When reading or watching the play you will know that Eddie will be killed some time within the play but you do not know when, this creates dramatic tension. So you’ll know that they wont be a happy ending but you’ll be curious as to how the play will end.
He also makes lots of references to the law particularly in his first speech. “a lawyer means the law” “the law has not been friendly.” The second quote comes from Alfieri in his first speech and he is saying that in the community Red Hook, where he works, a lawyer is thought of as unlucky. This is because they are only connected with disaster. Because the community of Red Hook is a poor community and nobody has money to save so they don’t go ever go to a lawyer for a good reason. They normally only go when they is a death or they are being evicted. This is why they think lawyers are very unlucky.
Alfieri is a lawyer but is prepared to turn a blind eye to certain illegal activities. For instance he knows that Beatrice’s cousins Marco and Rodolpho are illegal immigrants to the country. He has no intention of informing the police as he is close friends with the family and respects them. This shows that he fully understands the codes of the community that he lives in. Also he knows that some of the long shore men steal from the boats occasionally. He turns a blind eye to this as well for the same reasons, to abide by the community codes.
“a case of scotch whiskey slipped from a net while being unloaded-as a case of scotch whiskey is inclined to do”
Alfieri knows what will happen to Eddie if he tells the police about Marco and Rodolpho. Eddie would be excluded from the community. This is because the community as a whole thinks it’s the worst crime you can commit, betraying your family. Alfieri says to Eddie
“You wont have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you.”
The author Arthur Miller has made the character Alfieri a lot like himself, it’s as if the character Alfieri is the voice of Arthur Miller. This is noticeable as they both share the same thoughts, views and ideas.
Before Marco and Rodolpho arrived in America Eddie told Beatrice and Catherine that they could not tell any one about Marco and Rodolpho staying with them. He tried to show them with the story about Vinny Bolzano how important it was that nobody found out about Marco and Rodolpho.
Eddie was trying to really stress to Beatrice and Catherine that keeping quiet about Marco and Rodolpho was extremely important. If they told even a friend it could spread that they were hiding Marco and Rodolpho and the immigration authorities are more likely to find out. He hoped they would realise how important it was to say nothing and that they feared the consequences!
At the beginning of the play Eddie was trying to stop anyone, especially the immigration authorities finding out about Marco and Rodolpho. They were his wife’s cousins and he didn’t want them to be found out, and sent back to Italy. As he got to know them and he learnt that Rodolpho and his niece Catherine wanted to get married, his opinion of Rodolpho changed. He thought that Rodolpho only wanted to marry Catherine to gain his American citizenship, he also thought that Rodolpho was gay. He didn’t want this to happen so he decided he would have to tell the immigration authorities about Marco and Rodolpho, so that they would be sent back to Italy. This would mean that Catherine could not marry Rodolpho.
But before he went to these extreme measures he tried to show every one that Rodolpho was gay, he did this by kissing him and seeing if he kissed him back. At the same time he kissed Catherine as he had feelings for her that were more than a uncle should have for their niece. He wanted to know if she felt the same way about him. Neither of them kissed Eddie back. This showed that Rodolpho was not gay and that Catherine did not have strong feelings for Eddie like he did for her.
Telling the immigration authorities would be going against the codes of the community but he felt he had to, to keep his niece unmarried. He didn’t like the idea of his niece getting married, as he wanted her to stay living at home as he could not bear to loose her.
Near the beginning of the play Alfieri says “Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better.” This shows that he believes in the law as a set of rules by which a civilised society agrees to live. However he also realises that this is a compromise as what one man may think is unfair another man may think is justice.
Alfieri also believes that there should not be laws to cover every situation. The punishment should be determined by the crime. But he does not believe that the community should punish people in their own way. Like when they beat up and disowned Vinny Bolzano. Vinny did not commit a crime in the eyes of the law but he did in the eyes of the community. So they decided to punish him by ignoring him and attacking him. They committed a crime by attacking him but this was acceptable within the community as Vinny deserved the punishment, or they thought he did at least.
At the beginning of the play Eddies niece Catherine respects him and looks up to him. Catherine says, “What do you want me to do? You want me to-“ almost in tears because Eddie disapproves of her. This shows that she cares about what Eddie thinks of her. As the play moves on she starts to see Eddie differently and she doesn’t like him or respect him as much as she used to. She lost her respect for him when he kissed Rodolpho to try and prove that he was gay and when he kissed her as he had strong feelings for her. This is also because Eddie disapproves of most things Catherine does like when she wanted to get a job, the clothes she wears, and the way she walks and later on her relationship with Rodolpho. I know these things because Eddie says to Catherine about her skirt “I think its too short” he also says to her about her job,
“You can’t take no job. Why didn’t you ask me before you take a job?”
Catherine doesn’t like this because she respects Eddie but he doesn’t seem to show her the same respect she deserves, as she is nearly an adult.
At the very end of the play Marco stabs and kills Eddie. He does this because Eddie no longer has trust in him or his brother Rodolpho. He really didn’t want Catherine to marry Rodolpho. He tried to prove that Rodolpho was gay by kissing him and seeing if he kissed him back. This did not work so he accused him of only wanting to marry Catherine to get his American citizenship. All this was to stop Catherine marrying Rodolpho.
Eddie is begging Marco to give him his name back. “I want my name Marco.” By this he means that he wants his reputation back. Marco won’t apologize and ‘give back’ Eddies name. Even if Marco apologized the community would still see Eddie as untrustworthy.
