A further way that Eddie is illustrated as an ordinary person is the way he is protective of Catherine and the way that she is of great concern to him. This is emphasised when he says to Catherine �I supported you this long I support you a little more� I want you to be with different kind of people. I want you to be in a nice office.� This tells the audience that he cares greatly for Catherine, and although he may be overprotective of her, many fathers are protective of their daughters because they care for them and do not want to see them getting hurt. Eddie is the closest thing to a father Catherine has and he is certainly a father figure to Catherine. Eddie, in that sense, is just like any other parent who wishes the best for their child.
This point is again demonstrated when Catherine defends Eddie whilst going out with Rodolfo and says �He (Eddie) was good to me Rodolfo. You don�t know him he was always the sweetest guy to me.� This creates the impression that Catherine sees the positive side of Eddie when no one else does and that he is capable of much warmth and generosity and she really appreciates it. On the other hand she is also speaking in the past tense which suggests that Eddie is a different person now than to what he was before, showing that Eddie has changed during the course of the play.
Another way that Eddie is an interesting character is his unusual relationship with Catherine. There are several moments in the text where the audience is given clues that Eddie's love for Catherine may not be normal. For example, when Catherine lights Eddie's cigar in the living room, it is an event that gives Eddie an unusual pleasure. This possibly warm and affectionate act between niece and uncle has sexual undertones. Eddie's great attention to his attractive niece and impotence in his own marital relationship immediately makes this meaning clear. Although Eddie seems unable to understand his feelings for his niece until the end of the play, other characters are very much aware. Beatrice is the first to express her knowledge in her conversation with Catherine where she says �you�re a grown woman and you�re in the same house as a grown man�. Furthermore Alfieri also realizes Eddie's feelings during his first conversation with Eddie as he says �there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece. Do you understand what I�m saying?� In both of these cases Eddie�s erratic love for Catherine is never displayed outright but is subtly displayed. This may be a factor as to why Eddie does not comprehend his feelings until Beatrice clearly articulates his desires in the conclusion of the play, "You want somethin' else, Eddie, and you can never have her!" Eddie did not realise his feeling for Catherine because he has constructed an imagined world where he can suppress his urges. This suppression is what devastates Eddie and causes his downfall. Because he has no way of expressing what he truly feels Eddie transfers his energy to a hatred of Marco and Rodolfo and causes him to act completely irrationally. Eddie�s downfall is also what makes him so interesting as the audience know that he will deteriorate but it is this that keeps them so hooked and eager to watch him until the very last second. Eddie's final need to �get back his good name� from Marco is a result of Eddie's failure to protect Catherine from Rodolfo. Eddie fails in his life, but seeks redemption and victory in death. By confronting Marco, Eddie believes he will regain his pride in the community.
A further way Eddie is an interesting character is because during Act 1 his marital relationship breaks down and is collapsing, by doing this Miller creates tension between Eddie and Beatrice and as a result, the audience become more interested. This point is illustrated when Beatrice says �when am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?� Eddie�s marriage falling apart is just one of a series of events that pile up and create a snowball effect, ending in his cataclysmic ruin.
Overall Miller exhibits Eddie as an interesting character in a variety of different ways and when all these are combined they work together very effectively. The most significant way Eddie is made to be interesting is the way that he is the tragic hero of the play and the way that he has gradually disintegrated until, in the end, all of Eddie�s positive qualities have disappeared and he is nothing more than the shell of the man we saw at the beginning of the play.
Sakib Rahman