Killing a whole family Essay

Rodolfo again faces Eddie’s angry side, which asks him to get out of his house. But Rodolfo has nothing to do with him and is more concerned of the arrival of Marco, which could lead to sparks flying between his brother and Eddie. He calls out to Catherine to leave now, while Beatrice suggests to Eddie to leave the house and go somewhere else. But Eddie refuses to move as this was his house, and now Beatrice is totally fed up with his behaviour and asks him that why he hates Marco now. Eddie refers to the time when Marco called him a rat and claimed that he had killed his children, which he says caused such hatred. Now Rodolfo tries to make things better by apologizing from his brother’s behalf and he takes all the troubles and brings up the comradeship. But Eddie still sticks with his claim that Marco stole his name and asks Rodolfo to tell him to give it back in front of the whole neighbourhood. Eddie feels that this explanation isn’t enough, now Beatrice can no longer hold the truth. She knows what Eddie wants, and in front of everyone and the arriving Marco, she says †you can never have her. † Beatrice asks Eddie to bid farewell to his niece forever, and that †truth is not as bad as blood. † Catherine is shocked, Eddie I horrified and †[clenching his fists]† he denies having such thoughts and asks Beatrice what made her think like that. Marco now calls out for Eddie and Eddie’s attention is diverted as he steps out of the apartment to challenge Marco. Rodolfo pleads them to stop and tells Eddie that he would be killing a whole family. But nothing can stop Eddie now and he has a murderous look and with a bit of fake laugher puts forward things that they have done wrong. He says that he knows that Marco feels that what h did wasn’t right and should apologize for taking his name away and accusing him for killing his children despite the fact that he put his roof over them and food in their mouths. He further provokes Marco by repeatedly calling him a liar and then they get physical as Eddie lunges at Marco. Marco strikes him in the neck and calls him a animal. Eddie goes down and when it seems Marco has full control of the situation, Eddie brings out a knife. Louis tries to stop Eddie, but Eddie is totally out of control and he lunges with his knife at Marco, who with a final cry of †Anima-a-a-l!  Ã¢â‚¬  grabs his arm and presses the blade into Eddie. Mike and Louis separate the pair, but time has run out for Eddie whose words to Beatrice were his last ever. Beatrice covers Eddie while people around are praying, lights shine on Alfieri who is in the crowd. So as the play has progressed, this dominant and generous hero of the play is made to seem like a selfish and rude villain, who’s immense love, narrow minded nature and feelings of insecurity have led to him falling into his own trap of death. I do indeed think that Eddie was responsible for his own death, and it was bound to happen as soon as he had made the phone call which in my view was the hubris, the point of no return. But just like Alfieri, the audience does tend to feel sorry for this hard-working man, who despite having displayed his generosity, his life had to end in this manner. His selfishness and his flaw, which was his immense love, ate him up, and he was always very stubborn to his decisions and never took advice from either Alfieri or Beatrice. His deterioration was clear and could be monitored as he first felt honoured to welcome the Italian brothers, then when they he entered he asked them when they would leave and towards the end asked them to get out of their house. When Alfieri says at the end of the play, †And yet it is better to settle for half†, he is trying to send a message that despite the fact that Eddie displayed honest emotions through out, he still never compromised with everyone because of his narrow-minded beliefs and that eventually cost him his life.