Eddie is hostile towards Rodolpho because Rodolpho and Catherine start to like each other and Eddie is jealous so he starts to pick out the qualities that he considers feminine, like cooking and cleaning and telling him he should work in a place more suited for him. “If I could sing, if I could make dresses, I wouldn’t be on the water front. I would be someplace else. I would be like in a dress store.” Eddie also becomes hostile to Marco because he steals his masculinity and his power. “Marco is face to face with Eddie, a stained tension gripping his eyes and jaws” “the chair raised like a weapon over Eddies head” now Marco has taken away his power him and Eddie’s friendship turns into hatred. Eddie is hostile to Marco and Rodolpho but there is more than one dramatic scene with Rodolpho and Eddie.
Rodolpho does not conform to the same image of masculinity as Eddie who says “the guy ain’t right” and “the guy is no good” to show his views of manliness in relation to Rodolpho. Eddie means that he doesn’t have very many ‘manly’ qualities to him. Eddie and Rodolpho have had times where that has lead to tense scenes for instance Eddie’s kiss with Catherine in front of Rodolpho “draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth.” Eddie does this because he has feelings for Catherine, Rodolpho and Catherine are together, so Eddie tries to steal Catherine from him to aggravate Rodolpho.
In this paragraph I am going to discuss some of the ways in whish Marco adapts to Eddie’s idea of being a real man. Marco is seen as a strong man by the guy’s, especially Eddie he tells Louis and Mike his work mates “Yeah, he’s a strong guy, that guy.” Louis and Mike also think of him as strong “That older one, boy, he’s a regular bull.” This means he is comparing Marco to a bull, so he’s strong and tough like a bull. His characteristics lead to climatic moments. For example when Eddie and Marco have the triumph of strength and Marco wins it. Another moment is the fight of death at the end between them. “Eddie goes down with the blow and Marco starts to raise a foot to stomp him when Eddie springs a knife into his hand.” The characteristics of Eddie and Marco are manliness, hostility and aggression, so these are the links between them.
The links between manliness, hostility and aggression in the play are there is a scene between Rodolpho, Eddie and Marco where Eddie and Rodolpho are having a boxing match/fight Eddie tries to test Rodolpho’s manliness but he also wants to be aggressive to him as well as hostile. “At’s it! Now, watchout, here I come, Danish (he feints with his left hand and lands with his right. It mildly staggers Rodolpho. Marco rises.” The aggression part is when he hits him; the hostile part is when he calls him ‘Danish’ so he’s being unfriendly. Eddie teaches him to box is the manliness and their all linked together in this scene. This fight between Rodolpho and Eddie is to do with Eddie’s views of manliness; the fight is about Rodolpho’s manliness.
In conclusion my main arguments are as follows. The qualities that Eddie considers to be ‘manly’ are power, hostility and criticism. Secondly ways in which Rodolpho not conform to this image of masculinity. Thirdly ways in which Marco is conventionally masculine are strength and being tough. Finally the links between manliness, hostility and aggression. These demonstrate Eddie’s views of manliness because they all relate to different views of manliness, Rodolpho doesn’t live up to Eddie’s views of manliness where as Marco does but Eddies becomes jealous and angry about it and manliness, hostility and aggression links to the essay topic because there are some of the view’s Eddie thinks a man should have.
