eddie carbone a tragic hero?
...ll addressed issue in the play and is portrayed well, as when the play is set (post World War II), money was very tight, and adopting a child without government benefits (family or not) is very admirable and respectable. Another respectable and admirable thing he has done is accept two ‘submarines’ (illegal immigrants effectively) and if he is caught with them he be fined, again pops up the money issue where he is putting his money at risk for two people he has never met, and that the only reason he is taking them in is because they are distant relatives of his wife. This shows that at the beginning of the play he is, or seems to be a fairly decent guy. But, on the other hand, as the play progresses, you gradually lose all respect for him. From the very fair and decent guy he is at the beginning of the play, he turns into a bitter, resentful man. He goes from having a gentle fatherly like possessiveness towards Catherine to a highly jealous possessiveness towards Catherine for bitter and selfish reasons, as it hints in the play that he has a sexual attraction o Catherine, which he is in self-denial about. Yet the ‘icing on the cake’ for our losing all respect for him is the fact he can’t see what he’s doing, how he’s acting, all the problems he’s caused, which eventually leads to him turning in the two submarines causing Marco to pick a fight with Eddie in which Eddie dies, though that was probably a better fate for Eddie as the Mafia who were a second government effectively in those days wouldn’t have let him off with a quick and easy death). The second question we must ask, is what is Eddie’s character flaw? Well, he has several character flaws, the first being his deep rooted sexual attraction to Catherine. This becomes evident fairly soon into the play, with the way he acts when she is around. It is also leading onto another flaw, which is his obsessive jealousy and deep resentment of Rodolpho. This is because Rodolpho is hitting it off with Catherine, whom Eddie can’t get anything from, and it has sparked something off inside him, which is also mentally tearing him up. Though what makes it worse is the fact he’s blind to himself. He is unable to confront himself with how he feels about everything. This is why his bitter resentment towards Rodolpho is so great. He won’t accept the fact that he is sexually attracted to Catherine therefore will get jealous and be really bitter, even bully Rodolpho because no matter what he is doing, he will be unable to control himself and not even see how hard and harsh he is being on Rodolpho. Concerning the issue of sympathy towards Eddie, should we have any? It is quite possible the most sympathetic person would find it hard to be sympathetic towards him. Perhaps if he were emotionally articulate and could confront his problems ‘like a man’ we would feel sorry for him, but as it is, this is not the case, and he is who he is. How can you have any sympathy for a man as bitter and as resentful as him? Personally I don’t have any sympathy for this man. Some may argue saying its not his fault he isn’t emotionally articulate, and maybe its true, but it still didn’t give him the right to act the way he did, no need to give out all hat resentment, become so possessive of Catherine, bully Rodolpho in the ways he did. He should have known the reality would have been that he would have never got with Catherine whether Rodolpho was there or not, as he was married (not so big a factor) and because Catherine was his niece! However the answer to the next question is yes. Yes he is pitiabl...