When Marco and Rodolfo arrive, Eddie begins to become more hostile, as he is afraid that he will be challenged for his role of ‘head of house’. Eddie attempts to fend off this invisible threat by showing aggression towards Rodolfo when he sings – ‘Hey, kid, wait a minute-‘. This incident is the trigger of competition between Rodolfo, Eddie and Marco. We see this as there is a tense moment after Eddie tells Rodolfo to stop singing. Eddie did not mind Rodolfo singing; he just wanted to be a killjoy and knock his confidence to show Marco and Rodolfo who is dominant in the house. Eddie seems to be impressed by Marco, as he tells Rodolfo to stop as well ‘Yes, yes. You’ll be quiet Rodolfo’. Eddie’s aggressive and dramatic language shows that he was ready to have a fight with the brothers, but he didn’t get one. As a consequence, Eddie feels less of a man as he can see the bond between Marco and Rodolfo. As a result, Miller creates a dark, tense atmosphere of hostility.
Towards the end of the first scene, Marco challenges Eddie to lift up a chair – ‘Can you lift this chair’. Marco does this to challenge Eddie’s manliness – this is one of the first signs of Marco standing up for Rodolfo and opposing Eddie. Eddie is again emasculated and humiliated and he can’t lift the chair but Marco can – showing his strength. This scene is crucial for the reader’s understanding of the progressing and increasing emasculation in the play, as it summarises Act 1 with a hostile challenge to Eddie’s masculinity. From the stage directions, we see Marco warn Eddie with his facial expressions, as they turn from stern to soft, which unsettles Eddie – ‘Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained… grin vanishes as he absorbs his look’. By using the stage directions to create a feeling of aggression, Miller leaves the audience in suspense by the end of Act 1.
At the start of Act 2, Eddie becomes frustrated at both Catherine and Rodolfo. He shows that his love for Catherine is more than just ‘family love’, - ‘he kisses her on the mouth’. He then moves onto Rodolfo and kisses him ‘and suddenly kisses him’. Eddie apparently does this to attempt to emasculate Rodolfo, and show Catherine that he is homosexual – but it doesn’t work. Eddie is humiliated as he comes to realise what he has done. This kiss used in this scene could relate to the ‘Judas kiss’, which was when Judas tried to identify Jesus’ sexuality to the soldiers. By using this reference in Act 2, Miller gives the reader a stronger understanding of events in the play.
In the final scene, Eddie is so emasculated that he has nothing to fight for; he feels in power when he pulls out a knife and tries to kill Rodolfo. He attempts to prove his masculinity by holding the knife to prove he is stronger than Marco, but ends up killing him self out of pure lust. He tries to be a martyr by falling of his own sword, but it just makes him look like a fool as he could have dropped the knife and escaped this somehow destined death. As a result, Miller leaves the atmosphere in the play tense and eerie, as the characters come to terms with Eddie’s death.
In conclusion, the themes of manliness, aggression and hostility in the play are all factors of why Eddie died. He had been deprived so much by the law, his own self and his companions that he quite literally killed himself. Overall, Eddie was the one responsible for his death, as he triggered the hostility, manliness and aggression that led to his death.
