine – you got home early.
Eddie - knocked of for Christmas early. (Indicating the pattern) Rodolfo makin’
you a dress?
Catherine – no. I’m makin’ a blouse.
Rodolfo appears in the bedroom doorway. Eddie sees him and his arm jerks slightly in shock. Rodolfo nods to him testingly.”
: at this point, Eddie has turned fear of losing Catherine into hate of Rodolfo and Catherine’s actions. This causes the following part of the same passage to occur:
“Eddie – you ain’t goin’ nowheres.
Catherine – Eddie, I’m not gonna be a baby any more! You –
He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth”
: This was the spark that, I think, was what all of the tension build-up in the previous pages was for. It also another reason for Beatrice to say what she did when she was angry with Eddie. Overall, I do not think there is just love for Catherine, I think Eddie has an obsession of asserting authority over his ‘daughter’ and, while she is smitten with Rodolfo, he cannot assert any kind of discipline, there is a new man in her life from which she takes orders. I think it is this loss of power that drives him to force himself to love other than a father figure. Even though he knows it is wrong, it is the only way he believes he can keep her under his control.
Eddie and Rodolfo's relationship is based on the fact that he hates him loving Catherine. For this reason Eddie scavenges for reasons to justify his hatred and to try and make everyone else around him hate Rodolfo too. I know this from when he speaks to Alfieri about Eddie’s fight with Rodolfo:
“Alfieri – but you didn’t prove anything about him. It sounds like he just wasn’t strong
enough to break your grip.
Eddie – I’m tellin’ you I know – he aint right. Somebody that don’t want it can break it. Even a mouse, if you catch a teeny mouse and you hold it in your hand, that mouse can give you the right kind of fight. He didn’t give me the right kind of fight, I know it, Mr Alfieri, the guy ain’t right.“
: this is just one of the pieces of evidence proving that Eddie is trying with all his might to make people believe that there is something fishy about Rodolfo, either that he is too weak, too carefree, and even that he is homosexual.
This hatred also sparks into action upon Rodolfo when he comes out of the bedroom after Catherine. It is just further down the passage of when Eddie kisses her:
“Eddie – come one, show me! What’re you gonna be? Show me!
Rodolfo – (with tears of rage) don’t say that to me!
Rodolfo flies at him in attack. Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him.”
: this shows that Eddie is warning, even threatening Rodolfo. It is basically Eddie patronising Rodolfo, but still showing authority; as though Eddie can kiss a man and come away more of a man than before, while Rodolfo has been kissed by a man is left defenceless, weak, like a little girl. Some may also see it as a threat because of their cultural context – the kiss of death in Italian culture is the deepest that threats could possibly be.
On the whole, I believe it the fact that Eddie has ruined each of these relationships that he has ended up dead. Killed by Marco – that was not surprising, Eddie phoned up the immigration people and told about him. This meant that Marco couldn’t feed his sick family, or see America. This was motive enough for anyone to kill Eddie, but then he went and almost ruined his little brother, Rodolfo’s chance of finding happiness. I think if he hadn’t been so short with Beatrice, and gave her the TLC she needed, she may have defended him further – after all they are her family. If he had questioned the loss of his power over Catherine, it would not have pushed him to fall in love with her, and would not have cause any problems with Rodolfo. If he had no problems with Rodolfo, Marco would have no problems with Eddie and therefore Eddie would not have died and Marco would be able to stay and feed his family. It is this whole chain reaction that cause the tragedies to occur in eddies life and everyone who knew him – and this whole chain reaction was started by Eddie himself, isn’t that ironic?
So my answer to my title is yes, for all the reasons mentioned throughout this essay.
Centre Number: 13337 Candidate Number: 2113 GCSE English